Cracking Quiz, Gromit!

Mom, it’s time for the quiz. I don’t know if you are aware of this or not but June 1st was the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ “Sgt Pepper” album.

Wow! So hard to believe! It was 50 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play…

So it seemed like as good a time as any to rewatch the Sgt Pepper musical film the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton were in.

What??? Excuse me???? What do the Bee Gees have to do with the Beatles? They (The Bee Gees) hated that movie! It was the worst career move they ever made!

Hey, it wasn’t their idea! It was their manager’s, Robert Stigwood’s idea! I feel like such a bad Bee Gees fan because I kind of like this movie.

Shana, you’re the only fan this movie has!

I once watched a documentary where Barry and his brothers were talking about how much they hated doing it.

See?

I could never understand why they hated it; except that, well, most of the songs were from “Abbey Road”.

Well, there ya go!

“Nowhere Man” was in it too, and that’s from “Rubber Soul”!

Say no more! Say no more!

Anyway, despite being historically inaccurate, I think Sgt. Pepper was an OK film. I just hope that Robin and Maurice (in heaven) and Barry (in Miami) can forgive me. Here’s the trailer:

That was the absolute worst trailer I have ever seen! And if the movie is anything like that, look out!

I guess I should play something from the actual “Sgt. Pepper” album.

But now, it’s time for the quiz!

We are doing a famous-person quiz this month because, sadly, I just found out that Peter Sallis, the voice-actor who played “Wallace” in the claymation series “Wallace and Gromit”, died.

Waaaaah!!!!!!!!!

Mom, take it easy! Peter Sallis was 96 years old!

Oh. Well that’s different. Waaaah!!!!!!!

Mom! Go sit down, maybe pour yourself a cup of tea, while I give the “Wallace and Gromit” run-down for our audience (you know, for the sake of our readers from India and Pakistan): It was a British claymation series (meaning everything in the series is made of clay! Yes, everything! There were four short films, a theatrical movie, and a series of short episodes called “Cracking Contraptions”, which, as far as I know, didn’t make it to DVD in the U.S. (our loss!) There was also a computer game that I never got around to playing. If I can find it, I will want to play it during the summer.

So, in a nutshell, Wallace is an inventor. He lives alone with his dog, Gromit, who is something of a genius but Wallace doesn’t seem to notice as he talks to him like a baby and says things like, “Time for walkies!” The fact is that Gromit is quite capable of walking himself.

So, here’s the thing about this short movie called “The Wrong Trousers”: Wallace has poured all his hard work and time into inventing things that have absolutely no value to anyone but him! He has no “real job”. The point being that he comes to realize that he can’t pay his bills! He becomes very worried and decides he has to take in a boarder. The boarder, however, turns out to be a con-artist! Gromit picks up on this immediately but the good-natured, naive, trusting Wallace is so sincere and honest, he assumes that everyone else is too! Consequently, Wallace gets totally taken advantage of by the unscrupulous Penguin! Luckily, Gromit saves him in the end.