The lack of people around the town actually appealed to me as a kid. Being naturally shy and socially awkward, the lack of activity and people is comforting in a weird way. I especially remember the scene where Gromit was in the cafe. When I was little, I assumed no one was there and Gromit just walked in, and I was thinking how cool would it be to have a cafe all to yourself.
@@jacoboc2244 lol haha, totally forgot I even posted a comment here. Just to clarify, I was mainly talking about my kid self being shy and awkward. But now as an adult, I do enjoy going out and socializing. Soo all is good xD
Disney’s “Pinocchio” is another pretty good example of it. We get the occasional glimpse of the other villagers and the throng of kids visiting Pleasure Island, but aside from them, most of the movie’s scenes take place in empty streets, deserted countryside roads, or in a spot where the locals are all off-screen (like in Stromboli’s puppet show). It definitely adds to the film’s rather dreamy atmosphere.
@@sketchalater4656 What geoffrey and you said is a rather good external explanation. Not every story has to be crowded with millions of people. Sure, there's "Curse of the Were-Rabbit", but that's to give internal validation on there being a living society.
I was scared of a grand day out just because of the outdated models they had back then. Wallace just looked weirder. The scene where he's drawing blueprints for the rocket was always uneasy. Just the quietness and the dark basement. The scariest part of that short was when the robot was trying to break into the rocket to get off the moon. All that being said, none of the shorts that came after that one frightened me too much.
You're absolutely right about the robot breaking into the rocket being scary. It always frightened me how he just starts tearing shit up left and right in a panic.
I know what you mean. Only as I've gotten older, do I feel more sympathetic towards the Robot. I mean he had every right to be raging at first cos Wallace recklessly litters his planet ( although that magazine did get him fantasing about Skiing ) & even leaks rocket fuel onto it so it's fairly understandable as he reaches for the Trudgeon in his draw. At first.
This may seem pretty obvious, but I think the biggest redeeming factor of these movies is the slightly absent, but still very meaningful relationship between Wallace and Gromit. The scariest and most gut wrenching point in all of the shorts I think was when a defeated Gromit left Wallace in The Wrong Trousers.
Creepiness is always more effective in non-horror because you don't expect it. Whenever you watch anything horror, you know it's trying to scare you and the scenery just screams "spooky", but when something innocent has a bizarre moment of surrealism or uncanniness, it's like seeing a giant spider staring at you in the corner of your eye, that you never expected to see on a summer's day.
The spider never scared me really but if you watch Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban back to back youll notice the complete change of mood due to the change in directors and I think thats what made the werewolf so scary as a kid to me. Its almost like a grotesque climax to the end of a movie where the whole time youre going “where did all the cheeriness of hogwarts go”
@@kevinmaurer3562 I actually ran out of the cinema when I was a little kid in the early 2000s when Voldemort shows up at the end of the first one. Me the whole movie: 🐶 Voldemort's back head: 😭
If a non-horror work tries too hard it can also have an adverse effect bc the audience knows that nothing _too_ scary will happen, but the juxtaposition is still pretty damn effective.
I always had that weird, unnerving feeling from Wallace and gromit too. It's the dark fuzziness and warm yet slightly washed out colour pallette. The "where is everyone", liminal vibe like the duo existed in a vacuum. I think half the point of were-rabbit was to address those things, showing more of the world and making it feel more alive. I've still always adored them, from the moment I first saw them and I think for me its slightly uncomfortable feeling is part of the charm.
I never really talked about use of colour but that's a good point too. Very drab. And I see what you mean with Were-Rabbit but I'm pretty sure they scarred another generation with the transformation sequence.
I Never Really Paid attention to the blankness of the city that wallace and gromit live in. I Always Found the short films very amusing (how the robot on the moon needs to have a coin inserted to hit wallace on the head). I honestly don’t think your crazy when you describe your feelings about the series. When i was younger only the curse of the were rabbit would either make me scared or feel sorry for one of the characters (especially wallace at the end)
@@dennigalla They did. I went over to tend to some younger cub scouts at a camp. One was a 9 yo who had ADHD, who was generally annoying, but for some reason, he always screamed whenever I said the words "rabbit", "bunny", or "Wallace and Grommit". When me and the older kids asked him why, he said it was because of something called the Were-Rabbit. We didn't know what it was, but one of us looked it up later, and we burst out laughing discovering it was a Wallace and Grommit cartoon. We spent half of that camp trying to show him the transformation sequence and getting him to get over his fear. Probably a waste of our time 😅
I really love the original shorts because they’re so goddamn creepy. The lighting always looks like it’s straight from a horror movie and I remember being particularly spooked by the penguin as a kid. I think it’s because he’s got those soulless beady little eyes that contain no human emotion. Also Preston the robot dog is just a full on Terminator-style nightmare.
During the last scene of 'A grand day out' the rocket can be seen flying back to Earth, but what always bothered me is that there are little to no city lights shining on the dark side of the planet, which makes it seem as if Earth isn't populated.
@@dennigalla I see what you mean, but earlier in the film when the Robot looks at the planet through the telescope, it’s clearly visible that it in fact is Earth with Europe, Africa and a part of Asia clearly visible
I feel the opposite way. I always thought these two had such charismatic personalities and timeless rustic designs. Watching this show feels like visiting my grandmother’s house, if that makes sense.
I've watched quite a bit of their stuff and it never bothered me either, and I was the kid who could barely get halfway through luigi's mansion cause it was to scary. It's fascinating how certain things make people feel certain ways, like, I've heard one guy feels sick when they watch claymation, perhaps due to them watching that while ill as a child.
"Wallace may just be a lovable old guy who only wants to make inventions, eat cheese and crackers, and hang out with his dog... but he's also hideous."
Theory: Wallace used to work in a factory and had a degree in engineering he lost his job as a result of Margaret Thatcher's policies he tries selling small inventions to the slowing depopulating town. As the years go by the town is nearly abandoned and only a few businesses have survived and now he is a depressed inventor trying to replicate the town in his mind he once loved and knew so he moved out to a more populated town (wear rabbit)
Worse version: Wallace lost his mind long ago, and Gromit is just a normal dog that Wallace projects his schizophrenic delusions onto. And the cheese is an allegory for heroin.
:O Almost as if, completely on purpose! Which just goes to show you that there's actually nothing to this guy's theory whatsoever. In fact it actually counters the argument brilliantly by showing how much humanity/expression is captured in Aardman's work.
@@every2464 That's not what this video is saying at all.... Like I'm not sure to what extent I personally agree with this video or not, but "Aardman characters lack expression" is categorically not what's being argued here
“A Matter of Loaf and Death” is probably one of the most terrifying ones. This focuses on actual murder, death and conspiracy…on a franchise where our main characters go to the moon for cheese.
"This focuses on actual murder, death and conspiracy" This right here impressed me when I watched that short recently. A short, meant primarily for young audiences (right?), delves into things and concepts like actual, premeditated murder and death. Oh, and don't forget romance and love too. What with Wallace, despite being somewhat autistic and eccentric, falling in love in "A Close Shave" and even his canine friend, Gromit, getting a love interest of his own in the form of the poodle Fluffles, in "A matter of Loaf and Death"! Speaking of Fluffles, physical abuse. Another heavy theme that isn't shown on-screen but most certainly implied in that short! All of them, themes and concepts usually meant for more adult audiences! Can't wait for the new short coming on Netflix in 2024! Hope they keep Fluffles around though!
Fr all those kids tv shows and films that were light hearted but had one or two scary scenes just became a whole lot scarier, I vividly remember being scared out of my socks In the scene where the trousers are in the wrapping paper and they surprise gromit, because I wasn’t expecting it, if you put it into the context of an actual horror movie it seems less scary
That's how I feel about Hunter The Cheetah in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage. It's innocent, but those bulging eyes and wide mouth are so unsettling. Several years ago, I had a dream that I was being chased by it on an empty highway and all the humans had disappeared. Kind of like Nextbots In Backrooms. I also had a dream in 2003 at the age of 7 where I was chased by a frozen image of Tommy Pickles in a school parking lot.
I was always creeped out by the many silent scenes in A Grand Day Out, and as for the other shorts, the whole plot was just disturbing without being deliberately scary. If you watch all of the shorts and think about the events that occurred for even a second, you realise that they hold many similarities to the genre of psychological horror. A homicidal robot on the moon, a killer robot dog, unpredictable robot trousers, a crazy mass murderer girlfriend and a narcissistic penguin. They're all horrific and "off" but are meant to be funny. Unpredictability sets me on edge without fail. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit comforted me with more characters but the Rabbit itself was absolute nightmare fuel to look at, rendering the human characters futile. Most of this never occurred to me as a child, but some did. Great video!
I was so terrified of the were rabbit as a kid, to the point I couldn't even get to the point when it appears. Just the way they suggested it was too much for me
Honestly the "theres no people around" thing is something you can get used to if you watch low budget media because hiring extras or animating background characters is a lot of work for little benefit, so people either use to make it seem like people are in the background or situations which wouldn't have people in the background or just have the background empty, which is the only real option for small claymation projects
Even the movie, which did have extras, only had about 30 of them. I don't think anyone really complained, especially since the writers and animators did a lot to give the townspeople distinct characteristics and personalities.
I have realized this as a kid for watching movies. the lower the budget the less people in the background the higher the budget the more people in the background. but there cases even if some movies have a low budget they would still be lazy to add any people in the background.
I always felt that creepy vibe, but i loved it for that. Honestly i felt sympathetic towards the robot in a grand day out, all he wanted was to get back to earth and ski. What terrified the shit out of me was the penguin.
I LOVE Wallace & Gromit, I've seen the short films probably 10 times each, and yet somehow I've never noticed the lack of people! I think it's a credit to how engrossing their stories and characters are (I'm adamant the penguin is one of the best villains in any media) but it's very creepy now I think about it.
I was never overly scared of Wallace and Gromit, mostly because Wallace was so bumptious and affable, and Gromit so level headed and serious, which always grounded the duo as the central focus enough for me not to be overly concerned with the smaller details gnawing at my subconscious. But what did eventually break me from this was the Techno-Trousers movie. When Gromit is going for a walk with the trousers, he goes to a park. It immediately struck me how fuckin' weird it was for there to a park with no one at all there. Then I noticed the town, which previously I'd managed to subconsciously rationalise as simply being the wrong time of day. But it was that otherwise emptiness that became the thing I could no longer unsee. Where were the security guards in the museum Feathers McGraw steals the jewel from? Where are the people in the town when Gromit ran away from home? Where were the police in the station? Where were the zoo employees or the patrons? Where were the kids and parents in the park?
@Khaled Shanshal I feel the same, man. I watched them all when I was a kid but going back to them when I was older and able to properly appreciate all the work and vision it takes to put them together really put it in a new perspective. To this day I think The Wrong Trousers model train chase scene is a top 10 movie setpiece of all time. Thanks for watching, mate.
nothing is more disconcerting than the shot of Wallace walking down the basement stairs in a grand day out. Incredible video putting voice to a perspective many of us have had to live with in our nightmares for years. 🙏
One of the things that always spooked me about the shorts were the mid 20th century look of the machines and inventions, yes half of them for mundane, whimsical purposes but the earthy colour palletes, mechanical arms, pistons etc. make them feel like WW2 machines that can kill you in the wrong hands. The techno trousers are hacked and controlled to abduct Wallace and the knitting machine's design is re-used to skin sheep for meat processing. Not to mention Preston and The Oven are two robots that go rogue, makes me wonder what a robot uprising would look like in this universe.
You’re so right actually! The funny thing is my parents watched these and so did I when I was a child and I usually really loved them, even chicken run. But parts of the show creeped me out (like the machines, same for chicken run) and I was terrified of the were rabbit movie as well
The film coming in 2024 is supposed to be about an out of control AI gnome that Wallace built (or something along those lines), so you might just get your wish. Will it have the quietly menacing quality that the penguin and Preston had though? That's why those villains work so well, they don't speak and that's what makes them so interesting. After A Close Shave, Aardman and Nick Park seem to be more focus on faster paced story. I'd love to see a return to form with the slow moving narrative, that's W&G to me. Don't give the gnome a voice, just eyes that light up and it'll be creepy for all the right reasons.
Another thing as well is the food that they eat too! It always made me feel really weird, especially when they go to the moon and literally eat the moon. Also, in 'A Grand Day Out' there a fair few scenes without music which is unintentionally unsettling. My last thought would be that, in all the shorts I feel like we're meant to sympathise with Gromit, who has to put up with literally everything. It's really disquieting watching Wallace be completely oblivious to their own actions and easily manipulated. I think the intention was for it to be funny but actually it just comes across as this fear and realisation that usually those that have power cannot see the consequences of their actions & there's little we can do to change that. It's actually a feeling of hopelessness and sadness, watching Gromit endlessly clean up after Wallace and never truly being seen. ALSO: the penguin having literally no facial expression at all haunts me still.
There's definitely a purgatorial vibe to it, yeah. Gromit has no mouth, but wants to scream sometimes when Wallace is inches from death. Speaking of music, the upbeat yet muffled music that Feathers McGraw plays when he takes over Gromit's room always, always freaked me out. The distant hum of voices.
The penguin was supposed to be emotionless and unsettling. The music in the show is always 40's and 50's traditional English music you'd dance to in a "dance hall".
> always made me feel really weird, especially when they go to the moon and literally eat the moon. That's literally a play on the gag that the moon is made out of cheese, there's nothing weird about it.
I always felt a deep, strong uneasiness and loneliness in "The Wrong Trousers" when Gromit is reading the newspaper in that empty Cafe; I think your video explained perfectly why that is.
It might’ve been intentional on the creatives’ part. The scene is meant to be unnerving since Gromit is secretly following a suspected criminal and trying to keep a low profile. Filling the scene with background characters would’ve kinda lessened the suspense.
Another kind of creepy but sad thought, the robot on the moon in A Grand Day Out (canonically known as “The Cooker” because it resembles an oven) would shortly run out of coin power after the end, meaning it would be just an inert machine sitting on the moon with skis
My grandparents showed me these shorts when I was a kid, and my first question was if the robot would run out of time soon and become inert again. My grandfather said, "Best not to worry about it."
it appears to be sentient or at least intelligent. Creepy to think it goes in and out of living, with small moments of life between longer moments of nonlife? Sleeping? Death?
@@Big-Chungus21 You run out of coin power. Everything goes dark. Then you wake up again. You don't know how long it's been. Maybe an hour. Maybe hundreds of thousands of years. You have little time before your coin power runs out again, and no idea whether you will ever wake up again once it does run out.
2:58 Actually I noticed this too. When I was watching, I was wondering why do we don't see very much people. Honeslty Wallace, especially in the wrong trousers, seems like the only human in this world. They correct this problem later with having more extras, but as with the original shorts, the town seems like a wastleland with no living soul in sight.
@@dennigalla I mean, there's a practical reason for that- that they didn't have thebudget to create and animate more characters. In claymation, it can be very, very hard to have too many things moving at once, and Aardman in their earlier works have very focused shots with one or two things moving. I also think the stories themselves are so self contained to Wallace and Gromit that making more characters unnecesarily wouldn't have been worth it. That being said, I do think this is to the show's credit- the very charming, cozy, personal feeling is one side of that coin, and the strangely quiet, mysterious, empty feel is the other side. I have loved Wallace and Gromit formany years, and I do think it's a great example of limitations on a work of art working to its credit.
"the town seems like a wastleland with no living soul in sight." That's the north of England for you, mate. Thatcher really did a number on this country.
I have this recurring nightmare -- I've had it ever since I was a kid, maybe around 5 or 6 -- it's just wallace and gromit driving around in their little car in this town with no people, no one except me. And they kidnap me. It is TERRIFYING. And I've never been able to articulate why it was so terrifying until I saw this. Wow.
Say what you like, it's still incredibly genius and inspiring that the first two short films were done with only one voice actor and still got two Oscar awards. Praise to Nick Park!
@@averagejoe8358 im more of the OG before they went digitalised in all fairness. Ive not really watched much of the digital things as it didnt captivate me as much.
I've always been terrified of Wallace and Gromit. When I was little my parents made me watch it, and while my brother was amused and relaxed, I was on constant alert. You managed to explain and finally make me rationalize why I felt this way.
I loved the show when I was little I remember getting home and asking for my daily cheese and crackers while watching Wallace and Gromit! Def seems more scary now that I’ve seen this video but I just remember always wanting cheese and crackers bc of this show 😂
3:02 I remember noticing this as a kid, always found the town kinda empty and quiet. A Grand Day Out was creepy due to atmosphere and Wrong Trousers had such emptyness. The movie and the latter two shorts never had that vibe as the world is a lot more populated
wow...i can't say i ever had any negative associations with wallace and gromit growing up, but this video has definitely convinced me to see it from your perspective. love your voiceover as well, very expressive. please make more videos - you've earned a sub and i'm eagerly awaiting more from you!!
Cheers very much, I'm fully planning to make more videos soon. I was worried my voiceover sounded a little robotic since it's my first attempt, so it's nice to hear that you liked it.
I never had a feeling of loneliness when it came to Wallice and Gromit. It was actually sort of comforting, I don't know why but something about there only being two main characters and hardly seeing any others had me kind of relaxed, like I was in my element. I was a very lonely child, friends weren't easy to make and my mother restricted where I could go for a long time leaving me confined to the house most of the time. In that sense I suppose the lack of other people in the shorts never really bothered me because being alone although not something I nessisarily enjoy is something I am very much used to and have grown accustomed to. The only negative emotion that I have gotten from Wallace and Gromit if any is the feeling of sadness in a grand day out. The oven on the moon was and still is a character that makes me shed a tear for and it being for a few reasons. One reason being the fact that I could relate with him, he was all alone. But really the thing that made me the most upset was that when we see him Skiing over the hills of the moon at the end I always had a feeling of dread and sadness that he would shut down again. As we see in the film the oven is only operational for so long until he just suddenly stops working because of his built in clock. Each penny that is put into him only kept him on for so long and as A kid the idea of him suddenly stopping again upset me as the oven wasn't evil and it was clear it had dreams and ambitions like a human so the sad idea of him enjoying what little time he had before suddenly shutting down again even has me feeling a little sad now. I always tried to make myself feel better and head cannoned the idea that maybe the penny got stuck and messed with his clock so he wouldn't turn off again so he could keep enjoying himself on the moon. If that were true I would feel a lot better in that case but something always told me that he stopped shortly after Wallace and Gromit left.
That moment when the spaceship handles come off in the robot's hands and it realises it is being left behind on the moon is, to me, the most gut-wrenching moment in cinema. It just wanted to be happy!!! 😭
I never liked Wallace and grommet as a kid and I never realised why, like they creeped me out, but I always put it down to the art style. I wasn't really an easily scared kid I read scary books and watched some of the more kid friendly scary movies like gremlins, so I never understood why I was creeped out by wallace and grommet. This makes so much sense to me though! It kinda makes me want to rewatch them actually and see if I feel the same still.
I don’t think it would work because you’d already know it’s meant to be scary where as with the uncanny feeling Dennis talks about can only be felt when you don’t expect it or when the stuff you’re watching isn’t meant to be scary
I completely understand this. You laid out pretty well how i've always felt; the eyes and the lack of people are a huge part of it. I'd also add the lighting is also sort of terrifying.
I never noticed it before, I can say though that the dog endo skeleton was extremely frightening. Not just its looks, but also how it was introduced to the viewer. I only vaguely remember, but I think it was that lady telling them that the dog wasn't a real dog and that it must have a malfuction or something and then it drops into that machine and I believe gets canned, but then that scene you showed with the robot hand just shooting out. It's pretty scary in my opinion.
I was terrified of Wallace and Gromit the first time I watched it as a child, although I've never looked at it from your point of view before. Cool video and a great insight :)
Thanks a bunch, man. It was fun trying to logically lay out what scared me about it, because especially as a kid it's hard to explain where the fear really comes from.
I used to be TERRIFIED of the Aardman intro where the half of the face drops into the frame. I never really was scared of the show itself although I do remember being creeped out at the bit where the wrong trousers were jumping around and running, probably so scary because it was sped up.
I have religiously watched RU-vid for 10 plus years and have probably seen millions of videos over the years but I can definitively say this is my favourite RU-vid video ever. I love your editing, the music you choose, the clips, your arguments. This is simply incredible. THANK YOU!
I never had this reaction when watching Wallace and Gromit, but in looking back I can see how and why others could have felt that way. I actually found the silence more comforting if anything. I always saw it as being peacefull, with nothing else to distract or stress over, except the story of "today's wacky hijinks." It was really cool to see such a different opinion on these stories.
This comes to show just how subjective art is. I was also an easily scared kid, I couldn't even watch TV around Halloween season because I was genuinely terrified of the commercials. I also remember being creeped out by some CGI, like in this short film by Blue Sky Studios called "Bunny" (it played after the Ice Age credits in the VHS). However, I remember this warm feeling watching Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, it even inspired me to attempt claymation at home. Never picked up on the liminal space thing until now and I kind of see where you're coming from but I just don't feel it (except on A Grand Day Out, that one does look kinda creepy lol).
I think the main reason why the Wallace and Gromit episodes and most stop-motion animated projects lack background characters is mainly due to budget related reason. Plus, it would be a right faff for the production team to build all those extra characters.
Just watched this 3 times it was that good! It’s so rare that I find a video that confirms exactly the way I feel about something - I think I realised in the back of my mind that it was the lack of people that made me so unsettled by Wallace and Gromit growing up, but I was never able to put my finger on it until I saw your video! I just thought YES when you gave your punchline of ‘where is everyone’! Every analogy was spot on, especially the one about being in a city on New Years Day - I went for a drive around the financial area of London this New Years Day and got exactly the same feeling. I’m fascinated by liminal spaces too. Something else that affected me especially in A Grand Day Out was how sad and distant it felt - just this lonely, slightly angry, uncanny robot on its own thousands of miles away…so unsettling! I haven’t watched any Wallace and Gromit for at least 5 years as I know just how spooked it will make me for a while after - no one ever seems to understand why I find it so creepy though! I’ll just show them your video… Brilliant editing, commentary, and music too so well done!
Thanks for the lovely comment, man. It took me a long time to really put how I felt into words but I'm glad I did because the video clearly resonates with people. Cheers.
Glad I'm not the only one who found wallace and gromit really scary when I was a kid. Now that I think about it probably was just all the uncanny stuff that freaked me out. I used to have nightmares where their eyes blankly staring at me where very prevalent. I love watching the animations now though. Thanks for the video.
The biggest thing with claymation, and especially the W/G shorts that lend themselves to being scary, is the lighting. *Real* (and often very harsh, bright, shadowy) lighting on "fake" characters that move lends a very uncanny noir feeling that enhances whatever is on screen. Look at the behind the scenes of A Close Shave and you'll see some of the rigs they set up with the main and backlight plus scene lights and it starts to make more sense.
oml you're right. The only 2 scenes across all their films that gave me bad dreams was 1. Wallace walking down the basement steps in A Grand Day Out and 2. when Gromit spies on the penguin in The Wrong Trousers, especially the shots of Gromit hiding behind that wall with only light casted on his fixed, almost soulless eyes and ears fully extended upwards. the lighting in both scenes was always so disturbing and I never noticed it as a child
The fear your describing in the second fear is called kenopsia, which is the fear that stuff like the backrooms is based on. Also why source games feel weird.
@@faithpearlgenied-a5517 "which is also why source games feel weird" implying everyone feels this way, he should have used "which is why I feel that source games feel weird" Learn English
I always loved Wallace and Gromit growing up, staying at my nan's place and watching "A grand day out" on VHS was one of the best things to do as a kid. The only thing that ever scared me was the opening to Wear-Rabbit and any scene that had to do with Bake-O-Light girl. This video just made me relive those memories, and although I don't find them as scary now as an adult, there is some sort of uncanny feeling when showing them in a different light like this video.
I actually grew up in a household where my granddad absolutely adores wallace and gromit, so i've never felt fear towards the show at all. We used to watch these movies all the time whenever they played them on the BBC, and we still do if we get the chance. It's really interesting to see other peoples thoughts on the franchise since a lot of people didn't have that sort of upbringing, but i an 100% understand why and how people feel this way. It's very interesting indeed!
There was always that vibe that everything was very much held together by string and duct-tape. All those crazy machines and contraptions so whimsically composed in a light element juxtaposed by some quite dark colour pallets at times always created quite a stark and unsettling contrast, especially in the final act of A Close Shave. The jaunty camera-quality of the 80s/90s in the first two never helped either.
I LOVED W&G when I was really young. Then aged 3 or 4 it suddenly freaked me out. Until about aged 9, if I saw a picture of them I’d have nightmares that night. Claymation can just be really creepy. I think it’s often used to create grotesque characters (that Babylon short) but there’s a bit like opposite of uncanny valley, because your brain knows they’re something real. The porridge hitting Wallace’s face was what changed everything for me and freaked me out for some weird reason. Also the frame rate has always been creepy to me. Lends itself to jerky movements and a feeling of panic or lack of control as the audience.
No same!!! I remember loving them when i was really little, then once so watched them again when i was maybe 8 or 9 and I couldn't ever again. Keep in mind that as a small child I thought that animated people were real and just looked different than people people. So maybe because I knew it was fake, it made it much scarier? Idk.
I got this same feeling from Mario 64 as a tiny child. The noise of trying to open a locked door followed by Bowser's laugh terrified me - it felt like I was being caught trying to go somewhere I wasn't supposed to. Also, you don't think about it much, but you DIE in games a lot. Mario 64 made me scared of that sudden loss of life, not just as a punishment for missing a jump, but that Mario would cease after simply stepping on lava, quicksand or water. Liminal spaces? Mario 64 is full of them. I had dreams where there would be a door I never had seen before in the castle, only to find another endless staircase with Bowser laughing all throughout it.
It also doesn't help that the castle has really weird architecture to begin with. There's no furniture, no windows to look out of, every room just has portraits, the Toads fade out of existence when you're far enough away, the whole building seems to be non euclidean, and it just doesn't look like a place you could actually live in. I mean, there isn't even a throne room for the princess to sit inside, let alone a bedroom for her to sleep in. Even Super Mario RPG had those two rooms.
I think part of the uneasiness of it is also because the game's story is literally you being alone. It's not just a "feeling", that's literally how it starts, Mario and his brothers are locked up in dark rooms, and Peach is God-knows-where. With that being said I'm glad I wasn't the only one who had dreams based on the game lol.
I generally find older games are better at horror than modern games. The lack of NPCs and emptiness of the worlds give it a very lonely feeling. And the early 3D models give off a more scary look.
It's crazy to me that for some 20-23 years of my life, this show has somehow lingered as an unsettling terrifying memory. I always remembered the show as extremely scary to me. I even just tried to watch the first episode again and couldn't help but feel the uneasiness from my past well up despite knowing there's really nothing horrifying about it. If it was any other cartoon with the same plot I probably would have never felt that way. But yeah this show is just unsettling to me.
So glad to see that someone else felt the same lingering dread as I always have watching W&G, theres just something slightly wrong and it haunted me as a kid. Earned yourself another sub!
Thanks for subbing, hope there's something else on my channel you can enjoy too. I'm glad I finally managed to put it in terms other people can understand.
@@adamfleetwood3980 Cheers Adam, it means a lot. I'm glad to hear that because sometimes I worry that the like randomly changing subjects of my videos will mean people just watch the one video relevant to them and then leave, so I'm very glad you stuck around to check them all out. Cheers, more coming soon!
@@dennigalla ive had a lot of fun with your content so far! You should check out a game called The Forest, I really enjoy your vibe and would like to see some content on that, just a suggestion =)
Hello from Southern California! I don’t see Wallace and Gromit as terrifying. I think they are too funny, especially Gromit who is a dog but has a personality of saving the day for Wallace. Or when he rolls his eyes or shakes his head. Gromit is the smart one in that duo. I think the people who created Wallace and Gromit did just make it about them, focus on them because they are the main two characters, it’s not about the other people (if there were any). Plus, I’m sure if they had more claymation characters, can you imagine how much time and effort it would take for each short video they create. Hours and hours in one day just to get each movement just right. Wallace is out there with his ideas and loves cheese too much, not always good for the system! Lol… But I could see Gromit with his own series on t.v., or even continuous short videos on RU-vid. Claymation can be awesome in a different setting. Not all claymation is scary. My brother did a stop and go claymation short video for just about 50 seconds about an Eskimo fishing in a pond, accidentally slipping on the ice, smoothing out his little fur hooded coat, it took him a few hours just for those 50 seconds! That’s just crazy and it definitely teaches you patients. It was so good and funny and my brother was only 10 at the time. That was in the early 80s. He got an A+ for his project and an award ribbon. It’s funny how some people aren’t really afraid to watch scary movies but freak out with even a funny cartoon or characters made of clay. I would say, Wallace and Gromit don’t frighten me but why did the creators of W&G, make Wallace look that way? Lol. No one has a head like that! I’m sure it’s just for character and exaggeration with his features…. btw, I absolutely love how Scottish people sound. I really can’t say, love a Scottish accent because we all have an accent or dialect. My moms best friend was from Edinburgh but her and her family moved to Southern California and they were our neighbors. Her three boys were absolute terrors, loud, noisy, bratty and talked back to their parents. I always wanted to visit Scotland. Someday. 😁❤️
im so glad you made this video, i’ve always found this cartoon weirdly creepy and my family always laugh at me when i say i don’t want to watch it. as a child i turned on the tv to see the man (either wallace or gromit i dont know) stomping around his house in those robotic trousers and it creeped me out so much, i had dreams about it for days even though the actual concept of it isn’t ‘scary’, there was just something about it that seemed really uncanny and uneasy. you have put it into words perfectly why i got the uneasy feeling, maybe i will show this to my family and they will take my fears seriously 😂
Wasn't there a weird live action Wallace and Gromit short that was put on tv? Wallace may already look a bit odd, but this short goes strait into uncanny valley. As for the official stuff, I've definitely questioned where everyone else is. In The Wrong Troulsers, there's a bit where we hear Wallace bump into somebody and say "sorry," and I just wondered who it was. It never really disturbed me, but I definitely felt off. That's not even mentioning Feathers McGraw, Preston the cyber dog and how the main villain in A Matter of Loaf and Death is quite literally a psychopath. Like, it's goofy and fun, but there's definitely a side of me that feels slightly unnerved
I always loved how otherworldly it felt as a kid. Compared to other run of the mill kids TV shows Wallace and Gromit was entirely unique. It always felt like stepping into some kind of bizarro dimension where nothing but everything made sense.
When I was little, I had a DVD which contained all the Wallace and Gromit films. I loved watching those films all the time. And would rewatch them over and over. But in the far corner of the back of my mind, little me found them unnerving at times to watch, especially with the thought that these towns are completely desolate and the claymation just adds a sort of uncanniness. But even then, I would still watch them. Revisiting these films give me a huge amount of nostalgia and joy, but there’s always that lingering feel in that back of my mind.
You're an incredible writer pal, got your point across so clearly with great imagery. I agree with your point about the emptiness of the town and how were-rabbit having so many people made it lack a certain charm. Anyways this gives me an excuse to rewatch all the shorts and be scared shitless now :)
Maybe it's because I grew up in a small rural town, but it never bothered me that the streets were empty. They're empty where I live all the time. It's very common to walk down the street and not meet any person or see any cars for quite a while. Also, many outdoor scenes took place in the morning, so I just assumed everyone was still at home, having breakfast or whatever.
I used to live near a Welsh industrial estate and I FULLY get your sentiment here about the uncomfortable history of this thatcher stricken area of the country that feels hauntingly abandoned. It should feel welcoming, there's a history here that implied that it was but it's no longer there. Kind of reminds me of Rhyl or Blackpool in that they were popular resort/beaches that were left to decay as the abroad holiday rose in popularity. Great video!
Cheers. I've got family in Northern England so I've been around there a whole lot and that heritage is definitely still present. Wallace and Gromit doesn't exactly go into the socio-political, but little background details sort of cause you to fill in the blanks like this.
Please stop saying "Thatcher-stricken", those towns were on the brink of collapse and were decaying anyway, there was no money there and the country was in crippling debt from WW2.
As someone who lives Norf’, it’s definitely a strange vibe that we _still_ encounter literally everywhere as well. Working class towns have a contrast between fairly busy populations and downright apocalyptic-looking areas. The factories are very creepy at night. I’d best describe the atmosphere as “cheerful depression” 😂💀
wow! I watched them as a kid. Sure I found them creepy in parts and I guess I never understood why but this makes a lot of sense. I just never consciously thought about it at all before. Crazy. I do remember being scared some. But they were always one of my favorites to watch. Shaun the Sheep is way less creepy in this aspect. In fact I was never creeped out by it and always laugh a lot when watching it.
You nailed exactly what I felt about it watching as a kid, but I didn't necessarily think they were scary. I was very introverted and shy as a kid and I loved the feeling of those empty spaces and I felt comfort when I saw it in W&G. Perhaps other children were the same way and maybe that was a small part of the appeal as well?
I always felt this way when watching Wallace and gromit always felt like there was something very unsettling, like they were inside an empty void a somewhat of an experiment being watched and followed from the shadows and they were completely unaware of it, to them everything was normal and perfect.
I love Wallace and Gromit, but I’ve always felt that something was off in the 4 original episodes - not in a bad way, just unnerving. I think you’ve just uncovered what’s been bothering me for so long. The haunting stare of Wallace’s eyeballs, the uncanny animation and expressions, the empty and soulless town… Especially “A Grand Day Out”, that one is particularly scary for some reason to me (Probably because as the earliest episode it was less smooth and had less movement and life in general)
i wouldve never thought anyone found wallace and gromit scary! i LOVED it as a kid, still do. i can see how, i mean, claymation has that eeriness to it. but i dont know how, i was a scaredy cat as a kid, but i loved it!
Same! Except for the penguin (I think), the oven in chicken run and the were rabbit movie I can’t remember being scared while watching, and I was scared very easily as a child
Is there a way of knowing for sure? Judging by the mature aardman productions, I'd say that's exactly what they did. As professionals, they had to estimate the kind of impression a given scene was going to cause.
i absolutely loved wallace and gromit as a child but a part of me was always terrified of it. Like you said, I was never scared of the water rabbit film or even a matter of loaf and death, it was just the earlier ones like close shave, wrong trousers and a grand day out. i could never really put a finger on why but man they were so scary, still didn’t stop me watching them all the time though
So glad I found this video. I adore Wallace and Gromit as an adult, but as a child I was terrified, especially of characters like preston and feathers. They have an intensely quiet concentrated menace. The commentary on liminal spacing and eye movement for stop motion animation is spot on. I think as well there's not just sadness but deep melancholy in the shorts, plus the later films; wallace and gromit are brimming with beautiful ideas but are inherently lonely, almost shunned by others. Its definitely creepy. Maybe its that middle ground of a quintessentially british setting coupled with that loneliness (both very relateable) that makes it so creepy.
As an Aussie I always found a lot of UK children's drama creepy. It was like visiting your granny's house. Everything was darker, grey. The landscapes always looked bleak and cloudy, with grimy urban decay everywhere, and everyone sounded mean.
You're quite right and this is a problem a lot of children's programming has, actually. At least in Wallace and Gromit they tend to acknowledge that other people exist, even if you can't see them. In other programmes the characters don't acknowledge other people at all, and it's downright disturbing. Pingu used to terrify me because he lived in a vast icy wasteland. In The Clangers, this feeling is also there, but Firmin and Postgate were clever and acknowledged the weirdness in the opening, and had people visit the Clangers every episode.
Children’s programming is nightmarish precisely because adults have lost the ability to communicate honestly with their children. So there is always this feeling that the show is hiding something. The positivity is piled on to absurd amounts. It becomes a parody of the real world. This is way Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared becomes cathartic because it combines the absurd positivity with the actual beliefs of the adults who create it. Let me say it another way: Modern people are nihilists but they want to shield their children from that horrible nihilism so they go overboard attempting to present the world to children as something they don’t believe it is so it all rings very false and sensitive children see through it and it disturbs them. Children’s programming is insane.
Pingu had friends he played with, he was a penguin, not some hispter living in a city. He had more social interactions than the millions of londoners do in their daily 2-3 hour commutes.
@@amjoshuaf Over analysation. There were plenty of kids shows that weren't like this, and Wallace and Gromit is hardly overboard or cathartic. It's literally budget and time constraints. Things get more complex the more money and time that is pumped into it.
@@loolfactorie yeah, I’ve since watched a Wallace and Gromit short and I’ll agree it’s not exactly what I was pointing out. I was referring more to stuff like Sesame Street or Mr Rogers. Although I still believe Wallace and Gromit is unhinged, it just expresses its dysfunction in a different way.
@@amjoshuaf The main writers, or at least Nick Park were from Yorkshire, and were going for a "last of the summer wine" appeal. It's humour was old timey and it was meant to be pleasant and simplistic. There are some interviews about it.
i always had a wierd feeling in the back of my mind when i watched these as a kid... i alsways wondered why i would get creeped out by a childs film, but nlw i know what it is. thanks Dennis!
I felt this way about The Snowman....it always freaked me out, especially the theme song. Wallace & Gromit was always spooky, especially "a grand day out", that basement was freeeeeaky, and the way the robot on the moon chases them? Nah, that's terrifying stuff
Thank god I found this video. For the last 5 years ever since I first saw Wallace and Gromit I have been wondering, am I the only one that finds this shit scary and creepy. The whole experience just puts me on edge, makes me feel uncomfortable and creeps me the hell out. There is always something off with every scene and I just can't seem to shake the creepy feelings I get from this. Even to this day re watching it those feelings are still there, which makes it even more creepy to me as usually when I watch a horror movie the effect has normally rubbed of the second time I watch it, but not with this.
I came across this video on my recommended page and watched it out of curiosity more than anything. I also remember watching Wallace and Gromit as a child and though I was an easily frightened child who was also scared of things most people would laugh at, I wasn't that frightened of Wallace and Gromit at all. However, listening to what you were saying about the appearance of the clay characters and also the emptiness of the town that the characters live in, it definitely enlightened me to a new perspective that would have otherwise gone straight over my head as a kid. So, to answer your dilemma, I don't think you've been losing your mind at all. It is because of your very interesting analysis that I'll probably never watch an episode of Wallace and Gromit the same way ever again.
I've always loved Wallace and Gromit! I literally would make my parents make me crackers and cheese to eat as a snack as I watched it lol. I never noticed that the town seems empty, but I totally see that now! I definitely think they just lacked the budget to add extra characters but they finally had that for the Curse of the Wererabbit. Very interesting video!
actually the liminal aspect of wallace and gromit is something that makes me love it even more, it's never really creeped me out, if anything i want to live in wallace and gromit's world
yeah the 1st 3 eps they have all this space for there selfs. some of us want space to breathe. I'm active but even I wanted some space and there world seem to be a nice place to kick it for a few hours or longer and come back home when ready. because being in your own room or just sitting at the backyard is just isn't enough.
Always used to wonder why there were no people in the streets of the Wallace & Gromit films. Even as an 11 year old I just assumed it was the budget constraints. Since visiting England and seeing how bustling even the country towns can be, I can see why this would be unsettling to the viewer.
I thought I was the only one until I stumbled upon this video. Absolutely adore them but they used to scare me so much when I was younger but couldn’t put a finger on why. I think you’ve really captured it. Never noticed the liminal aspect before but that combined with the uncanny valley-ness of Wallace definitely unsettles
This is probably one of the strongest first videos by any RU-vidr I have ever seen. Short, hilarious and makes it's point very very well. Definitely indicitive of the rest of the channel content.
YES! When you said ‘where is everyone?’ You nailed the uneasiness that the show caused me as a child, the eerie sense of loneliness particularly in a close shave and the wrong trousers, a lot of people said the movie was the scariest but to me it was the most comforting because you could see that there was actual other people living in the town unlike the shorts in which seemingly no one lives there
I can’t describe the catharsis of hearing someone else acknowledge how terrifying that tellytubbies lion was! I used to run out of the room when that guy came on