It’s rare when my love for Wallace and Gromit intersects with my career in technology, but today was one of those days! While reading an issue of Communications of the ACM this morning I found an article titled “Saving Private Gromit” (membership required to view, alas) about efforts to preserve and legal issues around preservation of video games, with a focus on the industry in the UK.
Here’s hoping video games of our beloved duo can be preserved for future generations!
Thanks to my friend Miia Ranta for showing me this – Wallace and Gromit, along with a host of other Aardman characters “get together” for the holidays via a Google+ Hangouts advertisement!
Last time we talked about the upcoming performance at the BBC Proms, and with those long behind us there were some great articles that came out covering it, including…
As for the event itself, this article from the BBC covers it and has a great photo from the event: Wallace and Gromit take over Prom
Wallace and Gromit brought some animated anarchy to the BBC Proms on Sunday with a family-themed concert featuring new sequences created by Bristol-based film studio Aardman.
Finally, a couple pieces of news that I’m pretty excited about. First is news brought to my attention by Emily Koch Gromit sculptures to be unleashed on Bristol. I’ll probably not be able to see it in person, but Gromit sculpture all over Bristol, how cool!
And the other big news, a Wallace and Gromit amusement park ride is coming to UK’s Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 2013!
Set to open in 2013, the $7.8 million Wallace & Gromit Thrill-O-Matic dark ride at the United Kingdom’s Blackpool Pleasure Beach will whisk visitors through the world of the eccentric cheese-eating inventor and his anthropomorphic dog.
The 4-minute ride will feature a dozen scenes inspired by the animated short films starring the beloved British claymation characters, including “A Grand Day Out,” “The Wrong Trousers,” “A Close Shave” and “A Matter of Loaf and Death.”
Jana Labaki, Awards manager of the educational charity D&AD, reported that they are are auctioning four original Wallace & Gromit pencil drawings from Nick Park on 3 December!
Educational charity D&AD champions excellence in the fields of commercial creativity. In D&AD’s 50th year, we invited 50 creative greats to design their dream cover for the D&AD Annual, the organisation’s yearly publication.
Designers, advertising creatives, filmmakers, photographers, illustrators and artists have all contributed. The result, a magnificent collection of original artwork.
Of the 50 pieces, 39 are being auctioned online at auction.dandad.org, and 11 pieces, including the Wallace & Gromit drawings, will be auctioned on 3 December. Proceeds raised through the auction will go to the D&AD Foundation, to help support the next generation of creative talent.
The auction is happening on Monday 3 December, at the Gallery at The Hospital Club in London but is by invitation only, to attend please email sophie.moss@dandad.org, more details about the auction itself at:
As mentioned in the last update, the US DVD and Blu-ray release of Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention was on March 13th, io9 has a great review of it: Let Wallace and Gromit teach your kids about science. Animated Views also reviews the show and the Blu-ray itself, discussing extras, packaging and more: Wallace & Gromit’s World Of Invention. As a love of science shows in general, I was delighted to receive my own copy!
Back in April it was announced that Wallace and Gromit would join music greats with an appearance on the BBC Proms 2012 on July 29th.
“Concerto in Ee, Lad will be unveiled at a children’s Prom on July 29 and is, according to a tongue-in-cheek explanation by Proms organisers, a composition by Wallace himself.
…
The Aurora Orchestra will perform the concerto while Prom-goers are treated to a new Wallace and Gromit film devised especially for the occasion by Nick Park of Aardman Animations.
Thank you to everyone who took part in Wallace & Gromit’s first BIG Breakfast with our friends Foresters. We are very excited to let you know that over 100,000 people nation wide took part .
All the money you raised will help improve the quality of life of sick children and their families in local hospitals and hospices across the country. Thank you.
A few articles also covered some of the breakfast events across the country:
In May Museum Victoria Scienceworks in in Melbourne, Australia opened the Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention exhibit, making Australia the first country outside of the United Kingdom to host the exhibition.
Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention explores how innovation and inventiveness are a part of everyday life through a series of interactive exhibits modelled on the devices built by much loved TV character Wallace; a resourceful and creative inventor helped by his clever companion, Gromit the dog.
There was a lot of excitement leading up to the next bit of news – a new 1 minute, 14 second Wallace and Gromit tidbit – released for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee (which apparently is a big deal in the UK, even if we don’t know what it’s about here in the US!). Sponsored by the National Trust they released some teaser photos, a short video and a “making of” video before the Jubilee, covered in the following articles:
First off, the news I’m most excited about, the United States release of Wallace and Gromit: World of Invention on DVD and Blu-ray on March 13th! You can snag a copy for yourself on Amazon, Animation Magazine was one of the several outlets that covered the release.
From the Wallace and Gromit Foundation there are a couple bits of news. First, the release of their Impact Report for 2011. The report, available for download as a PDF, covers their extensive work with hospitals and hospices for children, fundraising highlights, partnerships and more.
We are very excited to let you know that in April 2012 we will be launching a Brand New Fundraising event- Wallace & Gromit’s BIG Breakfast 20th -27th April. It is easy to take part simply register today and we will send you a free BIG Breakfast fundraising pack with all you need to take part, then simply invite friends, family, work colleagues or school friends to Breakfast.
In more general news, we have several articles to share:
And slightly off-topic for Wallace and Gromit, the latest Aardman feature “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” as it’s know internationally or “The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists” as it’s known in the UK, is being released March 28, 2012 in the United Kingdom and April 27, 2012 in the United States. I’ve been excited about this film for a while, the late release date here in the states will be rough!
Finally, in the “cool Wallace and Gromit products” department we have…
The View-O-Matic TV set model HP400.
An assortment of bicuits containing Jam Rings, Milk Chocolate Digestives, Nice, Oaties, Bourbon Cream Fingers, Custard Creams Finger, Digestive Finger and Fruit Shortie.
Cook up a cracking toasted sandwich with the classic Wallace & Gromit Sandwich Toaster from Swan.
In just a few minutes you could be enjoy a toasted sandwich filled with your favourite fillings. What’s more is the unit will stamp creative images onto both sides of the bread to make your sandwich a whole lot more enjoyable. Featuring non-stick trays you can easily remove your food and clean after use.
Very fun!
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There are frequently Wallace and Gromit exhibits throughout England (like World of Cracking Ideas that I was able to visit while visiting England in 2009!) but it’s not every day that we see exhibits open elsewhere in the world. It’s a delight to be able to report thatWallace & Gromit’s World of Invention at Scienceworks, Melbourne will be opening on May 19th 2012. Based on the exhibit description it sounds like there will be a lot of overlap with the Cracking Ideas exhibit, but also some new things from the recent World of Invention series. Also see: article by Sydney Morning Herald.
Still no reports of Wallace and Gromit for Android, but in December Widebeam Digital Ltd. released the Wallace And Gromit – Chat-O-Matic, “an app that turns an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad into Wallace’s mouth, complete with a selection of catchphrases. The idea is that the device is placed in front of the user’s real mouth” as reported by The Guardian.
We added 5 new levels to the game in a recent free update, and this walkthrough includes them, so it’s a complete tutorial to the entire game.
App store link here, you can grab it for just $0.99.
Finally, some exciting news for disadvantaged young people helped through Prince’s Trust, two watercolour illustrations from Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park were among the 35 artists featured in a recent auction at the Prince’s Trust Evening of Art and helped raise £74,000! Article here: Artists raise £74,000 for youth charity.
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Here’s the latest roundup of Wallace and Gromit news from the past couple months!
Thanks to Nick Hilton for letting me know about this interview with classic Wallace and Gromit writer Bob Baker about his career in British television: Interview with Bob Baker
Play with Google Street Maps much? There are lots of goodies to be found by browsing through neighborhoods, and one of the recently sighted gems is the Wallace and Gromit Floral Display! Google Maps link here.
In this The artists’ artist: Animators article from September several artists talk about talk about some of their own favorite living artists, the list starts off with Sharon Colman talking about Nick Park.
Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal hosted an auction of art from November 1-10.
The auction is now over, but if you click through the auction link you can still visit the auction link for a few other items still being sold by thegrandappeal on ebay. Also, see here for their Christmas catalog, including beautiful Wallace and Gromit Christmas cards: grandappeal.org.uk/christmas/
Have a Garmin GPS? There is now a Wallace-voiced GPS bundle for download to your GPS, guaranteed to “work better than most of Wallace’s crazy contraptions”!
In England and a fan of Kingsmill bread products? They’re continuing their great history of offering free Wallace and Gromit products with purchases with their latest promotion. Visit kingsmillwallaceandgromit.com for more.
In the market for something more fancy? A reminder that Robert Harrop Designs offers a gorgeous line of Wallace and Gromit products! Visit the Wallace and Gromit category of their site to see the latest collectibles for sale: http://www.robertharrop.com/cat-52
Perhaps you’re just looking for some standard gifts? The Aardstore is always a great source, particularly when they are having a Sale on a great selection of Wallace and Gromit merchandise!
Finally congratulations to Titan Comics for hitting their 1 million downloads mark for the Wallace and Gromit comic!
“Titan comics is pleased to announce that their Wallace and Gromit digital comic has hit over 1 million worldwide downloads, a first for a British comic!
Wallace & Gromit comic was launched as a free iPhone app on November 7 2009 and took the iPhone app charts by storm, hitting number one in the UK, US and Canada free books app store and number three spot overall in the free apps chart.”
Have an iPad/iPhone and longing for some Shaun? A few weeks ago Brad Cook of Virtual Programming tipped me off that they had released an iOS version of the popular (addictive!) flash game Home Sheep Home!
App store link here, you can grab it for just $0.99.
No word yet on an Android version.
Looking for some Wallace and Gromit goodies? Andrew May reminded me that Marks and Spencer frequently has Wallace and Gromit goodies for purchase in store and on their website (and they ship to the US!). Thanks Andrew.
Finally the Wallace and Gromit Foundation’s annual Wrong Trousers Day is coming up on June 24th! Check out this cute video they created for it this year:
