Pleasure Beach in Blackpool has officially opened the world's first Wallace & Gromit ride Thrill-O-Matic, in collaboration with the fictional characters' animators Aardman.

The £5.25m ride takes visitors on a four-minute adventure through scenes from the pair's animated movies, including A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave, A Matter of Loaf and Death and The Curse of the Were Rabbit.

Creator of the animated duo Nick Park said: "We have the perfect marriage between Wallace & Gromit and Blackpool Pleasure Beach. I grew up in Preston, which is just down the road so Blackpool feels like a natural home for Wallace & Gromit."

The ride opens ahead of a VisitBritain campaign that will see Wallace & Gromit become Tourism Trailblazers to encourage Britons to holiday in the UK.