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(About Our Ads) DVD REVIEW FOR "WALLACE & GROMIT: THE FIRST THREE ADVENTURES" (1999) (Wallace & Gromit) (Not Rated) Length Screen Format(s) Languages Subtitles Sound Sides 24 minutes 30 minutes 30 minutes Full Frame English English Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 1 Children’s: The disc contains three animated short films about the amiable inventor Wallace and his faithful canine, Gromit. The first, "A Grand Day Out," features their trip to the moon in search of cheese. In "The Wrong Trousers," a scheming penguin usurps Gromit’s place and plans to use Wallace’s techno-trousers for a daring diamond robbery. Finally, in "A Close Shave," the two must deal with the efforts of a villainous canine sheepnapper. (Parental review not available). VIDEO: (A) Beyond some film artifacts (scratches and other "blips") apparent in the oldest of the short films, as well as some slight pixelation occurring in all three, the films’ transfer to video is very good. Featuring a very sharp picture and plenty of vivid color, the image quality is great. AUDIO: (A) Presented in the old Dolby Surround sound (instead of the newer Dolby Digital), the films’ audio tracks might not deliver anything that would be considered sonically spectacular, but what’s there sounds good. With a copious amount of sound effects (some of which are spatially active -- crossing across speakers) and a fun score, the audio tracks clearly accentuate the proceedings in a fun and lively fashion. EXTRAS: Scene selection/Jump to any scene. Four of animator Nick Parks’ early films or tests including "Rat and the Beanstalk," "Walter Goes Fishing," "Dog Test" (for Gromit) and "Grand Day Out Test" (for the film of the same name). Excerpts from "Inside the Wrong Trousers" (a documentary about that title that doesn’t appear in full here). BBC Christmas interstitials (many short clips from the various films). COMMENTS: Familiar to many kids and their parents due to the repetitive viewing of them, the short films of Oscar winning stop motion animator Nick Parks are a delight for kids of all ages. This collection of Parks’ latest three films is a must-have for fans of the lovable Wallace and Gromit characters as the films are often far more entertaining and better made than their live-action, full length Hollywood brethren. Parks first came into notice with his 1990 short about zoo animals, "Creature Comforts," for which he won a Best Animated Short Film Oscar. His follow-up, 1992’s "A Grand Day Out," received a nomination, while his next two films, 1993’s "The Wrong Trousers," and 1995’s "A Close Shave" each brought home the golden statuettes once more. Simply put, the three films -- about the varied "adventures" of an amiable inventor and his non-speaking dog -- are a blast to watch. That’s not only due to the impressive animated efforts -- stop motion being a quite tedious undertaking having to move and pose each character one frame at a time with 24 frames appearing in each second -- but also the well-written and engaging stories. Regarding the animation, Parks not only creates believable -- although purposefully not realistic -- worlds, but his characters express so much emotion that you soon forget that they’re really just inanimate objects. Most impressive is the characters’ facial expressions for conveying their thoughts and emotions. That’s particularly true with Gromit -- a dog with no mouth -- who conveys everything though his eyes, eyebrows or body positioning. It’s akin to what a human mime creates and the effect is outstanding. The same holds true for the stories. While they’re certainly nothing complex, they’re a great deal of fun, mixing ample amounts of humor, suspense and action. At times, and particularly so with the later films on this disc, they also elicit a certain "Hitchcockian" aura -- through the plot, direction/lighting and familiar, but still original score -- that only adds to their overall level of grand entertainment. We highly recommend this set for anyone with children or a love for good, old-fashioned storytelling. As far as the DVD itself, the picture is quite good, as is the sound (despite arriving only in the old Dolby Surround Sound). The supplemental materials consist of some fun original animated shorts by Parks, some tests for the first film on this disc and a collection of brief clips from the films. The only complaint is that the entire documentary "Inside the Wrong Trousers" is not shown in full (we only see clips from it). Even so, the overall disc certainly won’t disappoint fans of these films. Buy "Wallace & Gromit: The First Three Adventures" on DVD Today!