A Matter of Loaf and Death
Encyclopedia
A Matter of Loaf and Death is an animated television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 short created by Nick Park
Nick Park
Nicholas Wulstan "Nick" Park, CBE is an English filmmaker of stop motion animation best known as the creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep....

, and the fourth of his shorts to star his characters Wallace and Gromit
Wallace and Gromit
Wallace and Gromit are the main characters in a series consisting of four British animated short films and a feature-length film by Nick Park of Aardman Animations...

. It is the first Wallace and Gromit project since the feature film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 British clay-mation animated comedy horror film, the first feature-length Wallace and Gromit film. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Animations, and released by DreamWorksPictures...

in 2005, and the first short since A Close Shave
A Close Shave
A Close Shave is a 1995 British animated film directed by Nick Park at Aardman Animations in Bristol, featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit. It was his third half-hour short featuring the eccentric inventor Wallace and his quiet but intelligent dog Gromit, following 1989's A Grand Day Out,...

in 1995.

A Matter of Loaf and Death is a mock murder mystery, with Wallace and Gromit starting a new bakery
Bakery
A bakery is an establishment which produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cakes, pastries and pies. Some retail bakeries are also cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises.-See also:*Baker*Cake...

 business. Gromit learns that bakers have been mysteriously murdered, and tries to solve the case before Wallace ends up a victim himself. This short introduces a new love interest for Wallace, Piella Bakewell, a bread enthusiast voiced by Sally Lindsay
Sally Lindsay
Sally Lindsay is an English actress best known for playing the role of Shelley Unwin in the long-running ITV1 Soap opera Coronation Street...

 as well as, for the first time, one for Gromit: Piella's dog Fluffles.

Plot

Baker Bob is battered to death with his own rolling pin by an unseen assailant while baking a cake; he is the latest of twelve bakers to be killed. Meanwhile, Wallace (Peter Sallis
Peter Sallis
Peter Sallis, OBE is an English actor and entertainer, well-known for his work on British television. Although he was born and brought up in London, his two most notable roles require him to adopt the accents and mannerisms of a Northerner.Sallis is best known for his role as the main character...

) and Gromit are running a "Dough to Door
Door-to-door
Door-to-door is a sales technique in which a salesperson walks from the door of one house to the door of another trying to sell a product or service to the general public. A variant of this involves cold calling first, when another sales representative attempts to gain agreement that a salesperson...

" delivery service from their bakery "Top Bun". On one such delivery, the duo save Piella
Paella
Paella is a Valencian rice dish that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century near lake Albufera, a lagoon in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain. Many non-Spaniards view paella as Spain's national dish, but most Spaniards consider it to be a regional Valencian dish...

 Bakewell
Bakewell tart
The Bakewell Tart, not to be confused with the Bakewell Pudding, is a shortcrust pastry with a layer of jam and a sponge filling with almonds. The Bakewell Pudding on the other hand is a flaky pastry, with a layer of jam and an egg and almond filling. The tart then can be covered with a layer of...

 (Sally Lindsay
Sally Lindsay
Sally Lindsay is an English actress best known for playing the role of Shelley Unwin in the long-running ITV1 Soap opera Coronation Street...

), a former pin-up girl mascot for the "Bake-O-Lite" bread company, and her dog Fluffles, when the brakes on her bike appear to fail. They drive alongside so Wallace can attempt to use pastries to stop, but they careen into a zoo which is looking for a missing penguin, and barely escape being eaten by a crocodile
Crocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...

. Gromit tests the bicycle brakes and becomes suspicious on learning that they work, but Wallace becomes smitten with Piella.

A whirlwind romance ensues, during which it is also shown that the nervous Fluffles is treated rather shabbily by Piella. Fluffles and Gromit also share a sensitive moment after she timidly returns Gromit's possessions, which have been discarded by Piella, after she gives Wallace's house a "woman's touch". However, when she leaves her purse at the house, Wallace insists that Gromit return it. Upon arriving at Piella's affluent mansion, Gromit discovers several dressmaker
Dressmaker
A dressmaker is a person who makes custom clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Also called a mantua-maker or a modiste.-Notable dressmakers:*Cristobal Balenciaga*Charles Frederick Worth...

's dummies in her bedroom, each wearing a baker's hat and apron. In a book, Gromit discovers photographs of Piella with the murdered bakers. To his horror, Gromit discovers Piella is the "Cereal Killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

" as he discovers a picture with Wallace as her apparent intended thirteenth victim, thus completing a "baker's dozen." Despite Piella's lavish lifestyle, Fluffles has to sleep in an old cardboard box, covered with a tattered rag, implying years of mistreatment.

Despite Wallace being oblivious, Gromit attempts to thwart Piella by installing an airport-style metal detector in their home. After tricking Wallace into thinking that Gromit bit her, Piella almost succeeds at pushing Wallace to his death whilst a chained up Gromit can only watch, but she is thwarted by being struck by a bag of flour from Wallace's dough-mixing contraption. After an angry outburst against bakers, she leaves but returns a short time later to apologise with a large cake. Wallace says that it will do nicely for four o'clock tea. When Piella is leaving to attend to the absent Fluffles (who is "not well"), she tells him he will be getting a surprise. A worried Gromit follows her home only to be caught and imprisoned with Fluffles in a storeroom. Escaping in Piella's old Bake-O-Lite hot air balloon
Hot air balloon
The hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology. It is in a class of aircraft known as balloon aircraft. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first untethered manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air...

, they arrive at Wallace's house as he is lighting the candle.

After a struggle, the cake falls to the floor and the bomb inside is revealed. While attempting to dispose of the bomb, Wallace and Gromit are attacked by Piella, who detests bakers and their creations for ruining her figure and her career as the Bake-O-Lite girl after her obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...

 from consuming too much bread and cakes meant she could not ride her balloon anymore, and therefore was sacked by Bake-O-Lite. While attempting to finish off Wallace, a battle ensues between Piella and Fluffles in a yellow forklift truck
Forklift truck
A forklift is a powered industrial truck used to lift and transport materials. The modern forklift was developed in the 1920s by various companies including the transmission manufacturing company Clark and the hoist company Yale & Towne Manufacturing...

 covered by giant oven mitts.

In the chaos, the bomb ends up in the back of Wallace's trousers. Gromit and Fluffles neutralise the explosion using a large amount of dough while Piella uses the distraction to leap onto her balloon and escape. However, owing to her weight, the balloon crashes into the crocodile pit at the zoo where she is eaten alive. The balloon floats away with Piella's ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

 (her former thin self) waving goodbye to Wallace on her way to heaven. Distraught by the violent death of her owner, Fluffles leaves, with both Wallace and Gromit depressed over their losses. Deciding to take their minds off things, they head out to deliver bread and find Fluffles standing in the driveway, uncertain as to what to do or where to go. She joins them in the van and the three drive off into the sunset.

Production and release

Filming for A Matter of Loaf and Death began in January 2008, and had the fastest production period for a Wallace and Gromit short. This 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. Commenting on the fact that the short will 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." Regardless, Park changed the title from Trouble at' Mill as he thought it was too obscure a Northern England colloquialism
Northern English
Northern English is a group of dialects of the English language. It includes the North East England dialects, which are similar in some respects to Scots....

. As well as a final title that references A Matter of Life and Death, the film also references Aliens
Aliens (film)
Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, William Hope, and Bill Paxton...

, Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...

, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second film in the Indiana Jones franchise and prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark . After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone...

, Batman
Batman (1966 film)
Batman, often promoted as Batman: The Movie, is a 1966 film based on the Batman television series, and the first full-length theatrical adaptation of the DC Comics character of the same name. Released by 20th Century Fox, the film starred Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin. The film was...

, and Ghost
Ghost (film)
Ghost is a 1990 romantic drama film starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. It was written by Bruce Joel Rubin and directed by Jerry Zucker.-Plot:...

.

Nick Park said in an interview with the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...

, "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, Curse of the Were-Rabbit, where they kept on receiving calls to change critical things.

Park cast Sally Lindsay after hearing her on the Radcliffe and Maconie Show
Radcliffe and Maconie Show
Radcliffe & Maconie is a weekday radio programme that is broadcast on BBC 6 Music in the United Kingdom. It runs from 1 pm–4 pm on Monday to Friday afternoon, and is presented by Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie...

on BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

 whilst driving from Preston. Although unfamiliar with her role as Shelly Unwin in Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...

, 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".

The short had its world première in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's ABC1
ABC1
ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on...

 on 3 December 2008 and was repeated again the following day on ABC2
ABC2
ABC2 is a national public television channel in Australia. Launched on 7 March 2005, it is the responsibility of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television division, and is available nationally to digital television viewers in Australia...

.In the UK it aired on Christmas Day at 20:30 on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

, although it had been readily available on The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...

 since 3 December 2008. In late December 2008, Aardman Animations revealed they had "no idea" of how clips were leaked onto YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

 ahead of its screening in the United Kingdom.
In France, A Matter of Loaf and Death (Sacré pétrin in French) was shown - dubbed into French - on Christmas Eve 2008 on M6. A German version entitled Auf Leben und Brot was broadcast on the SuperRTL network.

In a similar style to A Close Shave, Wallace and Gromit became the theme for BBC One's Christmas presentation for 2008 to promote the showing of A Matter of Loaf and Death.

Won

  • 2009 - BAFTA Award - Best Short Animation
  • 2009 - Annie Award
    Annie Award
    The Annie Awards have been presented by the Los Angeles, California branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972...

     - Best Animated Short Subject
    Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject
    The Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject is an Annie Award given annually to the best animated short film, except in 1999 and 2002. It was introduced in 1995...


Nominated

  • 2010 - Academy Award - Best Animated Short Film

Reception

The programme was watched by the most viewers of any programme on Christmas Day, 2008 in the UK and secured the largest Christmas Day audience in five years. It was also the most-watched UK programme in 2008, with a peak average audience of 14.4 million.
The programme had a share of 53.3 percent, peaking with 58.1 percent and 15.88 million at the end of the programme.The repeat showing on New Year's Day even managed 7.2 million, beating ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

's Emmerdale
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...

 in the ratings. The short was shown on British Television for the third time on Good Friday 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 UK since 2004 when an episode of Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...

 garnered 16.3 million.

A positive review came from USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

, which gave the film four stars.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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