Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Cracking Collection [Blu-ray]

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.

Nothing but joy when I saw my 4 year old state that she wanted to be Gromit. There's also nuances in language that don't carry over to American english - So many idioms to last a life time. If the bounce ever goes out of your bungee turn on Wallace and Gromit. Like a slice of your favorite cheese - Canterbury.

Sweet and thoughtful.

Truly a Masterpiece. My favorite is the first one, the trip to the Moon. I love the way I emotionally identify with the robot vending machine. Perfect Sound Effects. Excellent lighting, especially in the second one. Incredibly Masterful. As a filmmaker, I am astonished that such good timing, as displayed and executed through the superb story telling, music and editing, is in a "Stop-Motion" film, of all genres. Truly a supreme example of genius in the art of filmmaking.

I don't need to write a review to influence whether or not you're going to buy this. I'm writing this because I hope that someone who happens to stumble across Wallace and Gromit for the first time will wonder why their life wasn't fulfilled until they met these two characters. I absolutely love the wit and nuance captured in each clay-formed expression that Nick Park brings to life. There is nothing so creatively though out and painstaking to produce than these 4 episodes. I just wish there was an amount of money to pay Nick Park to do more of them (although I'm guessing that Nick is most likely more motivated by purpose, authenticity and principle rather than financial gain-another reason to love this guy). That is until you learn/watch the bonus features and discover how much work goes into making one of these episodes. If you're reading this Nick Park, please find somewhere in the middle to keep W & G alive and make a few more episodes. Or a full length movie would be awesome. You could literally charge $50 a ticket and host it only on limited basis. I'm not suggesting that you sell out and become the Simpsons. Just lay a few more lengths of track before the penguin gets caught :-)

Though aware of their existence and somewhat curious about them for some time, I had not previously see any of the Wallace & Gromit shorts prior to seeing "Curse of the Were-Rabbit" when that hit theaters. The movie made me a fan and soon enough I grabbed the DVD collection of the first 3 shorts. More recently, I grabbed the Blu-Ray Collection to grab the 4th short, and to get the HD versions. This Blu-Ray Collection is absolutely THE way to see Wallace and Gromit. The colors are much more vibrant, and details hidden previously by the overly dark presentation on the DVD set now stand out and make this so much more enjoyable to watch. The 4 shorts are often reported as being presented in the aspect ratio "as intended", and that was the impression I was under for quite a while, but that is debatable with regards to one of them. "A Grand Day Out" and "The Wrong Trousers" are shown in 4:3 aspect ratio, as they are on the DVD release. The short "A Close Shave" is shown in an odd 1.66:1 ratio that is not quite the more standard widescreen of 1.78:1 that the final short, "A Matter of Loaf and Death", is in. On the DVD release, "A Close Shave" is shown in a 4:3 aspect ratio. If you watch the DVD and Blu-Ray versions side-by-side, it's a lot more obvious that the Blu-Ray version was simply cropped at the top and bottom to make it "widescreen"... and clumsily so in retrospect. I had thought before that they simply opened up the framing on the sides and cropped a little on the top/bottom, but that's just not the case. It's easy to overlook how badly the cropping is since the Blu-Ray version looks a LOT nicer with the colors more accurate and details popping out that were hidden on the DVD. Why they did this is rather baffling. So, what about the videos themselves? Starting with "A Grand Day Out", it's obvious from the get-go that this was an early effort from the animators as they were refining their skills. The production is lower in quality, with the animations being somewhat jerkier than the others, and the characters' features a bit cruder than what we know and love today. The pacing I feel is a bit stilted, and it seems to me that the video serves largely as a showcase for demonstrating some of the more complex animations that had to be difficult to pull off. This doesn't mean that the video wasn't enjoyable. Quite the contrary, despite being something of a freshman effort, it was full of the witty little bits and pieces that their work is so well known for. The second video, "The Wrong Trousers", is my personal favorite. The character animation is much smoother than before; their features developed to how we know them today; and the story was a fair bit more complex and paced much better. It feels like the animators had really gotten comfortable with their craft and, rather than devising a series of scenes to show off their animation skills, paid much greater attention to the story than before. It's truly a great piece. The same can be said for the latter two shorts, "A Close Shave" and "A Matter of Loaf and Death". In addition to the four short films, they've included as extras the 10 Wallace & Gromit short shorts collectively known as "Cracking Contraptions", and an episode of "Shaun the Sheep", a spinoff series featuring Shaun, a character who was first introduced in "A Close Shave". I didn't watch "Shaun" all the way through, so I can't comment much other than it being in standard def and is basically there to promote the DVD set for that series. The "Cracking Contraptions" extras were rather disappointing in that they appear on the Blu-Ray in standard definition (480p). Compared to the feature short films, the CC shorts (which are 1-3 minutes long each) are noticeably blurrier on my 50" HDTV and much of the little details that the W&G films are known for don't stand out like they do in these HD versions of the featured short films. For as short as the "Cracking Contraptions" episodes are, roughly 20 minutes or so in total, surely they could have been remastered in HD along with the featured W&G short films. For this reason, along with the butchering of "A Close Shave", I consider this worth a 3-4 star rating out of 5 stars, rather than a full 5 of 5. Hopefully we'll see "A Close Shave" re-released in HD without the butchering some day. I'd especially like to see "Cracking Contraptions" remastered in HD and released perhaps as a digital download also. Better yet, as extras on a yet-to-be-announced-but-hopefully-is-coming-soon Blu-Ray edition of "Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (please pretty please!!!).

Every moment makes me smile!

Great fun. Love these movies.

Einfach Genial. Alles Bestens. Empfehlenswert.

Squisitissimo bluray di tutti i corti di Wallace e gromit. Inglese vero, facilmente comprensibile (la cosa può renderlo quindi un regalo sia utile che dilettevole). Un ottimo sostituto della mia vecchia VHS, qui si vedono persino le impronte digitali sulla plastilina!

Excellent stories and very entertaining. Just finished watching 'The Curse of the Were Rabbit' and it follows on from this DVD with more very British humour. These 4 stories are probably best for over 5 year olds so they can grab the full extent of the subtle humour, but also very entertaining for adults. The claymation is excellent. Well worth the money (which was very reasonable from the U.K. to Canada). Be aware that if the DVD comes from the U.K., you will need a player that at the very least plays the U.K. format (or perhaps try it on your computer?).

An excellent collection now in high definition. Highly recommend to everyone.

内容自体はまったく問題なし。ただ英国仕様なので、日本のDVDプレーヤーとリージョンが違います。うちでは結局iMacでのみ観れています。