A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008)
★★★ — A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008)
That opening murder-by-baguette tells you everything you need to know about where A Matter of Loaf and Death sits in the Wallace and Gromit canon. It's dark, it's daft, it's beautifully timed, and it made me grin from ear to ear. And then, pleasantly enough, the next thirty minutes or so kept that grin more or less in place. The trouble is, it never really pushed beyond that. Three stars, and I mean that warmly, but I mean it honestly too.
Nick Park and the Aardman team are operating at their usual level of craft here, and that level remains genuinely extraordinary. Every frame of this is a small miracle of handmade detail: the texture of a freshly baked crust, the weave of Gromit's knitting, the way a single raised eyebrow from that long-suffering dog communicates more emotional intelligence than most human performances manage in a full feature. Stop-motion animation this tactile, this alive, this clearly made with love deserves to be appreciated on its own terms. I never take it for granted.
The plot drops Wallace and Gromit into the bread delivery business, where a string of bakers are turning up dead and a suspiciously enthusiastic woman named Piella Bakewell has waltzed into Wallace's life and his affections. There's a murderer on the loose, there are baked goods everywhere, and poor Gromit is doing his level best to hold the whole thing together while his oblivious owner falls head over heels. It's a solid comic premise, and it gets solid comic mileage.
But here's where I have to be honest. Put this alongside The Wrong Trousers and it simply doesn't compete. That film is a near-perfect miniature thriller, with Feathers McGraw as one of animation's great villains: silent, cold, genuinely menacing. Or take A Close Shave, which had real wit in its genre parody and the emotional weight of Preston the dog giving the story somewhere to go. Piella Bakewell is enjoyable enough, and there's a certain camp pleasure in how the character is drawn, but she doesn't linger. You won't be thinking about her on the way home.
The mystery itself is fairly thin. The stakes feel low, the reveals feel telegraphed, and the whole thing wraps up with a neatness that's more comfortable than satisfying. For a half-hour special, "comfortable" isn't necessarily a crime. Families will have a lovely time. Kids will laugh. Parents will smile. Nobody will leave unhappy. It's just that with Wallace and Gromit, I've been spoiled. I know what they're capable of, and this doesn't push them anywhere new.
There's a version of this review where I shrug and say "it's Wallace and Gromit, of course it's good." And it is good. The gags land consistently, the chemistry between the cheese-obsessed inventor and his brilliant, beleaguered dog is as warm as it's ever been, and any thirty minutes spent in their company is thirty minutes well spent. I'd take this over most of what passes for family entertainment any day of the week.
But I keep coming back to that baguette at the start, and thinking: there was a sharper, stranger film lurking in here somewhere. A film that matched the gleeful darkness of that opening. Instead, it pulled back, played safe, and delivered something dependable and pleasant that was gone almost before it started. Like a good loaf of bread, really. Fine while it lasts. Just don't expect it to rise quite as high as the very best this duo has given us.
Three stars.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2008 | Watched: 2026-03-18
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Nick Park: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) · Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) · A Grand Day Out (1989) · A Close Shave (1995)
More with Peter Sallis: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) · A Grand Day Out (1989) · A Close Shave (1995) · The Wrong Trousers (1993)
More from United Kingdom: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) · Blue (1993)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More family: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Wonder (2017) · Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anastasia (1997)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
