From Toon Zone Animation Wiki
A Grand Day Out (longer titles include A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit and Wallace and Gromit - A Grand Day Out) is a 1989 stop motion short written and directed by Nick Park for Aardman Animations. It marks the debut of the characters Wallace and Gromit, and thus is the first entry in the Wallace & Gromit franchise.
Plot Synopis
The film stars Wallace a simple-minded inventor, and Gromit his pet dog. While attempting to decide where to go for vacation, the pair discover that they are out of cheese, their favorite food. Thus they determine to go to a place filled with cheese, eventually deciding on the moon.
Wallace builds a rocket and the pair fly to the moon; while there they make a mess with their picnic supplies and awaken a robot that's job is to keep the moon clean. Upon locating the source of the problem the robot attempts to attack the duo but runs out of fuel before it can complete it's manuver. It is refueled when Wallace gives it a coin (which was the method used to wake it up the first time).
Filling a basket with "cheese" from the moon Wallace and Gromit return to their rocket and blast of despite the robot's efforts to sabotage the machine. The robot is left holding two straps of metal from the rocket, which it happily fashions into skis (as an earlier scene had established that the Robot had a dream of becoming a skier).
Production & Reception
Nick Park began work on the A Grand Day Out whilst studying at the National Film and Television School. It was there that he met Peter Lord and David Sproxton, who recruited him for their studio Aardman, where he completed work on the short.
The film was nominated for the 1990 Oscar for Best Animated Short. It lost to Creature Comforts, another feature by Nick Park. This makes the only one of the current three Wallace & Gromit shorts not to win an Oscar, as both The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave won the award.
