Memorable, crazy movie

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A different way of telling a story

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

A Grand Day Out originally aired in 1989 at the Bristol Animation Festival and later broadcast on Christmas Eve in 1990. After 8 years of production Nick Park introduces us in this short, but sweet film to the now legendary characters of Wallace and Gromit. What Park accomplished within a 23 minute run time and using nothing more than a camera a pile of Plasticine is nothing short of astounding. In the short, Wallace and Gromit decide to take a trip to the moon after they run out of cheese to bring back to Earth, after they become bored during a Bank Holiday (this is based on an old folklore tale that the moon is made of cheese.) While there they meet an old rusted gas cooker that initially attempts to see them off before having a rather humorous dream of becoming a skier. Despite the character models and sets not being as refined as the follow-up shorts 'The Wrong Trousers' and 'A Close Shave' also not particularly having a complex or well developed plot. A Grand Day Out is still to this day is a brilliant work of art. With a simplistic, but stylish design and plot, some humorous and witty moments for both kids and adults to enjoy and more importantly packed with plenty of charm as well as a pleasing and satisfying finale. A Grand Day Out is a bold statement to how much of an impact a simple stop-motion clay animation short has on the world of film. 8/10

Say cheese. 13 years after Will Vinton invented it, claymation is back. This short film was a milestone in animation history. The fact that Park lost the Best Animated Feature Oscar to himself that year does it no harm. He won with his three follow-up Wallace and Gromit films then, the last being a full feature.I quite like this short film, not as much as The Wrong Trousers, but more than A Close Shave. Park is on such a creative high that year that he brings us Wallace & Gromit, almost in their ultimate shape, with a great catchy tune and also already a prospect of things to come in the famous Aardman sheep on the picture at the wall of the rocket. What do you do when you realize that you've run out of cheese for your crackers. That's right. Go get some and combine with your annual holiday travel by picking the moon as the destination. After all, it's made all of cheese. Gromit's look to the camera says it all. But how did they get the cows up there? Anyway, watching this short film I had to think of French movie pioneer Georges Méliès' Trip to the Moon which shows quite a few parallels: the planning, the rocket building and finally the flight from the inhabitants. This can't be a coincidence.After they reach the moon and we get to see a short gravity joke, they run into a cleaning robot, who's quickly fed up with tidying up after the mess Wallace leaves behind after testing different moon cheese culinary meals from several corners of the moon. He is rewarded in the end for his efforts and his dream finally comes true. A must-see for animation lovers.

Such a basic film. Sure, it took many years and I must give the director much credit because of this. I wouldn't have the time nor patience to do something that I didn't know would or wouldn't work.The story was a bit basic, however. Going to the moon to take some cheese and eat it with your crackers. Plus, they obviously were in the story world because they didn't have any sort of gear to protect themselves.But you know, I don't really care. These days you have to have things perfect or with a good reason, else it isn't convincing. Back then people accepted things the way they were.Rated 8/10 :)

Wallace and Gromit are a phenomenon. How many stop motion animation films win Oscars, top the US and UK box office charts etc. But all that came later.A Grand Day Out was the first Wallace and Gromit film. Low budget. More or less a graduation piece. Of course the animation is less sophisticated than in the later films. Of course the plot is a little shallow. The entire story is designed to minimise the need for sophisticated animation and to maximise the excuse for shortcomings (perhaps dogs and people would move a bit like that on a cheese moon).Yet it is extraordinary to see how much of the Aardman genius is already there in this short film. Hilarious and clever references to other films. Mice in shades for take off. The rocket handbrake gag. Coin-operated machine gags (brilliantly recycled in Were-Rabbit BTW). And a machine (is it an Aga?) that daydreams about skiing when it sees Wallace's holiday magazines.Of course TWT, ACS and Were-Rabbit are better movies, but this film is so worth seeing as a sign of early genius and indeed in its own right as a crude but wonderful animated film.