Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death

A Matter of Loaf and Death is a murder mystery, including a serial killer murdering bakers. Wallace and Gromit operate a bakery business, and Gromit tries to solve the case before Wallace ends up a victim himself.

It was the last Wallace and Gromit film before the retirement of Wallace’s voice actor Peter Sallis in 2010 preceding his death in 2017.

The short was also one of the most watched television specials in the United Kingdom in 2008 and received critical acclaim.

It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 82nd Academy Awards, and won a BAFTA and an Annie Award for Best Short Animation and Best Animated Short Subject respectively in 2009.

While on a delivery for their bakery business, Wallace and Gromit save Piella Bakewell, a former pin-up girl for the Bake-O-Lite bread company, and her nervous poodle Fluffles, when the brakes on her bicycle fail.

Gromit finds there is no problem with the brakes, but Wallace is smitten. He and Piella begin a whirlwind romance and Gromit is angered when she redecorates their house and his room.

Fluffles and Gromit share a sensitive moment when she returns Gromit’s possessions, discarded by Piella, before the latter calls for her to go. Wallace sends Gromit to return Piella’s forgotten purse.

At Piella’s mansion, Gromit discovers numbered mannequins representing each of the murdered bakers and an album containing photographs showing Piella in relationships with each one; it is revealed that she detests bakers after her weight gain ended her career as the Bake-O-Lite girl and now plots to make Wallace her thirteenth victim, completing a baker’s dozen.

In the morning, when Gromit tries to show Wallace the evidence, Wallace is too distracted with his engagement to Piella to listen and she surreptitiously disposes of the album to ensure that Wallace remains oblivious to her plot.

Determined to protect his owner, Gromit installs security measures in their home, including a metal-detecting security screener.

After Piella tricks Wallace into thinking that Gromit bit her, Wallace muzzles and restrains Gromit and has him do dishwashing as a punishment.

Gromit then watches helplessly as Piella prepares to push Wallace to his death, but he is saved when Piella is struck by a swinging bag of flour.

After an angry outburst that nearly exposes her true nature, Piella leaves but later drops by to apologize with a cake. Gromit, upon hearing Fluffles is ill, follows her home, where Piella captures him and throws him into a storeroom with Fluffles.

Escaping in Piella’s old Bake-O-Lite hot air balloon, Gromit and Fluffles arrive at Wallace’s house as he lights the candle. After a struggle, the cake falls, revealing it to be a bomb.

The duo are then intercepted by Piella, but before she is about to dispatch Wallace with a wrench, she is attacked by a fed-up Fluffles in a forklift.

In the chaos, the bomb ends up in Wallace’s trousers; Gromit and Fluffles neutralize the explosion by filling the trousers with dough while Piella leaps onto her balloon to escape, vowing to continue her assault against Wallace.

However, Piella’s weight lowers the balloon into the local zoo’s crocodile enclosure where she is devoured. Distraught over her owner’s death, even though she is offered to stay with the duo, Fluffles decides to leave, leaving Gromit devastated.

Wallace and Gromit soon decide to take their mind off of everything with a delivery. Outside, they find Fluffles, who had changed her mind, and Gromit opens the door for her and she joins them as they happily start their delivery.