Wallace Is Autistic

Wallace is Autistic

So I re-watched all of the Wallace & Gromit shorts, and their feature film, and I could not help but observe that Wallace showcases several traits found in autistic people. These include:

· He stims, in every appearance.  Particularly he is known for his little arm gesture (see gif above) he makes when he refers to his love of cheese, but he also does this in other instances when he is happy.  He also exhibits a habit for moving his fingers in a particular fashion, or rubbing his face

· He has different special interests including his love, and knowledge of, cheese, as well as his engineering skills.  Whenever he gets into a new career he really devotes his time and energy into it, so much so that he can change his entire house for it (see “A Matter of Loaf and Death”)

· He is really not good in social situations with human characters.  He does not observe nuances that are typically easy to observe for allistic people (“I would like, [my] toupee” “Oh, well we take cash or check”), is extremely blunt in regards to what he says to people, and always assumes that people are honest with him (see his relationship with Piella Bakewell, and how distraught and confused he is when she reveals that she was lying to him). His relationship with animals, who commonly communicate non-verbally, is much easier for him to comprehend hence his consistently strong relationship with Gromit

· Has a tendency to repeat what he’s saying, especially when he’s stressed (see the climaxes of “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave” especially)

· The shorts imply that he has a very specific routine that Gromit recognizes (“Porridge today Gromit. Tuesday”)

· In “A Grand Day Out” Wallace is shown drawing his schematics.  He is shown interjecting his detailed schematics with little puzzles, such as playing tic-tac-toe by himself, which made me think of how autistic people, myself included, commonly have to interject their work periods side activities such as pacing, puzzles, or whatever works best for them

I could go on, but these specific details stood out to me as an autistic person.