Gromit and Peter Hawkins
The scene that caused Gromit to be mute
Peter Hawkins' Gromit recordings is lost cut Gromit dialogue by the actor for A Grand Day Out. When creating the short film, Nick Park originally wanted to make Gromit speak. The person he had in mind to voice him was Peter Hawkins (known as the original voice of the Daleks in Doctor Who), having gotten the suggestion from Peter Sargent, one his tutors,[1] and he recorded Gromit's dialogue all in one morning. According to Nick, the dialogue would've been Gromit repeating everything Wallace said in a doggy voice,[2] which he refers to as a "Spotty Dog style voice" (a character Hawkins voiced in The Woodentops) during the A Grand Day Out commentary and does a brief imitation of it.
Nick then realized in the first week of filming that this was too difficult, being too much effort to animate alongside Wallace's mouth movement and that Gromit could speak with his eyebrows and ears,[3] thus Gromit became a mute character. The scene that led to this decision was when Wallace is using Gromit as a support beam while he saws a door in half, and Gromit reacts silently.
The footage has never been heard by the public, if it even still exists. Gromit can be heard making snores and simple dog noises in the film, although it's never been confirmed if those were done by Hawkins.
References[]
- ↑ A Grand Day Out commentary.
- ↑ Article about Wallace and Gromit, which mentions the dialogue. Retrieved 03 Aug '20
- ↑ 20 Things You Might Not Know About Gromit list from the official website. Retrieved 03 Aug '20