I’ve been a big fan of Edgar Wright’s movies for a few years now, and even despite this and the fact that I write about movies for a living, it wasn’t until I posted The World’s End trailer last week that I heard anything about “fence gags” or “the blood and ice cream trilogy.” I wouldn’t normally quote Wikipedia, but I have to believe it’s pretty accurate in this case:
The Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (also known as the Blood and Ice Cream trilogy) is a series of films directed by Edgar Wright, written by Simon Pegg and Wright, produced by Nira Park, and starring Pegg and Nick Frost. The films are Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End.
Each film in the trilogy is connected to a Cornetto ice cream flavour – both of the films released to date feature scenes in which one of the main characters purchases a Cornetto of the appropriate flavour. Shaun of the Dead features a red strawberry flavoured Cornetto, which signifies the film’s bloody and gory elements, Hot Fuzz includes the blue original Cornetto, to signify the police element to the film, and The World’s End will feature the green mint choc-chip flavour. The use of the three flavours/colours of Cornetto is a reference to Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colours film trilogy.
The films are fast-paced and parodies mainstream film genres. A recurring joke in the films is the “shortcut”, where a character unsuccessfully jumps over a fence.
Our friends at TheShiznit have helpfully giffed all three fence gags:
Edgar Wright is a master of taking things I normally hate (zombies, videogame references, camp…) and making me love them. I normally hate “Easter eggs” and winky references, to the point that I want to throw things at the screen every time a Marvel movie does the requisite Stan Lee cameo (it’s more the fanboys in the audience clapping their butter-soaked flippers together and barking at the recognition of being pandered to than the actual cameos, but still). But Edgar Wright does them the way they’re meant to be done, as proven by the fact that I enjoyed the movies without knowing any of this. They’re there, but not in a way that’s necessary to the story, or that take you out of the story while you’re watching it. Just a nice little added value. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I wish Edgar Wright would stop screening all my calls. I just want to know what your hair smells like, dude, it doesn’t have to be weird.
UPDATE: FYI, from Edgar Wright:
