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The one that started it all.

A Grand Day Out is the first short film featuring Wallace & Gromit.

One evening, during a bank holiday, Wallace and his dog Gromit are trying to decide where to go on vacation. They settle down for a nice hot cup of tea and some cheese with crackers, only to realize they've no more cheese. With all of the shops closed for the holiday, what's their solution? Go someplace where there's cheese, of course! And since everyone knows the moon is made of cheese, there's only one thing to do: build a rocket in the basement and fly up there. While on the moon, they have an encounter with a coin-operated robot who's desperate to go skiing.

It was released in 1989. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film, but lost to Aardman's other work, Creature Comforts. General character tropes for Wallace and Gromit should be placed here.

The film would be followed up by The Wrong Trousers in 1993.

A Grand Day Out contains examples of:

• Art Evolution: A rare example in that it occurs during the short itself. The very first scene animated was the sequence in which Wallace plans the rocket then builds it. Wallace only opens his mouth once (when he whistles for Gromit) and it completely lacks any detail, the characters gain tons of thumbprints and Wallace walks down the steps in a very weird way (he keeps his arms in front of him and they don't move at all) - presumably just to keep him balanced. In later scenes (in which Aardman had begun assisting Park), the animation became somewhat smoother and shades of the characters' later designs start to appear. Towards the end of the short and in the credits, a hint of Wallace's famous smile is starting to develop, although nowhere near what it would become.
• Artistic License – Engineering: A rocket with a design like Wallace's wouldn't even be able to get into space, let alone back to Earth, without coming apart.
• Bait-and-Switch: Twice.
  • Wallace does some lengthy sketching on a pad downstairs, but when the camera finally shows his page, we see he's played a game of noughts and crosses with himself before he proceeds to draw the rocket. (As a Freeze-Frame Bonus, looking carefully when he flips the pages over shows the other much more quickly drawn sketches are actual detailed blueprints of the rocket.)
  • While riding to the moon, an alert goes off in the rocket and the music takes note...only to reveal that a piece of toast has just finished cooking in the console.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Neither Wallace nor Gromit have any trouble breathing on the moon. (Then again, is this any more of a problem for scientific accuracy than the whole made-of-cheese thing?)
• Big Ol' Unibrow: Gromit never speaks, so this is the only way you know what he's feeling. It's really incredible, the emotion you can wring out of an artfully-squashed bit of plasticine...
• Bland-Name Product: Wallace lights the rocket's fuse using a box of Duck matches, an obvious parody of the real-life British Swan Vestas brand of matches.
• Bold Explorer: Wallace and Gromit head off to explore the moon.
• Brick Joke: The ball kicked by Wallace shows up after the credits, still in motion.
• Cartoon Cheese: Averted, as moon cheese doesn't look anything like typical "orange-y swiss" cartoon cheese. More like cheddar. Wallace names several terrestrial cheeses in an unsuccessful attempt to determine what moon cheese tastes like, and finally concludes, "It's like no cheese I've ever tasted." As they move about the terrain to find better-tasting cheese, Wallace keeps trying to name the taste.
• Cheesy Moon: Wallace wants to visit the moon because it's made of cheese. He's out of his own and can't visit the store due to the ongoing bank holiday, and it's as good a spot as any for a vacation.
• Decoy Protagonist: Wallace and Gromit really only get the first half of this short to themselves. The robot cooker becomes the real protagonist once it comes to life.
• Delayed Until the Final Countdown: Subverted. With Wallace and Gromit prepared their homemade spaceship quite extensively for their trip to the Cheesy Moon, Wallace lights the rocket's fuse and settles in with plenty of time to spare before ignition... only to realize that he's forgotten the crackers. He's left frantically racing back upstairs to collect as many packets of crackers as he can before the engines ignite; he just barely gets back to the ship and shuts the door behind him before the fuse completely burns out. There's a very dramatic rumble... and then the rocket completely fails to leave the ground. Turns out they accidentally left the handbrake on.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference:
  • The models for the duo are noticeably more basic. Wallace in particular is near-unrecognizable, with an odd-shaped head and a small cheekless mouth that only elasticates for certain words, while many Park trademarks like the expressive unibrows aren't as defined. Much of this was in the name of practicality, as Nick Park was doing everything himself, meaning the characters had to be as easy to animate as possible. In scenes where Aardman had started assisting Park (the opening scene and the scenes taking place on the Moon), the designs start to gain some of their later quirks.
  • A very subtle difference which is only really visible in remasters: Gromit's eyes are shown to be blue here, an uncommon eye colour for beagles (which Gromit is) to have.
  • A rare behind-the-scenes example: An early animation test of Gromit showed that he was originally going to be fatter and have a mouth (he was originally supposed to be voiced by Peter Hawkins, as mentioned below). Whereas early sketches of him had him in the familiar color scheme, he was colored brown in the test.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • To date, the only major installment of the series which isn't a genre parody (it was originally a Star Wars parody that had to be downgraded due to time and budget); rather, it's just a quirky story about a guy who randomly decides to build a rocket in his basement and he and his dog go to the moon to get cheese, with no indication that he's a regular inventor.
  • Julian Nott's score is composed mostly of Dixieland jazz rather than the orchestral brass band music of the later films.
  • This is the only film where Gromit is never seen crying.
  • The comedy is a lot more surreal than it is in the rest of the series, being far more focused on whimsy than on clever wordplay.
  • This film is the only one in the Wallace and Gromit series not to involve a crime in some way. The Cooker pursuing Wallace's oblivious vandalism of the moon is far, far less egregious than the theft of a diamond, sheep rustling and attempted murder (three times).
    • It's also the only one to have No Antagonist. The Cooker doesn't count.
  • The short has much slower pacing and is less frenetic than the later shorts, with much of the first act being focused on the rocket being built and the last act fleshing out the Cooker's desire to go skiing and leave the moon.
  • It's the only short to premiere on Channel 4 instead of The BBC, who bought the rights to Wallace & Gromit when they commissioned The Wrong Trousers. As such it's also about five minutes shorter than the other half hour featurettes in the series to allow for a commerical break.
• Epic Launch Sequence: The rocket rumbles tensely for several seconds upon launch - attracting an audience of mice in the process - until Gromit remembers to take the handbrake off.
• The Faceless: The robot has no face, only a drawer, oven controls and a money meter. All of his emotions are conveyed through his hand gestures and thought bubbles. That said, that black ring on the left side of his body actually serves as an eye. Of a sort.
• Fall of the House of Cards: Gromit builds an impressive house of cards to pass the time on their trip to the moon. Just as he's about to put the last two cards on, Wallace pulls the handbrake for their landing, causing the house to collapse. Provides the trope image.
• Fantastic Fromage: Wallace goes to the moon to find out what type of cheese it is made of; the closest Wallace gets in terms of comparing the tastes is Wensleydale, Stilton, and Camembert.
• Hard-Work Montage: The construction of the rocket.
• Homage: While not the typical genre parody that the series is known for, the aesthetic is heavily inspired by the works of Georges Méliès, Hergé and Jules Verne (the rocket in particular is based on The Nautilus).
• Inherently Funny Word: Wensleydale. (Amusingly enough, the popularity of Wallace and Gromit actually saved Wensleydale cheese from bankruptcy.)
• Matchlight Danger Revelation: The robot has one when it tries to stow aboard the ship.
• Minimalist Cast: A cast of only three, of which only one (Wallace) has a speaking part. (Not counting the nine rats who watch the launch).
• No Antagonist: The robot cooker pursues the duo throughout the film, but it's Not Evil, Just Misunderstood.
• Not Where Your Ears Are: Gromit's headphones do not cover his ears.
• Oh, Crap!: Wallace has two of these when the duo goes to and leaves the moon.
  • "No crackers, Gromit! We've forgotten the crackers!"
  • "The fuse! You forgot to light the fuse!"
• Pet the Dog: Wallace putting a second coin inside the robot.
• Picnic Episode: The purpose of the trip.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: After the cooker realises the duo are heading back to Earth (where the alpines he so yearns to ski are), the cooker desperately tries to get on board. Unfortunately, the two think he is still after them over earlier and make a panicky escape.
• Poor Communication Kills: The robot's inability to talk makes him unable to tell Wallace that he wants to come with them to Earth. Wallace misinterprets the robot as wanting to confiscate his cheese carvings.
• Retro Rocket: The rocket the duo build is a standard, classic pointy-nosed sits-on-its-fins spaceship.
• Schizo Tech: The rocket won't lift off unless someone remembers to light the fuse. Or, for that matter, releases the handbrake.
• Serious Business:
  • Everything relating to cheese, according to Wallace.
  • Likewise, he finds the idea of eating cheese without crackers completely unthinkable.
    Wallace: No crackers, Gromit! We've forgotten the crackers! [Cue dramatic race-against-time music]
• Shout-Out: Wallace and Gromit's cellar contains a sled labeled "Rose Bud".
• Silence Is Golden: Some sequences, such as Wallace at the drawing board and the rocket construction. Most notably is when Gromit is standing under a door to hold it up, as Wallace is sawing through it. This was the scene that convinced Nick Park not to have Gromit speak because of how expressive his eyebrow was.
• Silent Snarker: Gromit. When the film was in production, he was originally supposed to talk, but a scene where he reacts silently to Wallace stood out so much to the creators that they made him permanently silent. All that remains of Gromit's voice are several whimpers and a yelp. The original voice actor intended for Gromit was the late, great Peter Hawkins, although it is unclear if the noises Gromit makes in the film were provided by him, as he was not credited.
• The Speechless: Gromit and the robot.
• Stop Motion: The vast majority of the short is made up of this, though there are a few instances where conventional cel animation is used, particularly the shots of the rocket in-flight.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: While looking through the holiday catalogs for anyplace with cheese, Wallace and Gromit both take their eyes off them to look at the moon.
  Wallace: Everybody knows the moon's made of cheese.
• Tempting Fate: Wallace walks away from the control panel wearing a pair of headphones attached to said control panel, saying, "Everything seems to be under control". Right when he reaches the end of his sentence, there is a loud crash, Gromit looks over to where it happened, and then the headphones bounce over his head back into place. The next shot shows Wallace lying on his back and groaning slightly.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Cheese, for Wallace (Wensleydale, in particular).
• Tuckerization: The brand of alarm clock seen on the rocket's dashboard is Wulston, which is Nick Park's middle name.
• The Un-Reveal:
  • We never find out who built the robot, why it's on the moon or why it's coin-operated. It's just there on the moon and that's that.
  • Doubles as Orphaned Reference: it was the last remaining character from a much more expansive cast when the short originally had the duo going to a restaurant on the moon. The robot was a parking meter attendant.
• Vacation Episode: The short opens with the pair deciding where to go on the bank holiday. Wallace proposes to think it over some tea with cheese and crackers, only to find they're out of cheese. Thus, Wallace sets on the idea of going somewhere where there's cheese, and chooses the moon as their destination.