A Matter of Loaf and Death

A Matter of Loaf and Death is a 2008 British stop-motion animated short film produced by Aardman Animations, created by Nick Park, and is the fourth short to star his characters Wallace and Gromit, the first one since A Close Shave in 1995.

A Matter of Loaf and Death is a murder mystery, with Wallace and Gromit starting a new bakery business. With an unknown assailant murdering bakers, Gromit tries to solve the case before Wallace ends up becoming a victim himself. It was the last Wallace and Gromit film before the retirement of Wallace's voice actor Peter Sallis in 2010. The short was also one of the most-watched television specials in the United Kingdom in 2008, and received critical acclaim.

It received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 82nd Academy Awards, losing to Logorama, and won a BAFTA and an Annie Award for Best Short Animation and Best Animated Short Subject respectively in 2009.

Plot
A serial killer has murdered twelve bakers, with Baker Bob being the latest victim. While on a delivery for their bakery business, Wallace and Gromit save Piella Bakewell, a former pin-up girl for the Bake-O-Lite bread company, and her nervous poodle Fluffles when the brakes on her bicycle seemingly fail. Gromit finds that there is no problem with the brakes, but Wallace is too smitten with Piella to notice. He and Piella begin a whirlwind romance, and Gromit is angered when she redecorates their house. Fluffles and Gromit share a sensitive moment when she returns Gromit's possessions, discarded by Piella.

Wallace sends Gromit to return Piella's forgotten purse. At Piella's mansion, Gromit discovers numbered mannequins representing each of the murdered bakers, and a book of photos; Wallace is her planned thirteenth victim, completing a baker's dozen. When he tries to show Wallace the evidence, Wallace is too distracted by his upcoming engagement to Piella to listen.

Gromit installs security measures in their home, including a metal-detecting security screener. After Piella tricks Wallace into thinking that Gromit bit her by biting her own arm, Wallace muzzles Gromit and chains him up. Gromit watches helplessly as Piella prepares to push Wallace to his death, but he is saved when Piella is struck by a bag of flour that sends her tumbling down a flight of stairs. After an angry outburst against bakers, she leaves, but drops by the next day to apologize with a cake. Gromit, suspicious, follows her home, where Piella catches him and throws him into a storeroom where she is keeping Fluffles to stop them from interfering with her plan.

Escaping in Piella's old Bake-O-Lite hot air balloon, Gromit and Fluffles arrive at Wallace's house as he lights the candle. After a struggle, the cake falls, revealing a bomb. Wallace and Gromit are attacked by Piella, who reveals that she detests bakers after her weight gain ended her career as the Bake-O-Lite girl. She is about to kill Wallace, but is attacked by Fluffles with a forklift. In the chaos, the bomb ends up in Wallace's trousers; Gromit and Fluffles neutralize the explosion by filling the trousers with dough while Piella leaps onto her balloon and escapes. However, her weight drags the balloon into a crocodile enclosure in the zoo, where she is promptly devoured.

Dejected, Wallace and Gromit decide to take their mind off their great adventure, especially the battle they had with Piella, with a delivery. Outside, they find Fluffles and she joins them.

Why It's an Extremely Loafley Treat

 * 1) The film has an interesting concept involving a "who-doughnut?" mystery, with Wallace and Gromit starting a new bakery business and Wallace meeting the former actress for the Bake-O-Lite commercials who he soon falls in love with.
 * 2) Like the previous films, the animation is very smooth and solid, and is a massive improvement over the first three shorts.
 * 3) Very solid voice acting from Peter Sallis and Sally Lindsay as Wallace and Piella, respectively.
 * 4) Piella Bakewell is an excellent and well-developed villain, who is revealed to be a former actress for the Bake-o-Lite commercials in her younger years who was sacked for putting on too much weight, thus causing her to develop a murderous hatred towards all bakers.
 * 5) It keeps the charm, wit and cleverness of the first three movies.
 * 6) Most of the jokes are very funny, including:
 * 7) * Wallace accidentally throwing a loaf of bread at an old woman as he's distracted by Piella.
 * 8) * Piella biting herself on the arm and blaming it on Gromit.
 * 9) * "I hate flour, I hate bread and I hate bakers, you utter and complete fruitcake!"
 * 10) * "I think these matches are a bit... (gets soaked in water) damp!"
 * 11) * "GROMIT! I'VE GOT A BOMB IN ME PANTS!"
 * 12) Fluffles is a cute character and a great love interest for Gromit.
 * 13) The scene where Piella lands in the crocodile enclosure at the zoo and gets torn to shreds is actually quite a sad moment, and you can definitely feel pity for Wallace and Fluffles during it, since they're in mourning for the loss of Piella despite the fact that she was a serial killer.
 * 14) It ended Peter Sallis' career on a high note, as this was the last short film to feature Peter Sallis as Wallace before his retirement in 2010 and subsequent death in 2017.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) False advertising: While Wallace and Gromit themselves wear aprons in some advertisements, they don't wear them for the majority of the movie.
 * 2) The movie can be very dark at times, and is arguably even darker than both A Close Shave and Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
 * 3) * Piella's motive of killing thirteen bakers, including Wallace, out of petty revenge is admittedly quite a scary concept for children.

Reception
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death was watched by the most viewers of any programme on Christmas Day, 2008 in the United Kingdom, and secured the largest Christmas Day audience in five years. It was also the most watched programme in the United Kingdom in 2008, with a peak average audience of 14.4 million. The programme had a share of 53.3%, peaking with 58.1% and 15.88 million at the end of the programme.

The repeat showing on New Year's Day managed 7.2 million, beating ITV's Emmerdale in the ratings. The short was shown on British Television for the third time on Good Friday pulling in 3.4 million viewers. In BARB's official ratings published on 8 January 2009, it showed that A Matter of Loaf and Death had 16.15 million, making it the highest rated programme of 2008, and the highest rated non-sporting event in the United Kingdom since 2004, when an episode of Coronation Street garnered 16.3 million.

A positive review came from USA Today, which gave the film four stars.

Won

 * 2009 – BAFTA Award – Best Short Animation
 * 2009 – Annie Award – Best Animated Short Subject

Nominated

 * 2010 – Academy Award – Best Animated Short Film

Trivia

 * In the United Kingdom, it aired on Christmas Day at 20:30 on BBC One, although it had been readily available on The Pirate Bay since 3 December 2008. On 19 December 2008, Aardman Animations revealed they had "no idea" of how clips were leaked onto YouTube, ahead of its screening in the United Kingdom.

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