Cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his dog Gromit run out of cheese. As "everyone knows the moon is made of cheese", they build a rocket and travel to the Moon in it. They encounter a coin-operated robot. Wallace inserts a coin, but nothing happens. After he and Gromit leave, the robot comes to life and gathers the dirty plates left at the picnic spot. The robot discovers a skiing magazine and yearns to travel to Earth. It repairs a broken piece of landscape, issues a parking ticket for the rocket, and is annoyed by an oil leak from the craft. The robot sneaks up on Wallace and prepares to strike him, but the money Wallace inserted runs out, and it freezes just before it hits him. Wallace takes the robot's nightstick as a souvenir, inserts another coin, and prepares to leave with Gromit. Returning to life, the robot follows Wallace and Gromit having realised their rocket can take it to Earth. Wallace panics, thinking the robot is after him for taking the moon cheese and he and Gromit retreat into the rocket. Unable to climb the ladder, the robot cuts into the fuselage with a can opener and accidentally ignites some fuel. The explosion throws it off the rocket and Wallace and Gromit lift off. Dejected, the robot fashions discarded rocket fuselage into skis and skis across the lunar landscape. It waves goodbye to Wallace and Gromit as they return home.
Cast
Peter Sallis as Wallace
Production
Nick Park started creating the film in 1982, as a graduation project for the National Film and Television School. In 1985, Aardman Animations took him on before he finished the piece, allowing him to work on it part-time while still being funded by the school. To make the film, Park wrote to William Harbutt's company, requesting a long ton of Plasticine. The block he received had ten colours, one of which was called "stone"; this was used for Gromit. Park wanted to voice Gromit, but he realised the voice he had in mind — that of Peter Hawkins — would have been difficult to animate. For Wallace, Park offered Peter Sallis £50 to voice the character, and his acceptance greatly surprised the young animator. Park wanted Wallace to have a Lancastrian accent like his own, but Sallis could only do a Yorkshire voice. Inspired by how Sallis drew out the word "cheese", Park chose to give Wallace large cheeks. When Park called Sallis six years later to explain he had completed his film, Sallis swore in surprise. Gromit was named after grommets, because Park's brother, an electrician, often mentioned them, and Nick Park liked the sound of the word. Wallace was originally a postman named Jerry, but Park felt the name did not match well with Gromit. Park saw an overweight Labrador retriever named Wallace, who belonged to an old woman boarding a bus in Preston. Park commented it was a "funny name, a very northern name to give a dog". According to the book The World of Wallace and Gromit, original plans were that the film would be forty minutes long, including a sequence where Wallace and Gromit would discover a fast food restaurant on the Moon. Regarding the original plot, Park said:
Home media
The short film was released on VHS in the 1990s by BBC Video. It was also released on DVD multiple times, as part of the Wallace and Gromit in 3 Amazing Adventures series of DVDs. In the United States, it was released on DVD in 2009 by Lionsgate VOD and HiT Entertainment. In the United Kingdom, it was released on DVD in the 2000s.
Release
The short premiered on 4 November 1989 at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol, UK, and premiered in the United States on 18 May 1990. It was also shown on Channel 4 on 24 December 1990 in the UK.
Reception
Awards and nominations
In 1991, the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, but it lost to the short Creature Comforts, which was also a creation of Nick Park.
