Animation: Wallace & Gromit

Making the Rocket

Picnic On the Moon

Walace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out

Walace & Gromit is one of my favorite animation series from childhood. I choose two particular scenes from an episode titled A Grand Day Out. The first scene I analyzed is their picnic on the moon, and the second is when they are building a rocket. I will refer to Walace & Gromit as “W & G.”

The two scenes differ quite a bit when it comes to color. Their picnic on the moon is a much brighter scene, with the color scheme generally sticking to two basic hues of blue and yellow. There are some small accents of red and green, but those are character characteristics. When W & G are building their rocket in a basement, the walls and floors are all black, giving off a completely different tone. Since the hues differ so much between the two scenes, it is only natural that brightness and saturation differ as well. In the picnic scene, the setting is generally bright, with some contrast including the dark blue/black space sky. The hues in the scene are not saturated much at all, the color most prominent being light yellow. When W & G build a rocket, there is not much brightness at all, in turn, making most of the hues in the scene very saturated.

Despite the contrast in color, shadows play a large role in each of the scenes. In both the picnic scene and when W & G build a rocket, shadows are present on everything. W & G always have shadows on themselves and shadows always occur as a result of their physical actions. Symbolism is similar throughout both scenes, considering these are taken from the same episode. Starting off with building a rocket, G is very unpleasant with taking part in the project. G is sad holding up the door to cut wood, upset with hammering nails, has extreme trouble with the drill, and in the end has paint dripped all over him. When W & G arrive on the moon, G sees a ball and his tail starts to wag. However, W loses this ball and G’s tail stops waging. Also, both of the characters do not like the cheese on the moon. The mood in the two scenes differs. Even though G is upset building the rocket, the general feeling in that scene is optimism. Upon arrival on the moon, the feeling of loneliness and sadness set in, creating an opposite mood.