Wallace & Gromit in The Power of Buzz

The Power of Buzz (also known as Wallace & Gromit in The Power of Buzz) is a British-American computer animated comedy short film directed by Copy-Ability-Studios and produced by Aardman Animations and Hyperion Animation. It is the fifth short film in the Wallace & Gromit series, following 2008's A Matter of Loaf and Death.

The Power of Buzz is based on Telltale Games' episodic point and click adventure series inspired by the short films, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, particularly its first installment, "Fright of the Bumblebees".

Plot
After accidentally causing destruction to Mr. Paneer's grocery store with the Sniffer 3000, eccentric inventor Wallace, along with his dog Gromit, starts a new "honey-on-demand" service known as From Bee to You. Mr. Paneer offers to have Wallace pay his debt more easily if the latter is able to provide fifty gallons of honey, to which Wallace agrees. However, the bees are not producing enough honey, so Wallace turns to making a growth formula that will result in instant growth of flowers.

Wallace is able to produce the formula, but makes sure to only add a single drop. When Wallace turns his back for a minute, Feathers McGraw appears out of nowhere, and adds more formula to the flowers, causing them to grow much taller than before. Wallace returns and is surprised to see what just happened (though he assumes that the formula is more potent than he realized).

Wallace gives the bees the giant flowers and is able to provide Mr. Paneer with the fifty gallons of honey. Mr. Paneer promises the profits made will be more than enough to pay the debt. Wallace and Gromit return home to find that his house has been transformed into a beehive. They climb inside the Sniffer 3000 to sneak past the giant bees and avoid being stung. After putting the bees to sleep, Wallace assumes that everything is under control, only to be snatched away by the queen bee. With teamwork, Gromit and Fluffles are able to stop the Queen Bee, discovering that it is actually a giant robot controlled by Feathers McGraw. Later that evening, Wallace develops an antidote to the growth formula, only to succumb to the effects of the antidote himself.

In the post credits scene, it is revealed that Feathers McGraw was in cahoots with Piella Bakewell (who had survived her encounter with the alligators in the previous short). Piella scolds Feathers for failing her and intends on dealing with Wallace herself, foreshadowing the events of what's to come.

Cast

 * Ben Whitehead as Wallace
 * Felicity Flitt
 * Major Crumb
 * Mr. Paneer
 * P.C. Makintosh
 * Nick Park as Gromit (archival recordings) and Feathers McGraw
 * Piella Bakewell

Differences between Fright of the Bumblebees and The Power of Buzz

 * P.C. Dibbins, who appeared in Fright of the Bumblebees, is replaced with P.C. Makintosh, a similar character who appeared in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
 * This is to add continuity between the film and the shorts.
 * In Fright of the Bumblebees, Mr. Paneer is hosting a crumpet festival. In The Power of Buzz, he intends on selling the honey in his shop as a means of helping Wallace pay his debt.
 * In Fright of the Bumblebees, the flowes grow to an an enormous height the first time the growth formula is added. In The Power of Buzz, a single drop of the formula is used to make the flowers grow to a normal height. It is only when Feathers McGraw appears and adds more formula to the flowerbed that the flowers grow to an enormous height.
 * In Fright of the Bumblebees, the Sniffer 3000 malfunctioned because "it was only a prototype". In The Power of Buzz, the Sniffer 3000 has been in use for years, and only malfunctioned when Feathers McGraw tampered with its controls.
 * The Queen Bee was never revealed to be a robot in Fright of the Bumblebees.

Trivia

 * This is the first Wallace & Gromit short film of several things:
 * The first to be entirely CGI animated as opposed to being stop-motion animated like the previous short films.
 * The first in the series to not have Nick Park as director (though he serves as creative consultant and the voice of Feathers McGraw).
 * The first appearance of Feathers McGraw in a short since The Wrong Trousers, and his first appearance as the antagonist since Wallace and Gromit in Project Zoo.
 * This is also the first time we hear Feathers speak, albeit very briefly.
 * Feathers McGraw's inclusion in the short greatly affects the plot of Fright of the Bumblebees. It is shown that he is responsible for orchestrating many of the events that occurred, such as the malfunctioning of the Sniffer 3000 and the sabotage of Wallace's growth formula experiment. In addition, Piella Bakewell (the antagonist of A Matter of Loaf and Death) is revealed to have faked her death and has instructed Feathers to carry out her plans.