Customer Reviews

Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Collection (A Matter of Loaf and Death / A Grand Day Out / The Wrong Trousers / A Close Shave)

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Update: This film has one big problem. The third film, A Close Shave is in the 16:9 format on this disc while the original was in 4:3. This means the original film has been cropped to fit a widescreen TV. Pretty upsetting that they wouldn't include the three original videos in their original form. The first two, A Grand Day Out and The Wrong Trousers are in their original 4:3 format.

This is a great collection of the Wallace & Gromit films. The films all look excellent in HD and the behind the scenes features and commentary tracks are wonderful to listen to and really provide a lot of insight into the creation of the films.

For example, the commentary track for A Grand Day Out, the first film, talks about its production over about 6 years and the tricks that Nick used to film each shot. I'm pretty sure that these commentary tracks are taken from the DVD release, so they are nothing new if you have that version. The film also has several behind the scenes features which are also a lot of fun to watch and give good insight into the animation process, Nick Parks career, and the growth of the Wallace & Gromit franchise.

The packaging consists of a standard blu-ray case with a paper sleeve that has the same art as the case. There is no booklet with the film, just the disc.

I think the only thing missing from this collection is the full length feature film, but I think Wallace & Gromit works best in this shorter format.

I would recommend this collection to any Wallace & Gromit fan. The noticeable improvement in quality when viewed in HD and the behind the scenes and commentary tracks make it a joy to re-watch these excellent films and notice all the little details in the sets and animations.

Nevermind the full screen presentation of the first three shorts, as far as I know they do not exist in another aspect ratio. But that they include the fourth short only in a pan&scan version when even the making-of feature is presented in 16:9 - what a shame! All those commercials that can only be skipped one after the other and an "autoplay" feature that appears to be running even if you unselect it, they just come on top of it.

Forget this disappointing release and stick with "Three Amazing Adventures." Not only are the first three W&G films cropped down to 1:33 full-frame, but the new short (yes, it's a 30-minute short, not the 87-minute "feature-length" film advertized (they apparently included the extras in the timing)), filmed and released in widescreen, is likewise cropped to full-frame. This is unforgiveable treatment of classic material. A pox on the corporate suits who plotted this rip-off.

I'll leave for others to talk about Wallace & Gromit themselves and focus here on the Blu-Ray offering.

There are four "movies" included on the disc. Each of these is about 30 minutes long. The first three were previously included on the DVD, "Wallace & Gromit in Three Amazing Adventures." Also included on the BR disc are the features that were on the DVD. New to this release are the short "A Matter of Loaf and Death," the episode of Shaun the Sheep, "Off the Baa!," and at least one of the short features. A game demo is also included, but you need a BR player on your computer (PCs only) to play it. The first two features are full frame and the second two are widescreen. The features all look great on BR (though I don't know if they were remastered for this release).

The disc doesn't include "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," so one might quibble that it doesn't include all the W&G material, but it does include all the shorts (including the two that won Academy Awards).

Overall, I thought this was a very good presentation for a very funny duo and well worth the price.

We bought this set to replace a single CD of the 3 original short films, which got scratched. The single CD version has no commercials at the beginning, so you can navigate pretty quickly to the actual film you want to see.

This set has each film on a different disk, and each disk has about 5 minutes or more of commercials before you can view anything else. These include a promo for some kind of Wallace and Gromit game, a Saun the Sheep video, another W&G video _which is included in the set_, a Bob the Builder video, and a Thomas the Tank Engine commercial. And I may have forgotten some others....

So, if you don't have kids, or don't mind being harassed to buy yet more videos and games and toys every time you want to watch Wallace and Gromit, this set should be fine to you.

Otherwise, DON'T BUY IT!

I have always been a fan of the intelligent wit of Wallace and his faithful dog Gromit. I did not expect to see the series on blu-ray, but it is a joy that we now have 4 of their exploits on high definition. I had to travel over 30 miles to find a store (Best Buy) with the item in stock and was able to price match Wal-Mart, making each movie just $5.

I've watched two of the films so far (A Close Shave and A Matter of Loaf and death) and Wallace and Gromit has never looked or sounded better than on blu-ray. I can give a hearty thumbs up on this collection - it is well worth owning.

Some items of note: This is a 1 disc blu-ray release, not 4 discs (which would not make any sense). This collection is also not "complete". We are missing Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Curse of the Were Rabbit has to be their best film, so it is sad that it is not included here. The films we do get are great.

Movie: 5.0/5.0
Video: 4.5/5.0
Audio: 4.0/5.0
Extras: 3.0/5.0
Overall: 4.5/5.0

As far as the actual Wallace & Gromit films go, a solid 4 star rating, so I can't entirely justify a one star rating. But the packaging and presentation are inexcusable. Frankly, I think there should be strict laws against such anti-consumer releases.

First, four half hour films plus a handful of two-minute quickies could easily fit onto a single disc. Even with the bonus materials provided, two discs would be more than sufficient. (The bonus documentaries are merely OK -- not something you'd want to watch more than once. After you've seen one, the others seem fairly redundant.)

The big problem is it takes forever to get to the menu and the actual program content. A seemingly endless series of "previews" (these are properly called "commercials", folks) are forced on you before you get to the menu. Yes, you can hit the chapter skip button half a dozen times, but why should someone who has paid for a DVD be forced to do this? If the publisher truly believed anybody would actually want to see these previews, they would have offered them as an option on the menu, NOT a forced pre-menu screening.

To make their complete and utter contempt for their customers absolutely undeniable, the same barrage of ads is included pre-menu on each and every one of the four underlength discs. This is NOT a "marketing strategy." This is just plain insulting and sadistic.
I have seen some bad DVD releases, but this ranks among the all-time worst.

Anyone who cares even slightly about consumer rights should boycott any and all products from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

This looks to be the best collection of Wallace and Gromit short films yet. First off all of the films will have a commentary by Nick Park. This should be a treat for fans. You also get a number of documentaries:

- "Amazing Adventures of Wallace & Gromit" featurette
- "Inside The Wrong Trousers" featurette
- "How It Was Done" featurette
- "How They Donut" The Making of A Matter of Loaf and Death featurette

You also get an episode of Shaun the Sheep: "Off The Baa" and all ten of the Cracking Contraptions shorts that aired on the BBC website and AtomFilms back in 2002. Technical aspects include MPEG-4 AVC video in 1080p with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Just a little bad news. It looks like it's confirmed that the short film "A Close Shave" is the altered version that doesn't have the Happy Birthday song in it. Instead of that song another one is dubbed just like in the WB DVD release. Kinda sucks that they won't pony up the royalties to make this disk as true to the original broadcast as possible. Oh well... it's a small detail.

If you like Wallace and Gromit and have any of their previous disks this collection may be worth the double dip.

The Wallace and Gromit episodes themselves are 5 stars all the way. However, cueing up the actual episodes themselves is a real pain. Preceding each episode are a number of trailers, and you can neither bypass them by selecting "Main Menu" nor scroll easily through them by advancing chapters. Finally, the "Auto Play" option seems to be a sham, since the disc plays the bonus features automatically. This cheap ploy which forces you to see each trailer is a nightmare if you have a child who will want to see the episodes repeatedly. I love Wallace and Gromit (and my children do too), but I will never buy a disc made by HIT Entertainment again.

Pay no attention to the negative reviews for this movie. Most of them are referring to the DVD version. Three of the movies are in widescreen HD format, and A Grand Day Out is presented in fullscreen. I don't find this to be an issue since this stays true to the original format. Would you expect to watch Casablanca in widescreen?

Seeing these old favorites in HD is simply amazing. It's so clear you can even see the fingerprints in the clay. A great deal of time and effort was put into the visuals for these films, and finally, seeing them on the widescreen can do them justice. The sound is another great attribute. Hearing the sounds of Wallace's lab in surround sound really puts you in the moment. Bottom line, even if you have these movies on DVD, seeing them on Blu-Ray feels like a whole new movie.

The extras on this disc aren't much to brag about (the drawings are kind of lame) but I really enjoy the "Cracking Contraptions" and more so, I'm glad they filled the disc with special features as opposed to just the 4 films.

Chicken Run and The Curse of the Warerabbit were enjoyable, but can't hold a candle to these four movies. Any Wallace and Gromit fan should definitely pick up a copy of this, and those new to Nick Park's work will really enjoy seeing these classics in HD.