Wallace and Grommit

[Dom Tuk]

Had to endure 2 hrs of this film the other day. kids birthday so had to go. I can understand children having a good time at this film, but i just dont get it when grown ups are rolling on the floor with laughter. Come on its not that funny !!!. Even my 11 year old chuckled a few times, not at the funny bits in the film but at the reaction of some of the grown ups in the crowd. And its not even double entendre!!

[andy hughes]

I haven't seen the latest, but the whole concept of W & G is its innocence, and there are a lot of complex humourous referencces going on in the background, it's a trademark of nick Park's work, including his ads.

Remember, adults use laughter simply to express pleasure, not just amusement. I remember a friend of mine and I falling about in hysterics at a Django Reinhardt solo on 'Nuage' - which is not remotely amusing, but incredibly pleasureable - and that's probably the reaction you were hearing.

Sorry you didn't like the film, but look on the bright side - it could have been The Michael Barrymore Story!

[Xollob]

I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't enjoy this gem of a film. Obviously there's plenty there for the kids, but as andy points out, there are complex references to other works and genres - too many for most adults to take in first time round. I have seen The Wrong Trousers over a dozen times and still spot nuances I missed in earlier viewings.

Maybe it has to do with growing up as a Thunderbirds fan in 1960s Lancashire, but for me it was worth paying 8 Euros just for the flashing eyes in the pictures on the wall and Wallace reading a copy of Ay-up! magazine. Wonderful stuff. I haven't felt this good coming out of a cinema for a long time.

[joko]

Perhaps you should learn to lighten up an appreciate the humour in all things - not just 'grown-up' stuff.

Enjoy what you want to enjoy, and enjoy it for what it is...not for what the masses have labelled it.

It is very sad that you cannot find your inner child and appreciate top quality animation, and that you feel the need to sneer at others who do. You don't need to 'get it' - it's none of your business. I expect it is they who would be laughing at you, if they'd known you were sitting there harrumphing away instead of joining in with the spirit of things.

You even believe your 11 year old is cynical - I'll bet she/he was laughing because the sight of other people laughing their heads off usually makes others laugh too, and laughing because they felt they were supposed to -because daddy was.

I don't know how old you are but I am sensing a mid life crisis in your future.

Victor Meldrew has nothing on you - bah, humbug!

[Dom Tuk]

I guess i was setting myself up for criticism by posing such a question regarding a film that has so obviously stirred the imagination of the people. I will accept Andys answer as it provides some reasons for the reaction of the grown ups. make no mistake, i appreciate that there are some fantastic technical details in the making of the film, the painstaking filming of each frame of the plasticine figures etc and i agree that the effect of this medium in the final product is much nicer than the computer generated cartoons of today. Of that there is no doubt. I can also agree that children will find laugh out loud moments throughout the film. perhaps i was seated too close to a bunch of grownups who found everything rip roaring. To give an example, the rabbits in the film go ...WHeeeeeee.....many times. The kids love it, but the grownups finding that as a laugh out loud moment...aw come on. To my 11 year old who has been bought up on a steady daily morning diet of disney cartoons and other such childrens entertainment from the TV, it is standard fare, nothing out of the ordinary and nothing which a multitude of other cartoons cannot provide. I guess we will see many more of those otherwise sane adults now carrying rabbit rucksacks to work.

[sunflower68]

I know exactly where you're coming from Dom.  I have a pal who spent the weekend with her hubbie and  kids who are in their late teens enjoying a selection  of Winnie the Pooh movies because they all find them hilarious........Joko et al I will expect you to say how I need to 'lighten up' and appreciate the humour in everything.  Well that's fine but everything isn't funny to everybody and we all  have different senses of humour (mine is a little black at times) but I agree with Dom - what is this with adults finding kids humour side-splitting?!

[joko]

You are right of course, that some adults just like to make a noise and get over enthusiastic - they just want others to see that they are there, they are fun people, and they get the joke - which, if like Dom says, you are seated very close to them, can be irritating and spoil the enjoyment of the film for you, but I would have a problem with noise pollution in that case, not the fact that they were laughing at a kids film, I expect these people do it in every film they see, for attention.

Big booming hollow barking laughs at every other sentence are obvious and  very annoying.

Sunflower68 - I think the problem is not that you don't see whats so funny - as you say peoples senses of humour differ greatly - its that some people begrudge others their right to laugh at whatever they want, and get in an indignant huff  about it. 

If others are enjoying themselves, why do you care? why get irritated by it? just let them get on with it.

I think a lot of the joy from kids shows comes from the opportunity to 'escape' a bit and from nostalgia, a reminder of a more innocent time in your life and a wish that life could be that simple again - if only for an hour and a half!

[sunflower68]

Joko again I think you fail to understand the thread's point.  I don't believe anybody is in an indignant huff about it at all; nobody is annoyed or exasperated, merely curious as to what it is that tickles them so. 

I was only a wee bit concerned last week that I fail to take many things at all seriously and I like it that way tyvm. I gladly extol the values of mirth and merriment in any context whatsoever, the more the merrier (ho ho?).  Am puzzled as I think Dom Tuk is(where are you Dom on this matter) as to where the humour is here, for adults.

[joko]

Dom's original post and follow up sounds very huffy, sneering and indignant to me!

If the question was meant as merely a genuine query, why write it in this manner?

Dom himself admits he was setting himself up for critism, so he was fully aware of the tone of his post.

I too don't understand why adults laugh out loud at kids programmes - they aren't that funny, even for kids! - and it is very annoying if its right down your ear the whole time, but as I said I would be more annoyed at noise pollution than what they were laughing at.

I know many adults who feel the way Dom does, so I know how strong the feeling is and its certainly not just 'polite curiosity'!!

Some even behave like Harry Enfield in his "Oi, Grommit! NOOO" character!

[Dom Tuk]

With some kids television, especially with the presenters on British childrens TV there is a lot for adults to laugh at/with. Its usually the double entrendes and the snide sexual contexts which the children are oblivious to, but the grown ups in the same room will raise an eyebrow to or maybe laugh out loud at the sheer effrontery. I enjoy those bits and look forward to them. However with the film in question i saw none of it. I saw a lot of slapstick, falling down, gadgetry/noise and faces being pulled by the characters. This to me is great for children, the case in point being the rabbits going wheeee!!!. Yes children laugh at it, grown ups maybe do it once, but not every time the rabbits go wheee... It really is not funny. As to the references about your own childhood that tickles the fancy...now that is nice/heartwarming...but funny No.