Wallace & Gromit shorts - 4th times the charm?
 

Looks like yet another edition of the Wallace & Gromit shorts showed up on dvd today.

- I believe the very first one was barebones with just the three shorts (though it had the "happy birthday" song intact).
- The second release had some extras like commentary and a behind-the-scenes (though they lost the happy birthday song due to rights).
- The last release dumped the extras from the 2nd one, but added the Cracking Contraptions shorts, which are pretty cool.

This new one that just came out seems to not only have all the extras from the 2nd release, the CC shorts from the 3rd, but also adds a couple shorts starring the sheep from Wrong Trousers. Oh, and it's only around $10.

This ?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....p=1&id=1763232

For $10 I may finally have to get it.

Yeah, that's the one - it seems to have everything from the bonus shorts to the extras to new stuff never released before. And ignore the specifications that say it's 16x9, the shorts are in their original 4:3.

I can't seem to find it here in Montreal. I went to all the DVD places downtown and they didn't have any nor did they know what the hell i was talking about.

Wonder if there is a Canadian delay like the Hot Fuzz one...

It's a present for my girlfriend, hopefully i can buy it before Christmas!

For $10 I'm going to have to finally pick this up.
Is the happy birthday song intact on the new release?

the commentary tracks! oh happy day!

Shaun the Sheep has his own kid's show in the UK...which has been on the air for at least a year, I think. I wonder if that's what these are? To anyone who picks up this disc, how about an episode count? :D

Seems like just two Shaun the Sheep episodes.

Could some very kind person with this please post a specific list of every extra included on the new release?

I have the 2nd and 3rd releases as well as the Gromit DVD from Wal-Mart, and would love to be able to replace all of these with a single DVD if possible.

Thanks in advance. :)

From what I've read, "Happy Birthday" was added to American prints while the original British version of The Wrong Trousers had "Jolly Good Fellow." Not the other way around.

I got mine for $9.99 at a Future Shop in Ottawa. It's available.

And I got Hot Fuzz last week...from Amazon.com. Cheaper, and two and a half weeks earlier, ho ho!

It's not happy birthday I'm worried about, it's the other songs that tend to get deleted, Doggie in the Window and the University fanfare.

Reinsert those and we'll talk.

as I still only have the BBC disc I bought all those years ago, a combo of 2 and 3 is well worth buying just for the extras YIPPIE!!

Audio commentary on all 3 films by Nick Park & his creative team
The amazing adventures of Wallce & Gromit featurette
Inside the Wrong Trousers featurette
A Close Shave - How it's done
Cracking contraptions
-the Soccamatic
-the Tellyscope
-the Autochef
-the Snoozatron
-the Turbo Dinner
-the Bully Proof Vest
-the 525 Crackervac
-a Christmas Cardomatic
-the Snowmananotron
-Shopper 13
Bonus Shorts - "Shaun The Sheep"
-Bathtime
-Off the Baa
Wallce & Gromit Scrapbook w/ blue prints of the inventions & Photo Gallery

Run Time approx. 190 min
Insert: None
Slipcover : Yes

Sorry for the confusion, DVD Condom = Slipcover, it was a joke that they had over at ultimatedisney.

what?!

^ dvd condom = slipcover, i'm guessing?

More helpfully, I guess, does anyone with a great memory know exactly what, if anything, we're losing between the two releases? It looks like not much at all, but it'd still be nice to know conclusively.

I think the last one had a quick 5-minute behind-the-scenes for Cracking Contraptions that this one doesn't - no big loss, but there it is.

The dvd condom must be for safe insertion into the dvd player.

Sorry for the confusion, DVD Condom = Slipcover, it was a joke that we had over at ultimatedisney.

That and so we don't get STDVDS.

:rimshot:

Well, it looks promising, and I finally dropped $10 on it at WAL-MART, but I'm still not sure it'll replace my 2nd release DVD and the "Were-Rabbit" bonus disc. Depends on whether I like the Shaun episodes more than the "Were-Rabbit" behind-the-scenes stuff from the bonus disc, which as I recall was a touch on the paltry side. Like everyone else, I'm hoping for the original music cues to come back, but fat chance most likely.

I'm back to report that the 2nd release is still the most comprehensive. I had forgotten about the clips of Nick Park's early work that were carried over from the first release, and there's also a text History of Aardman and Biographies that some might find interesting. I haven't the time to do an exhaustive comparison, but aside from a trailer for Robbie the Reindeer, those are the only features lost from the 2nd DVD. From the 3rd, it's missing the "Making of Cracking Contraptions" featurette mentioned previously, but nothing else that I can recall, since I don't have the 3rd DVD anymore.

I wasn't thrilled with the Shaun episodes... they were nice, and very much in the tradition of W&G, but the mute characters reminded me a lot of Pingu, of which I'm not a fan. YMMV, but I prefer the 2nd release. It doesn't have Cracking Contraptions, but they're on the WAL-MART bonus Were-Rabbit DVD.

Regarding the music in "The Wrong Trousers", I still hear For He's A Jolly Good Fellow from the card (but you'll probably hear Happy Birthday if you listen to the commentary track), and the penguin's loud music sounds like generic organ music, but I didn't watch the entire short to see if any original music was restored... I doubt it.

I listened to two of the commentary tracks last night - obviousily 'The Wrong Trousers' is their favourite as they have alot to say. 'A Close Shave' they mostly talk about the music but there seems to be dead air once and a while. Will check out the first short either tonight or later in the week.