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 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.

"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."

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.

I was scared of a grand day out just because of the outdated models they had back then.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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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)

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

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. 🙏

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.

4:23 don't know if anyone else has talked about this, but the timing of his words with the clip of gromit is perfectly synced

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 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.

5:28 “the horror that comes from things that aren’t intended to be scary are the strongest” YES I FEEL THE SAME WAY

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!

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

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.

This was fantastic! That penguin's beady little eyes still haunts my nightmares.

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 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.

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 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?

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.

Aside from the scary factor. The obvious 1950's theme of Wallace and Gromit has always weirdly comforted me.

I have religiously watched KZfaq for 10 plus years and have probably seen millions of videos over the years but I can definitively say this is my favourite KZfaq video ever. I love your editing, the music you choose, the clips, your arguments. This is simply incredible. THANK YOU!

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!

It's comforting to know that you might run into Wallace and Gromit in some undiscovered level of the backrooms.

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.

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.

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.

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

It has always given me a sense of existential dread thinking about the amount of time it takes to put a scene together.

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.

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.

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.

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 KZfaq. 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. 😁❤️

Creepiest thing was when my primary school did Wallace and Gromit pasta. Just imagine how terrifying that is for a kid

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!!

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.

Wallace's face alone gave me nightmares as a kid but I still watched them over and over again for some reason.

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.

i really wish that someone makes a horror series with this uncanny vibe

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 :)

"Overlooked by chimney shadows cast long by sunset." Bloody hell, wasn't expecting this to be so poetical

When I was a kid, I developed a strange fear of wallace and gromit seemingly out of nowhere. I’m still not quite sure where it came from, since I watched those shorts incessently as a young kid. It got so bad to the point that my sisters could torment me by literally naming wallace and gromit shorts. Even watching a grand day out as an adult gives me a weird, soulless vibe that shakes me to my core. It’s hard to pin down, but I know what you mean.

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.

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).

For the reason why we never see any other people in Wallace and Gromit in the Wrong Trousers and Close Shave is mostly due to budget and time limitations. Stop motion animation is time consuming so animating a whole of people during those original episodes would take longer to animate and produce. When watching Curse of the were-rabbit there's definitely a big difference from the original show to the movie. With the movie, they have a higher budget and show a lot more with their world. However looking back at the show, they show more with so little. They show more of the environment in a grander scale than the movie did.

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.

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.

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.

Wallace and Gromit is amazing. It may be creepy, but it's still a phenomenal watch.

Totally agree, the whole style of the show has an ever-so-slight grimdark aesthetic that is just a bit uncanny

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.

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!

I never thought Wallace and Gromit wasn’t supposed to be scary. I always thought they made it uncanny and creepy on purpose

1:53 The pie machine was one of the best bits when I was a kid.

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 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 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

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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 😂

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 saw a comment here saying about how cheese was a substitute for cocaine and now I have "we've forgotten the needles gromit!" Stuck in my head.

80% of my nightmares to this day are wallace and gromit idk why

This man is giving a full review of claymation, including Wallace and Gromit, but I'm just here to listen to a genuine thick Scottish accent

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.

Man, you just articulated so much stuff from my childhood, which I didn’t realise I needed to articulate

This is probably one of the strongest first videos by any KZfaqr I have ever seen. Short, hilarious and makes it's point very very well. Definitely indicitive of the rest of the channel content.

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!

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.

2:55 Thank you for this video. The whole time you were talking about the claymation just being scary I was thinking to myself that it never scared me as a kid, and that I always remembered being wierded out wondering where everyone was, why it was so quiet and lonely.

"Okay, I'm actually afraid of *_clay_* "

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 :)

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.

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 LITERALLY SEARCHED for this video. I just saw a picture of Wallace and Gromit recently and I suddenly realized that it was my biggest fear when I used to be a child. According to the view number of the original Wallace and Gromit, I think it's not so popular, but according to the view number of this video, I realized it scares A LOT of children seeing it.

You're not the only one. This show was so terrifying to me as a kid. Especially the video game for the game cube. I couldn't stomach it

Claymation is nightmare fuel. I certainly was traumatized that dream episode of Pingu as a young kid and that was a show geared at the most young. It’s no surprise they stopped airing that one soon after

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

Let's not forget the way the villains are allways completely silent

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.

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've never seen it this way, but great video essay, love how you put it together.

3:03 can you imagine animating all those characters at one time, especially if most people wouldn't even care that the extras are there. This is why the struggle of animating lots of characters is saved for scenes like what we see and the Curse of The Ware Rabbit movie, where we require many towns folk and extras in one spot to drive the plot forward.

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 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!

Man there’s so much to say. I loved how u made this video. Loved how u talked about the people in the penthouse party. I think when I was a kid, my mind filled in the gaps for cartoons that didn’t have background characters, which added to the ambience, not took away from it. But now, whenever I watch any Netflix movie/show, which never has any extras, maybe for budget reasons, it looks so hollow and empty and fake. And it’s so lonely that I can’t watch a lot of Netflix stuff. It reminds me of this thought I had, that if they remade The Exorcist as a Netflix property, it would only contain the mum and daughter, and the two priests. But watch the original, it had thick overflowing crowds for no reason, scenes of a whole community of workers in the desert, just because. I miss when films were made like that

I love this series it’s so iconic. I loved the stop motion vibe it gave off, the story telling was excellent and voice acting was incredible

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.

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 know I totally agree, it was fascinating to see your point of view. I adored the Wallace and Grommit shorts growing up, but there was always a stillness to them. Especially the one where they go to the moon. Its just kinda dystopian yet whimsy. The episode of the trousers was bizarre. And the little penguin theif... just thinking about it and writing about it. All of them do have a creepy feel to them. Claymation can be particularly weird but I do love it.

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.