Wallace and Gromit in ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’ (2008)

Directed by: Nick Park | 25 minutes | animation, short film | Original voice cast: Peter Sallis, Sally Lindsay, Melissa Collier, Sarah Laborde

In ‘Wallace and Gromit in ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’ we find ourselves in the middle of the suspense: a baker is knocked down with his own rolling pin and dies. It turns out that there is a serial killer who chooses bakers as a victim. Let that just be the new profession of inventor Wallace and his loyal, intelligent dog Gromit… Wallace and Gromit’s house has been converted into a real bakery, called ‘Top Bun’. The two friends have installed all kinds of gadgets to make the bakery life as easy as possible. Not only is there automatic mixing, kneading and baking, there is even an old-fashioned mill on the roof of their house, so that Top Bun can provide the necessary flour themselves. The van is used to deliver the sandwiches. Business is going very well.

On one of their delivery rounds, Wallace and Gromit head straight for a cycling lady and dog, who seem to be having problems with the brakes. Wallace barely manages to save the lady and her poodle Fluffles. He is instantly in love, because the lady turns out to be none other than fashion model Piella Bakewell, who is regularly featured prominently in the Bake-O-Lite bread and pastry commercials. Wallace and Piella’s romance soon blossoms, but Gromit is suspicious of Piella because he doesn’t trust Piella. Does she know anything about the murdered bakers?

In the best animation tradition, ‘Wallace and Gromit in ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’, the fourth short feature film by the famous clay puppet duo, already looks better than the earlier work. Compared to the first film ‘A Grand Day Out’, our favorite inventor and the clever dog look much more sophisticated and there is even more attention to detail and background. Story-wise, there is no real progress, rather a few steps back; the viewer realizes just as quickly as Gromit how it works. Still, Park manages to put in some Hitchcock-like scenes: the particularly beautiful, exciting and atmospheric shot in Piella’s bedroom is one of them. And a ‘Wallace & Gromit’ whose story is slightly less, still stands head and shoulders above the average. With some big nods to other films, visual jokes and characters that you have to love, you will irrevocably want to see this film that has been worked on with so much visible love.