A Grand Day Out is a 1989 British stop-motion animated short film directed, animated and co-written by Nick Park. Produced at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield and Aardman Animations in Bristol, it is the first installment in the Wallace & Gromit series. The film centres on eccentric yet good-natured inventor Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis) and his mute but intelligent pet dog, Gromit, who decide to build a home-made rocket ship and make a trip to the moon in search of cheese.
Park started creating A Grand Day Out in 1982 as a graduation project for the National Film & Television School. In 1985, Aardman took him on before he finished the piece, allowing him to work on it part-time while still being funded by the school. Park wrote to Sallis asking him to voice Wallace. He initially sought for Gromit to have a voice, but ultimately decided to keep the character mute. Julian Nott scored the film.
A Grand Day Out debuted on 4 November 1989, at an animation festival at the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol. It was first broadcast on Christmas Eve 1990 on Channel 4.The film received critical acclaim and was a Best Animated Short Film nominee for the 63rd Academy Awards. Its success spawned a franchise and was followed by 1993's The Wrong Trousers, 1995's A Close Shave, 2005's The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, 2008's A Matter of Loaf and Death, and 2024's Vengeance Most Fowl.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
No comments yet — be the first.
Sign in — Sign in to leave a comment or review.