In the real world there is an elite list of British men and women who have gone into space, but in the fictional world at least one man reigns supreme: humble clay-making inventor Wallace, whose first adventure, A Great Day OutIt made its debut at the British Short Film Festival 35 years ago today. As Wallace and his canine companion prepare to return to the crazy world of Gromit Revenge Most ChickensIt’s amazing to see how far the duo has come… and yet despite it all, A Great Day Out This remains the series’ strongest connection to the sci-fi world, stronger than any wacky gadget Wallace has ever invented.

In the three and a half centuries between Big Day Out And Revenge Most ChickensActually very little has changed Wallace and Gromitan idyllic representation of quirky, fascinating British life. For all the hardware Wallace has come up with over the years—from dog-walking robots to home automation, from conversions of bicycle drones to an in-house wool-making business—his technological world is still largely an analog one. Computers exist in some form, but are closer to the style of the giant machine stacks of the 70s and 80s. When someone wants to call someone, they call the landline instead of the mobile phone and the internet is not actually available. Even in the series’ final adventure, the only thing that truly bows to modernity is Wallace’s latest invention. Clever Dwarf NorbotIt still feels like an evolution. Wallace and GromitInstead of trying to keep up with the progress of our world, approaching our increasingly technology-infused lives side by side.

That’s why it still remains utterly hilarious when we see that the first thing Wallace does as an audience member is build an actual working rocket ship in his basement. A Great Day Out arguably the most clearly sci-fi entry inside Wallace and Gromit– the duo builds a spaceship, flies to the moon, and encounters artificial, alien life – but still grounds itself in a layer of absurdist surreality that sets the stage for the fantasy version of Britain both of which the series will go on to build. it resides fascinatingly and transforms itself into an international, cross-cultural exchange of Britishness. We are never asked to question the hows and whys of Wallace and Gromit building a rocket out of wood, scrap metal, and the design documents of a man still working with stick figures. The desire does not arise from the need to discover the unknown or prove some grand scientific dream; Because Wallace sincerely believes that the moon is made of cheese, and going there and building a rocket to get cheese is somehow a much more reasonable response. realizing you’re almost out of Wensleydale instead of heading around the corner to the shops.

And once they get there, not only are they proven correct in their assumptions, but they don’t have to worry about things like atmosphere or artificial gravity, except for a funny joke about Wallace kicking a ball into the air. It’s all in the joyful footsteps of Wallace and Gromit as they descend. There’s really nothing to admire about what you’ve accomplished. A Great Day OutApart from that, they asked for some cheese and got some: HE This is what is important rather than accidental breakthroughs in space exploration. Even when they encounter alien life in the form of coin-operated robots for not cleaning up after themselves, it’s not a huge mystery to solve, beyond initial misunderstandings. Still, the fact that the short culminates in the now sentient-looking robot discovering the joys of skiing from a holiday magazine Wallace left lying around is treated as a matter of fact that can’t help but be incredibly compelling.

Wallace and Gromit has succeeded thanks to this surrealist appeal, not only as a British animation and cultural institution, but also because it has managed to successfully and increasingly distance itself from the dissonance of our modern technological world even as its progressive predecessors continue. to expand on the reality of its titular inventor. In many ways, our world is beyond even the wildest inventions Wallace could come up with. But if his first trip had taken him to the stars and back, where else could he go?

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