WallaceAndGromit.net

I was very excited to wake up this morning and the first clips from the upcoming Wallace and Gromit feature. You can view the 3 minute “Making of Wallace and Gromit” on IFilms.com for free by going to their site: http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2661402?htv=12.

After some poking around the sites that reported this news, I discovered that comingsoon.net had a very nice plot summary:

It’s ‘vege-mania’ in Wallace and Gromit’s neighborhood, and our two enterprising chums are cashing in with their humane pest-control outfit, “Anti-Pesto.” With only days to go before the annual Giant Vegetable Competition, business is booming, but Wallace & Gromit are finding out that running a “humane” pest control outfit has its drawbacks as their West Wallaby Street home fills to the brim with captive rabbits.

Suddenly, a huge, mysterious, veg-ravaging “beast” begins attacking the town’s sacred vegetable plots at night, and the competition hostess, Lady Tottington, commissions Anti-Pesto to catch it and save the day. Lying in wait, however, is Lady Tottington’s snobby suitor, Victor Quartermaine, who’d rather shoot the beast and secure the position of local hero – not to mention Lady Tottingon’s hand in marriage. With the fate of the competition in the balance, Lady Tottington is eventually forced to allow Victor to hunt down the vegetable chomping marauder. Little does she know that Victor’s real intent could have dire consequences for herand our two heroes.
–Comingsoon.net

This is the most complete plot summary I have heard thus far!

According to this article, Aardman has renewed the licensing deal with Wensleydale Creameries, the company that sells the official Wallace and Gromit cheese (which is delicious).

“I can credit much of the creamery’s present success from the initial deal with Aardman and the endearing popularity of this dynamic duo. Aardman were keen on granting rights to companies with a similar ethos to their own. They wanted quality, craftsmanship, innovativeness and a touch of the Aardman eccentricity. We are lucky, nestled deep in the Dales, that we can satisfy all their requirements.”

The creamery first received licensing rights to WnG in 1996.

To the left is a photo of the rumored movie poster for the new Wallace and Gromit film. How exciting! Sources tend to lean toward the title being “The Curse Of The Were Rabbit.” (Source of this photo aintitcool.com, thanks to Georg Bauer for this link)

Sky News reports the first glimpse of Wallace and Gromit’s stills being released, and also offers a bit of information about the film:

The film is set for release in autumn 2005 and sees veggymania hit the pair’s neighbourhood in the run-up to the annual giant vegetable competition. The animated faves become pest control experts Anti Pesto and business is booming until a veg-eating monster starts attacking plots.

A couple of shots from the new film are at darkhorizons.com, which are a pretty cool first glimpse. (Thanks again to Georg Bauer for this link)

Because of this new information, I have pulled together sections of this site specifically dedicated to the new film. The Wallace and Gromit movie now has it’s own movie and pictures section. And in light of contributions by Georg Bauer, I have added a contributers section, and encourage others to send in contributions for this site!

BBC has announced plans for a 40 part series by Aardman staring the beloved Shaun the sheep, from A Close Shave. It will air on CBBC, the Children’s BBC network.

The 40-part series, commissioned from Aardman Animations, begins production at the end of the year and will be transmitted on CBBC in 2006. -BBC.com

Click here for full BBC article
Click here for similar article on CBBC news

Sweet! I just hope that when they release this all on DVD they will provide a region one release, I’d love to see these!

According to this article from independent.co.uk:

Scientists are hoping to learn more about how children respond to facial expressions by monitoring their reactions to Wallace and Gromit.
…
“Gromit [the dog] is non-speaking yet young children engage with him strongly,” said Professor Graham Collingridge, of the university’s neuroscience department. “So the facial expressions he uses must link to some very basic communication. When he’s sitting there rolling his eyes, you know that he’s disapproving of [his owner] Wallace, without saying anything.” In fact, Gromit has no mouth – which would seem to limit his range of expression even further. Gromit expresses himself purely through the movement of his eyes, eyebrows and ears.

Also mentioned in this article:

The fruits of the partnership might come in time to shape the studio’s next big film in October next year, starring Wallace and Gromit. So far it has been four years in the making. “We’ve got 30 minutes of it in the can so far,” said Arthur English, a spokesman for Aardman, explaining why the company is talking to the scientists.

Woo! News about the film.

An article this morning by icLiverpool says:

CHESHIRE character gift and gadget expert Wesco has been awarded the merchandising rights for products generated by the new Wallace & Gromit movie.
…
Wesco will be launching a range of clocks, watches, radios and money banks – firmly established as favourites with children of all ages, as well as talking bathroom scales, talking room guards and talking garden figurines. – read full article

Merchandise! How exciting! This partnership comes as no surprise, as Wesco has worked with Aardman in the past with merchandise for their films.

According to this article at musicfromthemovies.com, Julian Nott is the confirmed composer for the Wallace and Gromit movie. He was also the composer for all the rest of the Wallace and Gromit shorts, Chicken Run, and Not Without My Handbag, among other things.

Today I spent a great deal of time changing this site from simple HTML to PHP, changing the format of these News articles, moving some of the sections, validating the code and making the site less centered everywhere. These changes were needed to help me more easily update the site, and to make it more friendly to all visiters.

Because of these changes you may find some links broken if you’ve bookmarked them in the past, all .html files have changed to .php, and in some cases were moved into their own subdirectories.

I’ll be making more changes as the weeks go by, so stay tuned!

The Aardman team is helping with an open countryside project that aims to inform people about their rights and responsibilites toward open countryside in the UK.

The new version of the code, first introduced in the Fifties, aims to prepare everyone for the introduction of the public’s new right of access to the countryside. –Cumberland News

You can visit the new Countryside Access website at: www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk

Aardman sent out emails today advertising some job positions that have opened on the set of the Wallace and Gromit movie!

• Set Dresser
• Junior Carpenter/stagehand
• Runners

Of course the studio is in Bristol, UK, and you need to be able to work in the UK to apply for any of these positions. See http://www.aardman.com/culture/jobs.html for more information.