Thoughts on this Wallace and Gromit VHS Box Set

     This is a Wallace and Gromit VHS box set from 1996, and I'd like to talk about it.

    Picked this up at Half Price Books a while back, it caught my eye while I was rummaging around in the "feature films" section where they put everything that isn't a major blockbuster, kid's movie or television show, sitting with all the other VHS tapes. Had to go take a look at the big blue, red and green whatever sitting on the shelf and I was immediately charmed. This is the exact kind of thing I'd have asked for if I'd seen it when it was new, when I was new, I'd have absolutely watched these tapes until they didn't work anymore, run ragged by so many plays and rewinds that they'd have turned partway to dust.
    So I paid ten bucks for some nearly thirty-year-old tapes, not even entirely sure my old DVD/VHS combo unit would even play them properly, since I'd gotten rid of all my other tapes under the now false assumption that the VHS player part didn't work properly.

It's the DVD part that doesn't work properly.

So I got these home, looked over the sleeves, and daringly popped A Grand Day Out into my VHS player, figuring I'd just spent a little money on an appealing bit of shelf decor, but after an extended period of automatic tracking adjustment... there it was, like there'd never been anything wrong. Played like a dream, in its crusty standard definition on my big TV, heathen that I am playing things like this on a 1080p flatscreen.
Spent the next hour and a half enjoying all three included shorts, maybe a little more with all the rewinding time in-between, but it was fun, and it was different.

I'm not a big nostalgia man, rarely do I get a moment of some nebulous before-time when everything was better, and VHS certainly isn't better, so it's not like I had some memories flooding back of having to rewind a tape when I was done with it, but it was different to a DVD or internet experience. I won't talk it up like it's a purer thing, but in some ways it do be, it's just you and the movie. 

You pop it in, you watch the movie, you rewind the movie for the next time you can pop it in. These tapes don't even have ads for other movies at the start, no "Coming Soon on Disney Home Video" bit or anything like that, it's just the movie after two title logos and off you go, there's the movie, it just cuts to black once it's over and eventually to static. 

Still not trying to talk it up, but it's a little bit special. Before I get any more weird about it, let's look at the front of each case individually.

Here's A Grand Day Out, originally released in 1989 and nominated for an Academy Award in 1991, this north american VHS release is from 1995. 

Easily my favorite case of the three, the moonscape continues around to either side of the case and it features this really good image of Wallace and Gromit together, the same art is used for either side of the box. 

I love it because neither of them look comfortable, Wallace looks like he's forcing a weak smile and Gromit is defensively crossing his arms.

I was especially tickled that this is the case art, entirely because I knew it from this hour-long version of the Building the Rocket theme that I've had on entirely too many times while working on something.

And here's The Wrong Trousers, originally released in 1993, winner of an Academy Award in the same year, this north american VHS release is also from 1995.

This is an extremely strange cover to me, mostly because it doesn't reflect any specific point in the film at all. Wallace is in the Techno-Trousers but they still have their controls at the waist, Gromit is falling over onto a toppling chair, there's no sign of the train tracks or the wardrobe Wallace falls down the stairs in and Feathers McGraw is just put there next to the logo, as if he's a sticker on the front of the box.

The warm colors at least partially match the sides of the case, though as seen above it doesn't use a still from the film, it just uses the slightly uncomfortable photo of them from A Grand Day Out's case instead.

Not a great box, but a wonderful film.

Finally, here's A Close Shave, originally released in 1995, winner of an Academy Award in the same year, this north american VHS release is from 1996.

Despite my complaints about The Wrong Trousers' case art being strange, I like this less. Again it isn't a still from any point in the film, but it also doesn't illustrate what it's about, either, no sheep, no wool, not even Shaun graces the cover of this one, it's just Wallace not looking at the road while Gromit is powerless to cease his unsafe driving in the sidecar. 

It's also poorly lit despite obviously being on one of the sets. And believe me, I know a lot about poor lighting (I'm trying to get better I swear.)

Admittedly this is also my least favorite of the original three shorts. Don't get me wrong, it's excellent, I just don't like it as much, couldn't even tell you why.

Maybe I just don't like Wendolene.

A small audience showed up for the screening, decent enough turnout.

    But here's A Grand Day Out playing on my TV. Looks like crap, don't it? I used to have a pretty big CRT where this TV sits now, it pulls double duty as a television and also my third computer monitor, a setup I couldn't be happier with, but if I had more room around here I absolutely would track down a small CRT for use with my N64 and my VHS player and all that. Projects for the future, certainly.

    So that's this Wallace and Gromit VHS Box Set, an incredibly good deal back in 1996 and plenty of fun now. I'd have absolutely loved this as a wee man, like I absolutely loved the DVD of all these that I did have as a wee man. 

It continues to amaze me that Wallace and Gromit is so enduring, with only four short films, a feature film, a pair of very short miniseries (Cracking Contraptions and World of Invention) and numerous advertisements, there's less Wallace and Gromit content than your average television show but they don't ever seem to wane in popularity, and I'd chalk a lot of that up to being comfortable. You don't expect them to churn out a new movie every two years, but when something does come out, well that's just nice, isn't it?