The first three Wallace & Gromit shorts are grouped together in a single volume.

A Grand Day Out
Nominated for an Academy Award in 1990, this was the first short-film adventure starring Wallace & Gromit. This 24-minute comedy was created by clay animator Nick Park over a six-year period at the National Film and Television School in London and at the Aardman Animation studios, which Park boosted to international acclaim. In their debut adventure, Wallace and his furry pal Gromit find themselves desperate for "a nice bit of Gorgonzola," but their refrigerator's empty and the local cheese shop is closed for a holiday! Undeterred, Wallace comes up with an extreme solution to the cheese shortage: since the moon is made of cheese (we all know that's true, right?), he decides to build a rocket and blast off for a cheesy lunar picnic! Gromit's only too happy to help, and before long the inventive duo is on the moon, where they encounter a clever appliance that's part oven, part robot, part lunar skiing enthusiast... Well, you just have to see the movie to understand how any of this whimsical lunar-cy can make any sense! It's a grand tale of wonderful discoveries, fantastic inventions--and really great cheese!

The Wrong Trousers
Clay-animation master Nick Park deservedly won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Animated Short for this 30-minute masterpiece, in which the good-natured inventor Wallace and his trusty dog, Gromit, return for another grand adventure. It all begins on the morning of Gromit's birthday, when Wallace gives his beloved pooch the gift of his latest invention--a pair of mechanical "techno-trousers" that can be programmed to take Gromit out for "walkies" while Wallace sits comfortably at home. Gromit's not exactly thrilled with the new gadget, and things go from bad to worse when Wallace rents a room to a new boarder--a rather suspicious-looking penguin--to offset his rising expenses. As it turns out, the penguin's a notorious thief, and the amazing techno-trousers provide a foolproof method of pulling off a diamond heist! It's Gromit's big opportunity for canine heroics, and The Wrong Trousers turns into one of the funniest, most inventive caper-comedies ever made, with an action-packed climax on a speeding miniature train. Will the notorious "Feathers" wind up in jail, where he belongs? Will Gromit finally get his due recognition? Watch this amazing marvel of clay animation to see why Wallace & Gromit have become global celebrities--this is comedic ingenuity at its finest.

Everybody knows the moon's made of cheese!

This 'claymation' from the makers of 'Chicken Run' is extremely hilarious, not to say entertaining. Three episodes that make you wish for a constant showing on tv of the program in your area.

Best DVD for the series to date

This has to be the best claymation series I've ever seen. What makes it so great? It's not the realistic character designs (because they aren't). It's not the compelling plot or driven story (because you won't find it). Wallace and Gromit are great simply because creator Nick Park knew how to maximize his claymation skills to a level rarely seen anywhere else.

The biggest feather in Nick's cap is the attention to detail he puts into all three of these animated shorts. You can pause the film and pick out several little bits of interesting things from the articles in Wallace's newspaper and the everyday items found about the house, to all the subtle gestures and mannerisms from the characters. Add a few impressive miniature sets, an impressive soundtrack, and superb directing and you get a production that rivals Henry Selick's work (Nightmare Before Christmas).

Speaking of superb directing. This is the first time I have seen some really dynamic directing elements on a claymation production. Usually it's a simple single camera facing one side of a set they MIGHT pan a little now and then. In these Wallace and Gromit animations you get Hollywood quality camera shots and angles along with dramatic zooms, focus/fades and such. Detail oriented doesn't just stop at the props and animation itself.

I did mention the stories themselves weren't Oscar calibur, however they don't have to be. Simple storytelling lends itself nicely with this kind of production. Some of you sticklers for realism might need to suspend your disbelief a bit, but believe me you will be glad you did. Here are some comments on the three shorts:

A GRAND DAY OUT - This absurd story is about Wallace wanting to go on a cheese vacation and decides to take it on the moon. This is the first of the series. The first created of the series. Of the three Grand Day Out is also the least of them, but this excellent short film still blows away anything Rankin and Bass or the California Raisins ever tried. The production values weren't quite as high the first time around, but again that only means the two that come after are a few notches better. This short is well deserved of the awards it garnered.

THE WRONG TROUSERS - Gromit is suspicious of Wallace's new tenant, a silent penguin, and learns of an insidious plot this bird is cooking up. Better production values. More excitement and action. More drama... or rather parody of drama. You really see Nick building his chops on this one. Never has a model train set been so thrilling! Where his first short was just a series of funny events tied together (like a classic Bugs Bunny Cartoon) this short is more of a complete story with conflict, exposition and resolution.

A CLOSE SHAVE - Wallace and Gromit learn who's behind a rampant wool shortage, along the way finding a little sheep they named Sean. This one seems to combine the drama and action from his last short and the craziness of his first one. You also finally get a little romantic involvement with Wallace. The funniest scenes come with the rescue of Sean and his sheep cohorts. This DVD set is worth that scene alone.

The DVD itself is apparently the best quality version out the two out there (this one and the WB release). I've gotten reports that the newer Warner Brothers release doesn't have as sharp a picture. Also the WB version took away the "Happy Birthday" tune played on The Wrong Trousers for copyright reasons. So basically with that one you're missing out on a couple little details. Downside is the WB version has an audio commentary by Nick Park and this one doesn't. Then again this one has a few extras I don't think the WB one does (namely some Christmas commercial snippets Nick did).

The features seem nice, but I know they could have done better. There is a featurette that does the making of the shorts. The thing is I saw a longer and much more informative one on PBS one day. Why didn't they put all of that on the DVD?

All in all at this current time if you want the best quality collection of Wallace and Gromit then here you go. Maybe with the new movie release they will put out another DVD collection and fix the problems the Warner Brothers disk has. In any case if you can find it I suggest grabbing this one... FAST.

1 star because: It's NOT AVAILABLE!

As soon as they release a reprint of this DVD, they can 5 stars... but until then, boooo! hissssss!