Director: Merlin Crossingham
Distributed by: Lions Gate
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Release Date: March 13, 2012
Running Time: 174 minutes
Series: 2 out of 5 stars
Extras: 2 out of 5 stars
I was very disappointed when I started watching this “Wallace & Gromit” release especially since it doesn’t really feature much of the duo. Instead it is a science-based show hosted by them, only introduced and closing segments. Though the show is light on the science aspect as well. It only really features brief rather useless clips that discuss a variety of scientific facts and gizmos. While Wallace introduces each of the inventors from around the world, he also reveals a few of his own creations. I wish it was a lot more of that and a lot less of the cheesy science clips.
The Wallace and Gromit animated sections looks great even though only 
presented in 1080i. Since the series uses a lot of stock and archive footage there is a lot of graininess in those segments and they don’t look great on Blu-ray. The audio track uses an DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and works well but doesn’t blow you out of the water. I do not think that there is a rush for BBC One to create a second season of this show, one was plenty.
There is only one extra on this release but it is not completely worthless. There are six “World of Invention Shorts” presented in HD and running almost 40 minutes. They are a consisted of fun do-it-yourself construction experiments. Kids might need some help from their parents but overall they are pretty cool. The six segments are: Atmosphere Railway, Wind-Powered Sprinkler, Fin Ray Grabber, Air Rocket, Spy Camera and Upside-Down-O-Scope.
