captaind's Full Review: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Wallace and Gromit are, of course, Nick Parkes’ Claymation creations who starred previously in “A Grand Day Out”, where they visited the moon, “The Wrong Trousers”, where a criminal penguin gets Wallace in trouble by switching his trousers (believe me, that sentence will make sense if you watch it), and “A Close Shave”, where sheep abound and love is in the air… or possibly cheese… He was also responsible for “Chicken Run”.
Wallace is a genius inventor… well, sort of a genius, though things keep going wrong… He has a limited grasp on reality but a strong sense of liking cheese, particularly Wenslidale. Gromit is his faithful, very long-suffering dog, who never speaks but who has one of the most expressive faces in history. His lot in life, it seems, is to extricate Wallace from whatever trouble he’s got himself into this time…
In their first feature-length film (and about time, too!), Wallace & Gromit are enjoying huge success in their latest business venture, “Anti-pesto” pest control – specifically, catching rabbits. Rabbits abound in the little village where they live, and since the main preoccupation of the inhabitants is the annual Giant Vegetable competition, business is thriving. The benefactor of the competition, Lady Toddington (voice by Helen Bonham-Carter) becomes rather enamoured of Wallace (impeccably voiced as always by Peter Sallis), much to the distaste of her suitor, Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes). He disagrees with the humane way Anti-pesto deal with the rabbits they catch – he’d rather shoot the lot of them. Things begin to get out of hand after a scientific experiment by Wallace goes wrong, and suddenly they find themselves chasing not just a rabbit, but a w… we… Were-Rabbit!!
The plot is imaginative and well thought-out and suits the overall style of Wallace & Gromit well. The animation is of course top notch and the characters are interesting or hilarious, depending on what part they play in the film. Wallace and Gromit are true to their characters overall, though in the opening segment seem more pally and cool than you’d expect if you’re already fans – this impression doesn’t last long, of course!
As with the earlier, shorter outings for these characters, it’s the little details that you could easily miss that really make it special. (Look out for the name on the tub in the kitchen in a scene near the start, the name of the record Gromit is playing to his plants a bit later, and the box covering Wallace’s modesty near the end.) There are plenty of sight gags for the younger ones to enjoy (which doesn’t of course stop us older ones from enjoying them too!), some very bad jokes that still manage to be funny, some hilarious dialogue, and even some somewhat adult jokes that will completely pass the kiddies by. Also working in its favour is the fact that Claymation (stop-motion animation using clay characters) has it’s own unique charm that is completely different to traditional or computer animation techniques. Several films including King Kong are ripped off with fine style here, again most of these references will go over the young heads in the audience without them losing out much on the fun.
Overall this is solid family entertainment and should be well received by Wallace & Gromit fans, as well as those who’ve never seen the dynamic duo. It’s funny, it’s t.. t.. terrifying in places :-D, and it has a refreshing lack of “Hollywoodising” about it. Perhaps not quite as good as “The Wrong Trousers”, but still very much worth watching.
The official website can be found here: http://www.uip.co.uk/wallaceandgromit/animation/index.html (with an interesting “Behind the Scenes” featurette that’s worth a look.)
Main Voice Artists
Peter Sallis Wallace (voice)
Ralph Fiennes Victor Quartermaine (voice)
Helena Bonham Carter Lady Campanula Tottington (voice)
Peter Kay PC Mackintosh (voice)
Nicholas Smith Reverend Clement Hedges (voice)
Aadman Animation teamed up with Dreamworks to release this film.
Nick Parks co-directed the film with Steve Box.
Runtime: 85 minutes.
Rating: U (UK) G (USA)
Irrelevant Note
Helen Bonham-Carter gets to utter the immortal line, "Call me Totty" during the course of this film.
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