By Dina Ginzburg

Sometimes, not wanting to do extra work could have its perks. The creator of the WALLACE AND GROMIT series felt a small bout of idleness when sculpting Wallace, the inventor’s faithful doggy friend, which is why Gromit is a dog in the first place!

Originally, Gromit’s character was supposed to be an energetic cat, but when he got to the filming studio, he realized that cats were far too hard to mold. They have shorter, thinner limbs and no real snout. Since all the WALLACE AND GROMIT films are stop motion, the puppets need to be readjusted and remade for every single shot. To make his life easier, the creator decided to turn Gromit into a dog, since dogs are more evenly proportioned. Also, he already had a pack of clay dog noses that he didn’t want to go to waste!

The Gromit that we know and love is a silent, composed, clever canine. We wonder what the series would have been like if he was a bouncy kitty cat instead.  Looks like we’ll never know, but we’re oddly okay with that! Gromit is the perfect foil to Wallace’s erratic personality!