Wallace & Gromit's Thrill-O-Matic

Wallace & Gromit's Thrill-O-Matic is an indoor family dark ride at the Pleasure Beach Resort, an amusement park in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. It opened in 2013, replacing The Gold Mine ride which opened in 1971 at a cost of £150,000 and closed in 2011. It is based on the Wallace & Gromit films and was opened in April 2013 by Nick Park, Amanda Thompson, Nick Thompson, Nick Farmer and Merlin Crossingham.

Design and ride experience

The ride, which cost £5.25 million, was created by Pleasure Beach Resort design in association with Aardman Animations. The ride's cars are designed to resemble one of Wallace's slippers. The ride lasts almost four minutes, and features scenes and audio from the Wallace & Gromit films A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and A Matter of Loaf and Death alongside new Ben Whitehead audio as Wallace. The ride shares exactly the same track layout as the previous Gold Mine Ride, where riders experience small drops and sound effects throughout the ride. Towards the end, a unique clay animation of Wallace and Gromit plays where Wallace says lines about the experience and the duo wave the riders goodbye.

The ride exits into a gift shop with Wallace & Gromit merchandise, including T-shirts, toys, mugs, hoodies, keyrings and cheese-flavoured rock. A concession operated by Picsolve allows on-ride photos to be purchased.

In 2025, Pleasure Beach teased an update to the ride following the release of Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. This would be further confirmed in June, with 5 new additions to the ride set to debut in the summer, including Norbot, new interpretations of Feathers McGraw and updates to the ride's queue-line. New exclusive merchandise, including Norbot toys and gifts, had also already started to be distributed at its Wallace & Gromit shop.

Cast

• Ben Whitehead as Wallace
• Ralph Fiennes as Victor Quartermaine (archive footage)
• Peter Sallis as Hutch (archive footage)
• Sally Lindsay as Piella Bakewell (archive footage)
• Gromit
• Mice
• Cooker
• Feathers McGraw
• Wendolene Ramsbottom (unvoiced)
• Shaun (unvoiced)
• Preston
• Flock of sheep
• Were-Rabbit
• Lady Tottington (unvoiced)
• Rabbits
• Fluffles (unvoiced)

Gallery

Promo

Wallace & Gromit Thrill-O-Matic Interview - Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Interview about the ride

Trivia

• An image of the location Wensleydale with a sheep can be seen at the beginning.
• Blackpool has previously been referenced in A Grand Day Out (as a label on Wallace's suitcase) and Cracking Contraptions "The Tellyscope" (on a picture frame of the duo), and would go on to be referenced in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (as the location in the credits' parody of The Scream painting). It's also where the duo intended to go before rainy weather cancelled their plans in Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Episode 2: The Last Resort.
• Ben Whitehead's portrayal of Wallace is uniquely featured alongside archive footage of Peter Sallis's portrayal of the Wallace-based Hutch. This is a reverse of the Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit video game, where Peter Sallis voiced Wallace and Ben Whitehead voiced Hutch.
• The unique clay animation would be reused in the Dementia Friends "I get by with a little help from my friends" advert, being looped to only show the duo waving.

References

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Media Wallace & Gromit Feature films: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit • Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl Short films: A Grand Day Out • The Wrong Trousers • A Close Shave • A Matter of Loaf and Death Television series and specials: Cracking Contraptions • Wallace & Gromit's World of Invention • Wallace & Gromit's Musical Marvels Video games: Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo • Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (video game) • Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures • The Big Fix Up • The Grand Getaway Characters Wallace • Gromit • Cooker • Feathers McGraw • Shaun the Sheep • Flock of sheep • Wendolene Ramsbottom • Preston • Lady Campanula Tottington • Lord Victor Quartermaine • Philip • PC Albert Mackintosh • Reverend Clement Hedges • Mr. Mulch • Mrs. Mulch • Mr. Growbag • Miss Thripp • Miss Blight • Mr. Leaching • Mr. Windfall • Mr. Caliche • Mr. Dibber • Mr. Crock • Mrs. Girdling • Hutch • Piella Bakewell • Fluffles • Baker's Dozen • Norbot Locations 62 West Wallaby Street • The Moon • West Wallaby Zoo • Tottington Hall Other Spin-offs (Shaun the Sheep (franchise) • Timmy Time (franchise)) • Adverts • Appearances • Wallace & Gromit's Thrill-O-Matic • "Wallace & Gromit Theme" • Cheese (Wensleydale)