I’ve been a great fan of Wallace and Gromit for close to two decades and when I heard they were doing a new TV show, I was pretty thrilled. When I heard the show would be part reality show, I was a little disappointed, but then when I found out they’d be showcasing real life-scientists and their inventions, I was once again thrilled.
Aardman and crew didn’t fail to disappoint. The show is like a high-tech, all ages Sesame Street and my kids and I completely ate it up.
My daughter has, for as long as she’s been able to understand the concept of wanting to be something when she grows up, has wanted to build robots. The very first episode addresses this very issue and the brightness in her face couldn’t be measured. The show gave her all kinds of ideas and she went right to her drawing board to draw out new ideas for robots she had.
It’s exactly the sort of show I think kids need and don’t get enough of on American television. (It’s no wonder this show hails from across the pond.) It tackles science in fascinating ways, shows the tinkerers and inventors failing time and again with their inventions, improving them constantly, and then finally reaching success. It seems like the average American kid doesn’t have that same fascination with science that sent us to the moon, and I think shows like this could help reignite that spark.
On the technical side, this show is put together well. Sure, there’s some dodgy bits of archive footage, but other than that it looks great.
There’s a tendency for live action shows framed with animation to have a sub-standard animation style, or lip synching that’s not exactly right, but it’s not a problem this show had. Wallace and Gromit, renowned for their own tinkering, were brought beautifully back to life in a way that was indistinguishable from their previous on-screen outings. And they were up to their old hijinks like no time had been missed between now and then.
For the price (Less than $12 on Amazon) it’s something that should be in the collection of any would-be tinkerer or inventor, young or old. And I think fans of Wallace and Gromit are hip to this sort of show, even if they are expecting full length episodes of Wallace and Gromit comedy.
It reminds me quite a bit of the documentary shows and movies that the Monty Pythoners put together after the dissolution of the Flying Circus.
It’s funny, charming, and enlightening.
Pick it up. You’re really not going to regret it.