Given Wallace & Gromit’s penchant for developing all kinds of weird contraptions, it should come as no surprise that they be involved with a television show like World of Invention. While Wallace himself is an inventor, for this six-part series he acts as host for a number of odd little segments that look into a variety of scientific gizmos and facts.
The series includes the following episodes, each just short thirty minutes in length: “Nature Knows Best”, “Reach for the Sky”, “Home Sweet Home”, “Come to Your Senses”, “Better Safe Than Sorry” and “From A to Z”. The episodes include are made up of several different segments including “Curiosity Corner” (usually a blend of nature-inspired inventions), “Inventor of the Week”, “Contraption Countdown” (a list of weekly-themed gadgets, most of which aren’t entirely successful) and “It Never Got Off the Drawing Board” (which generally covers items that failed, courtesy of some well known inventors).Each episode has a human correspondent. Ashley Jensen is seen most often, though Jem Stansfield takes over for the “It Never Got Off the Drawing Board” segments, and John Sparkes handles the “Contraption Countdown.”
All of this is bookended by all new pieces featuring Wallace & Gromit. Their segments feature the same tongue-in-cheek humor fans have become accustomed to. Inventions discussed include an insect-powered clock, invisibility cloaks, ejector seats and more.
Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention is pure fun. Aired on the BBC, it’s clear that all the people involved have an appreciation for the crazier side of science and invention. Most of the scientists featured bring a whole new meaning to the word “eccentric” (with the notable exception of a young African whose self-built wind turbine has provided his village with electricity) so much so, that Wallace looks like a fairly sane inventor.
Lionsgate brings Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention to Blu-ray via a 1080i, transfer maintaining the series original broadcast ratio of 1.78:1. The series repeated use of archival footage means that the transfer quality tends to vary significantly. However, the newly recorded host segments look quite good, with solid color saturation, crisp detail, and no real digital anomalies.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack features fine separation in the front three channels, with dialogue coming mostly from the center channel (although there are a few panning dialogue effects when Wallace goes off camera). Surrounds are used for ambience and music, and there is little to no LFE .
English SDH subtitles are included.
The lone special feature is a do-it-yourself segment:
- Your World of Invention Shorts (HD; 38:02) six do it yourself construction experiments that tie in to various sequences of the main series. Hosted by Ricky Martin (no, not thatone), these are fun but sometimes complex construction exercises that will probably be a bit too difficult for younger adolescents (at least not without some parental help). But many of these are pretty cool, and they all work here. The six segments are:
Atmosphere Railway
Wind-Powered Sprinkler
Fin Ray Grabber
Air Rocket
Spy Camera
Upside-Down-O-Scope
