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      A Matter of Loaf and Death

      2008 30m Comedy Animation List
      Reviews 77% 2,500+ Ratings Audience Score Wallace (Peter Sallis) and Gromit open up a bakery, but when Wallace falls in love with Piella Bakewell (Sally Lindsay), Gromit is left alone to solve a murder mystery. Read More Read Less

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      A Matter of Loaf and Death

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      Audience Reviews

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      Benyamin M Still another Aardman masterpiece. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/04/24 Full Review haii e a cinematic master piece! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/28/24 Full Review Matthew B A Matter of Loaf and Death might be said to be the most violent of the W&G stories, since it begins with a murder and ends in a death. Of course it is not especially violent or dark, but it is about a murderer. The killer is targeting bakers, which is unfortunate because Wallace and Gromit have started up yet another new business in just that field. Wallace's capacity for falling in love with the wrong woman takes a darker turn this time when he is smitten by Piella Bakewell, a woman who is not as nice as she seems. Wallace meets her when her bicycle loses control, but Gromit finds nothing wrong with the bike. She also has a habit of kicking her timid little dog. Piella was the Bake-O-Lite Girl, and images of a younger, slim-hipped Piella can be seen floating past on a balloon. Alas, time has taken its toll. Piella has gained weight and was fired when she became too heavy to ride the balloon. Now she has a photo album of all the bakers that she wooed and murdered to avenge herself, and Wallace is lined up to be Victim #13. Gromit must protect his misguided master by hiding sharp instruments in the shed (with the acronym WMD – Weapons of Mass Destruction) on the door. The beagle wears a security suit, and installs a metal scanner. He also acts as Wallace's food tester. There is time for romance for Gromit too, as he becomes involved with Piella's timid poodle, Fluffles. The shorter length allows fewer opportunities to add jokes for the sharp-eyed, but they are still plentiful. Park provides spoofs of such films as Ghost, Aliens (again), Silence of the Lambs and the original Batman movie with Adam West. The title references the famous Powell & Pressburger fantasy, A Matter of Life and Death. There are a few sly allusions to earlier W&G stories, including a suggestion that Feathers McGraw (from The Wrong Trousers) may have used the confusion at the zoo to escape. The best way to make stories that amuse children is to make stories that amuse adults too. That allows people of all ages to enjoy the films, and there is no danger of condescending to children by implying that their sense of humour is less sophisticated than that of their elders. The W&G stories also benefit from a sense that less is more. If W&G had become a major franchise and churned out longer stories over a shorter period, it might have suffered the fate of many animated film franchises, and rapidly become tired and repetitive. Instead Park made just five stories of a total length of less than three-and-a-half hours in total. He was able to pick up the adventures of his two heroes with a fresh eye each time, and without the pressure of making a rapid sequel that is so damaging to spontaneity. This explains the consistency of tone, of style, of characterisation, and of quality control that makes the series of films enduring without becoming too formulaic. I wrote a longer appreciation of the Wallace & Gromit films on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2021/05/22/wallace-gromit-in-a-cheesy-pun-five-works-by-nick-park/ Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/30/23 Full Review William W While it's not my favourite "Wallce and Gromit" short, I do still appreciate this short and there are of course quite a few good moments. It's pretty dark for Aardman and unique too Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 07/17/23 Full Review matthew d The idiot inventor Wallace's long suffering dog Gromit gets a girlfriend! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member The weakest, as in least good, of the Wallace and Gromit shorts (though following a feature film that won the Best Animated Feature Oscar and remains Aardman's highest-rated feature film on IMDb certainly doesn't help), A Matter of Loaf and Death can't resist recycling elements from past adventures but the great-as-always stop-motion animation, good old-fashioned British humour and physical comedy, thrilling action and surprisingly dark story while still remaining true to itself show why this duo's adventures remain animation classics...and serves as a perfectly good swan song for Peter Sallis as Wallace before his retirement. My God, that was one long sentence! I really need to brush up on my sentence-structuring skills. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      A Matter of Loaf and Death

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      Critics Reviews

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      Mike Massie Gone With The Twins The comic timing is still stellar, but the humor has decreased in favor of thrills. Rated: 7/10 Nov 29, 2020 Full Review Steve Biodrowski Cinefantastique Even if the results do not quite live up to [Wallce and Gromit's] best work, "A Matter of Loaf and Death" is nevertheless another fine mess, loaded with droll dialogue and amusing sight gags. Aug 27, 2010 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis Wallace (Peter Sallis) and Gromit open up a bakery, but when Wallace falls in love with Piella Bakewell (Sally Lindsay), Gromit is left alone to solve a murder mystery.
      Director
      Nick Park
      Screenwriter
      Bob Baker
      Production Co
      Aardman Animations
      Genre
      Comedy, Animation
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Aug 22, 2018
      Runtime
      30m
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