Written by Adrienne Ambush
Nightmare on Elm Street it is not, but Wallace & Gromit’s: A matter of Loaf and Death is anything but a movie you should let your kids watch without parental supervision.
What starts out rather light-hearted with a baker standing in his kitchen singing a cheerful ditty about baking a cake, suddenly turns darker when an intruder walks up behind him and murders the baker with a rolling pin, throwing the lifeless body into a heap of dough just as the title of the movie pops up on the screen. The next scene reveals how the main characters come to tie into the opening of the movie as it shows Wally rising from his slumber just as his assistant Gromit puts the finishing touches on the town’s breakfast muffins he had just finished taking out of the oven only minutes beforehand.
As if stolen right out of the pages of “So I married an axe murder”—without the ending where it was really the wife’s old room-mate who did it—Wallace & Gromit: A matter of loaf and death takes viewers on an animated ride that follows up and coming baker Wallace as he finds love in “seductive bread-industry icon, Piella Bakewell” who is everything he could want in a woman…except for the fact that she’s a serial killer who gets bakers to fall in love with her and then murders them just because she cannot stand bakers anymore.
A horror movie this is not, but writers of Wallace & Gromit have taken a step away from the kid-friendly storylines they have featured on PBS and are gearing this movie towards a slightly older audience; showcasing violence, suspense, romance and drama, and also several scenes where Piella Bakewell tries to kill off main character Wallace, only to the defeat of his dog Gromit.
Video:
Presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, Wallace & Gromit has a pretty clean picture. The clay animation is bright and sharp and is completely flawless as a three dimensional movie.
Audio:
Wallace & Gromit: A matter of loaf and death has a pretty clean sound at 2.0 Dolby Digital Audio. It only shows in English so those looking for Spanish commentary, this is not the disc for you. All though there is a lot of suspenseful music that plays throughout the movie, the dialogue can easily be heard throughout the entire video.
Special Features:
Commentary: by director Nick Park and Editor David McCormick. The two men discuss how hard it is making an animation and fitting it into 30 minutes of airplay and point out the errors that they noticed during each scene.
“How They Donut”—the making of A matter of Loath and Death: Writers discuss how they wanted the picture to be dark yet intriguing and break down the character’s facial expressions.
Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures: Video game demo: Can only be seen if you insert your DVD into a working computer and follow the instructions that are then given to you.
Bonus Episode: Shaun the Sheep: off the baaa: Special episode of mini TV show that areas with Wallace & Gromit.
Final Thoughts:
While it wasn’t the most kid-friendly movie I had ever seen, I think die-hard fans of the television should would enjoy this more edgier clip while people wanting to watch a movie that really didn’t have any thought to it, they should defiantly rent it.
