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Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death

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Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death
North American DVD cover art
Directed byNick Park
Written by
Produced by
  • Steve Pegram
Starring
CinematographyDave Alex Riddett
Edited byDavid McCormick
Music byJulian Nott
Production
company
Distributed byBBC Worldwide
Release dates
  • December 3, 2008 (2008-12-03) (ABC1)
  • December 25, 2008 (2008-12-25) (BBC One)
Running time
29 minutes[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
Budget£3 million

Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death is a 2008 British stop motion animated short film directed by Nick Park and written by Park and Bob Baker. The fifth installment in the Wallace & Gromit series and the first short film since A Close Shave (1995), it was the last Wallace & Gromit film before the retirement of Wallace's voice actor, Peter Sallis, in 2010. In the film, Wallace and Gromit operate a bakery as the former is targeted by a serial killer. Sally Lindsay co-stars as its main antagonist, Piella Bakewell.

In October 2007, it was announced that a new Wallace & Gromit short film was in production at Aardman Animations. Originally titled Trouble At' Mill, It was one of the studio's first works produced after the end of their feature film deal with DreamWorks Animation. Filming began in January 2008 with production lasting signifcantly shorter than past installments and Aardman features.

A Matter of Loaf and Death premiered on BBC One on December 25, 2008 and was one of the most watched television specials in the United Kingdom that year. It received critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 82nd Academy Awards, whilst winning a BAFTA and an Annie Award for Best Short Animation and Best Animated Short Subject in 2009. A sixth installment, Vengeance Most Fowl, would release sixteen years later in 2024.

Plot

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As word spreads about the latest of twelve bakers having been murdered by a serial killer, Wallace and Gromit, while on a delivery for their new bakery business, rescue Piella Bakewell, a former pin-up model for the Bake-O-Lite bread company, when the brakes on her bicycle seemingly fail. Wallace becomes smitten with Piella and begins a romance with her; Gromit becomes suspicious when he tests the bicycle's brakes to see them working fine and is infuriated when she redecorates their house, but shares a sensitive moment with her nervous poodle Fluffles as she returns his discarded possessions.

Wallace sends Gromit to return Piella's forgotten purse that night. At her residence, Gromit discovers evidence that implicates Piella as the serial killer. It is revealed that she came to detest bakers after her weight gain ended her career; Wallace is her planned thirteenth victim, completing a "baker's dozen". When Gromit attempts to show Wallace some of the evidence, he is too distracted by his engagement to Piella to listen as she disposes of it.

Gromit remains determined to protect his owner, but Piella eventually keeps him at bay by deceiving Wallace into wrongfully punishing him. Gromit proceeds to watch helplessly as she prepares to assassinate Wallace, but he is soon saved when Piella is miraculously deterred at the last second. Following an angry outburst over the failure that nearly exposes her true nature, she leaves a crestfallen Wallace, but later returns to "apologise" with a cake, with Fluffles absent from her side. A suspicious Gromit infiltrates her residence, where Piella captures him, reveals that the cake contains a bomb and detains him with Fluffles.

Escaping in Piella's old Bake-O-Lite hot air balloon, Gromit and Fluffles arrive at the scene as Wallace lights the bomb's fuse and, following a struggle, its true colours are revealed. Wallace and Gromit are then confronted by Piella, but just as she is about to dispatch the former, Fluffles opposes her using the duo's forklift. In the chaos, the bomb ends up in Wallace's trousers, but Gromit and Fluffles manage to neutralise its explosion as Piella escapes in her balloon. However, her weight drags the balloon down into the zoo, where she is eaten alive by its crocodile. Gromit tries to console Fluffles and offers her to stay with them, but she leaves on account of the tragedy. When Wallace and Gromit decide to take their minds off things with a delivery, they find Fluffles waiting outside as she joins them.

Cast

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Production

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In October 2007, it was announced that Wallace and Gromit were to return to television after an absence of ten years with a new short film titled Wallace & Gromit: Trouble At' Mill.[2][3] Filming began in January 2008; creator Nick Park commented that the production period for the short was significantly quicker than that of the feature-length films Chicken Run and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which each took five years to complete.[4][5] A Matter of Loaf and Death was the first Aardman film to be made using the software Stop-Motion Pro. Five models were created for Gromit alone, with scenes being shot simultaneously on thirteen sets.[6]

Commenting on the fact that the short would be made directly for a British audience, Nick Park said: "I don't feel like I'm making a film for a kid in some suburb of America — and being told they're not going to understand a joke, or a northern saying."[4] Regardless, Park changed the title from Trouble at Mill as he thought it was too obscure for a Northern England colloquialism. As well as a final title that references A Matter of Life and Death, the film additionally references Ghost (1990), Batman (1966) and Aliens (1986).[7]

Park said in an interview with the Radio Times: "The BBC hardly gave a single note or instruction on the whole thing", and Park goes on to remark how it was better than his previous work with DreamWorks Animation, Curse of the Were-Rabbit, where they kept receiving calls to change critical things.[6]

Park cast Sally Lindsay after hearing her on the Radcliffe and Maconie Show on BBC Radio 2 whilst driving from Preston.[8] Although unfamiliar with her role as Shelley Unwin in Coronation Street, Park said: "Sally has a lot of fun in her voice, flamboyant almost, and I was also looking for someone who could be quite charming too, but with a slightly posh northern accent. Piella needed to at times sound well to do, and then at others sound quite gritty".[8] A Matter of Loaf and Death was the last Wallace & Gromit film before the retirement of Wallace's voice actor, Peter Sallis, in 2010.[4]

Release

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A Matter of Loaf and Death debuted on ABC1 in Australia on 3 December 2008, and was repeated the following day on ABC2.[9] In the UK, it debuted on Christmas Day at 20:30 on BBC One with over 14 million people watching, although it had been available on filesharing website the Pirate Bay since 3 December 2008.[7][10] On 19 December 2008, Aardman Animations revealed they had "no idea" of how clips were leaked onto YouTube ahead of its screening in the UK.[11]

In France, A Matter of Loaf & Death (Sacré pétrin in French) was shown – dubbed into French – on Christmas Eve 2008, on M6. In Germany, one version, entitled Auf Leben und Brot was broadcast on the Super RTL network; the title is a play on Auf Leben und Tod, meaning a matter of life and death.

In a similar style to A Close Shave, Wallace & Gromit became the theme tune for BBC One's Christmas idents for 2008 to promote the showing of A Matter of Loaf and Death.[12][13] These idents led Russell T. Davies to request similar idents for Doctor Who the following year.[14]

Reception

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The programme was watched by the most viewers of any programme on Christmas Day 2008 in the United Kingdom and secured the largest Christmas Day audience in five years. It was also the most-watched programme in the United Kingdom in 2008,[15] with a peak average audience of 14.4 million.[16] The programme had a share of 53.3%, peaking with 58.1% and 15.88 million at the end of the programme.[17]

The repeat showing on New Year's Day 2009 managed 7.2 million, beating ITV's Emmerdale in the ratings.[citation needed] The short was shown on British television for the third time on Good Friday 2009, pulling in 3.4 million viewers. In BARB's official ratings published on 8 January 2009, it showed that A Matter of Loaf and Death had 16.15 million, making it the highest-rated programme of 2008, and the highest-rated non-sporting event in the United Kingdom since 2004, when an episode of Coronation Street garnered 16.3 million.

Linehan gave a positive review, feeling the film was "not quite as ambitious as the full-featured Curse of the Were-Rabbit but it's more than enough".[18] Writing for The Guardian, Euan Ferguson described the film as "a bubbling, punning, clockwork piece of magnificence".[19] Laurence Perry applauded the film.[20] A positive review came from USA Today, which gave the film four stars.[21]

One reviewer noted the death and themes presented in the film, feeling "there's a definite, if slight, shift in Loaf And Death towards showing Park's dark side: like the best family films, when it needs to be scary it's not afraid to be, providing some heart stopping thrills amongst the comedy."[22] A. O. Scott of The New York Times called the film a half-hour tour de force return for Wallace & Gromit and said that the film stands out among all ten Oscar-nominated short films of the year 2009.[23] Giovanni Fazio of The Japan Times praised A Matter of Loaf and Death as a brilliant continuation of the franchise.[24]

Awards

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Won
Nominated

References

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  1. ↑ "Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. 1 July 2026. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  2. ↑ "Wallace And Gromit Return". empireonline.com. 3 October 2007. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  3. ↑ "Wallace and Gromit to Return in the Trouble at Mill". 3 October 2007.
  4. 1 2 3 "Wallace and Gromit return to TV". BBC News. 2 October 2007. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 3 October 2007.
  5. ↑ "The latest Wallace And Gromit outing comes to BBC One this Christmas" (Press release).
  6. 1 2 Nigel Farndale (18 December 2008). "Wallace and Gromit: one man and his dog". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 20 December 2008. Retrieved 18 December 2008.
  7. 1 2 "Latest Gromit misses out on Oscar". BBC News. 17 November 2008. Archived from the original on 29 December 2008. Retrieved 17 November 2008.
  8. 1 2 This is South Wales (24 December 2008). "Nick Park says no to Skywalker". This is South Wales. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
  9. ↑ "Wallace And Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf & Death - Program Summary". ABC Television. Archived from the original on 6 December 2008.
  10. ↑ "BBC - Press Office - Network TV Programme Information BBC ONE Weeks 52/53". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  11. ↑ "Wallace & Gromit pirated on YouTube". International Business Times. 19 December 2008. Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2008.
  12. ↑ Sweney, Mark (12 December 2008). "Wallace and Gromit star in BBC One Christmas idents". The Guardian.
  13. ↑ "BBC One".
  14. ↑ Davies, Russell T. (2010). The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter. BBC Books. p. 542: Oh, and I'll tell you what's bugging me: those BBC One Christmas idents, with Wallace and Gromit in the bloody snow. Yes, lovely, etc. But why isn't that Doctor Who? Why isn't it David and a TARDIS, spinning about? I want that next year. I want the ident! I'm going to start a campaign.
  15. ↑ Robinson, James (26 December 2008). "Wallace and Gromit lead BBC to Christmas ratings victory". London: Guardian.co.uk. Archived from the original on 6 January 2009. Retrieved 26 December 2008.
  16. ↑ "Wallace and Gromit top TV ratings". BBC News. 26 December 2008. Archived from the original on 26 December 2008. Retrieved 26 December 2008.
  17. ↑ Wilkes, Neil (26 December 2008). "'Wallace & Gromit' leads Xmas Day ratings". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 30 December 2008. Retrieved 26 December 2008.
  18. ↑ "Wallace & Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf and Death review". Den of Geek. 4 December 2008. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  19. ↑ Ferguson, Euan (28 December 2008). "Hail these Plasticine scene stealers". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 May 2026.
  20. ↑ Parry, Laurence "The Chained Wolf" (26 December 2008). "Film review: Wallace & Gromit in A Matter of Loaf and Death". Flayrah. Retrieved 14 December 2025.
  21. 1 2 "Film Winners in 2009". BAFTA. Archived from the original on 11 February 2009. Retrieved 8 February 2009.
  22. ↑ https://animatedviews.com/2008/wallace-gromit-a-matter-of-loaf-and-death/ Retrieved December 14, 2025.
  23. ↑ Scott, A. O. Scott (19 February 2010). "Short in Time, Long on Wit and Daring". The New York Times.
  24. ↑ Fazio, Giovanni (10 July 2009). "Wallace & Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death'/Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". The Japan Times.
  25. ↑ "36th Annual Annie Nominations and Awards Recipients". The Annie Awards. Archived from the original on 15 August 2010. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  26. ↑ "The 82nd Academy Awards (2009) Nominees and Winners". The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 7 March 2010. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
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