Wallace and Gromit return in AR story 'The Big Fix Up': Watch the first clip

Wallace and Gromit are making a comeback in 2020 with a brand new augmented reality (AR) adventure called Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up launching Autumn, and they’re on a recruitment drive.

It’s been ten years since we last saw Nick Park’s Oscar-winning animated duo on screen in BBC One’s Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention, and this new app will allow fans to enter their world for the very first time.

Wallace & Gromit: The Big Fix Up is a new, augmented story which will bring the characters to life in an entirely new way, while creating a new platform for storytelling. Set in and around Bristol, app-users will be invited to join the pair to fix up the city via the smartphones, and the adventure will be accessible for everyone in the UK, wherever they are based.

Watch the first trailer above. Ben Whitehead is the new voice of Wallace after original actor Peter Sallis died in 2017.

Read more: Nick Park reveals Wallace & Gromit secrets

Partnering with multi award-winning animation studio Aardman, Fictioneers: a consortium of British companies including Potato, Sugar Creative and Tiny Rebel Games, with research support from the University of South Wales, is producing the augmented and mixed reality experience backed by funding from UK Research & Innovation (UKRI).

According to the press release, “Wallace and his faithful hound as their latest business venture, Spick & Spanners, takes on the contract of a lifetime: to ‘Fix Up’ Bristol. Fans will be invited to download a free app and play along at home, as an employee.”

“The adventure will play out in a variety of different types of media, to tell the beats of a story: multi-user AR gameplay, new CG animations, in character phone calls, comic strips, extended reality (XR) portals and more. All brought together in a mobile app, used as a ‘window’ into their world.”

Following its initial UK launch in the Autumn, Fictioneers plan to roll out The Big Fix Up globally.

Aardman’s Merlin Crossingham, Creative Director of Wallace & Gromit said in a statement: “Aardman is a multi-faceted creative studio and is just as happy with classic filmmaking as it is with new and emerging technologies.

“Wallace and Gromit’s heart and soul is in stop motion, but they have often dabbled in the cutting-edge of tech, and this is one of those occasions. We are delighted to join forces with the amazing folk at Fictioneers to take Wallace and Gromit on a new adventure in such a groundbreaking way.”

Susan Cummings, Co-Founder of Fictioneers and Managing Director of Tiny Rebel Games said: “We’re thrilled to be working with our friends at Aardman to deliver the first augmented Wallace & Gromit story.

We, at Fictioneers, are on a mission to innovate storytelling with our groundbreaking methodology. It is a rare privilege to be able to do so with some of the most beloved animated characters in the world and to give fans the first opportunity to join in Wallace & Gromit's story.”

Wallace and Gromit: The Big Fix Up launches later this year.