This next bit of pop culture has become a thing like the Doctor Who Christmas Special and the All Creatures Great and Small Christmas episode. On the one hand it’s just a commercial. On the other hand it’s a new creation starring Wallace & Gromit from the magical hands of Aardman Animations. And as we learned in the book A Grand Success! The Aardman Journey One Day at A Time (reviewed here), Aardman as creator of commercials has been just one feature in their bag of tricks from the very beginning. In a new seasonal commercial from British outerwear company Barbour, its third year in a row–it’s an excuse (paid for by corporate funds) for Aardman to show us more of our favorite stop-motion characters.
Four decades since creator Nick Park first penned his ideas for these characters, Aardman’s mastery of stop motion/Claymation continues with great storytelling, humor, and innovations with what was thought to be a dead medium. Now blended with digital rendering, the result is exactly what fans have hoped for: a seamless–and dare we hope, more frequent–way to see more from the annals of England’s great duo of man and his best friend that began with the Academy-Award-winning trifecta of The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave, and A Grand Day Out. As Wallace would say, this commercial is “spot on.”
As we saw in last year’s Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (reviewed here), the Barbour commercial is another throwback to Nick Park’s 1993 Academy Award-winning animated short film The Wrong Trousers–one of the greatest animations ever–spotlighting Wallace, the happy ol’ British inventor hobbyist and connoisseur of cheese, and Gromit, his industrious and frequently eyebrow-raised loyal pooch, AND just one more elaborate invention, appropriately Christmas themed, the “Gift-o-Matic.”
Check it out:
Ben Whitehead, who was a stand-in for the late former Wallace voice actor Peter Sallis in Curse of the Were-Rabbit, is back making the voice of Wallace his own. According to Barbour, “It took over six months to make the film – from the initial script right through to the final cut. Animators produced around two seconds of animation per day – that’s roughly ten seconds a week. Each puppet was moved over 1000 times during the film.” As for the miniature gifts, “All of the tiny Barbour products, including our Classic Tartan scarf, were meticulously handmade at Aardman. The Barbour beanie that Wallace is wearing was made using tiny knitting needles.” Steve Harding-Hill has served as director on three commercials for Barbour starring Aardman characters.
If you must see how the magic is made, here is a behind-the-scenes look:
And in case you missed it, here is last year’s commercial, which featured Shaun the Sheep and the farmer and friends:
This is the making of the 2024 spot:
And here’s the first product of the combined Aardman and Barbour:
And a behind the scenes look at the first commercial:
Old friends, new tech, and some good Christmas spirit, even if in service to capitalism and commerce. It’s good stuff. More, please?
C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg
