JediKermit's Full Review: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
We've been Wallace and Gromit fans for years now. Nick Parks Claymation creations were the stars of three short films, but didn't have a full-length feature under their belts. That changed with this year's "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." One of the many fall films we didn't see until now due to either time or money (or both), we took our two boys to go see it today as a sort of holiday treat.
Wallace is an extraordinary (if absent-minded) inventor, and Gromit is his long-suffering dog. Half the time it seems like Gromit is the brains of the operation, but that's not giving Wallace enough credit. He is a smart guy, just easily distracted. Kinda like me. Their previous adventures included a trip to the moon, a pair of remarkable robotic pants, and foiling a sheep-napper. Meaning someone who kidnaps sheep, not a sleepy sheep.
This movie had Wallace and Gromit running a humane pest-control company, protecting their community's gardens against pests like gophers, moles, and rabbits. Especially rabbits. Instead of killing the rodents, Wallace invented a machine that sucks the bunnies out of the ground and then stores them in his own basement, feeding and caring for them "humanely." He eventually uses other methods to try and get rid of the rabbit problem, until he comes up against the biggest problem of all: a gigantic "Were-Rabbit."
The writing on this movie is as funny and tight as on the other productions from Aardman Animation--the three Wallace and Gromit shorts and Chicken Run are all very well written. The sight gags work well, and the animation is as remarkable as on other Aardman outings. Half the fun of claymation this good is wondering how they achieved different effects, and this movie was no exception. Wallace and Gromit's relationship and chemistry is hilarious and touching at times--I think the end of the movie pulled a tear or two out of me.
The high points were an underground rabbit/car chase with Gromit at the wheel of their pest-control truck; the other high point was the climax of the movie, which had shout-outs to several other movies, most notably "King Kong." The team (Wallace and Gromit and Nick Park's team) works at its best in frantic situations, and the sight gags come fast and furious in the last fifteen minutes of the flick. I've read other reviews that say that some of the gags are "too adult" for an animated movie, but none of them are lingered on--this isn't as bad in terms of inappropriate material as the "Shrek" movies. There's nothing vulgar, nothing scandalous about Wallace and Gromit.
The only bad thing about the movie--and this could have been because we brought a squirmy one year old and three year old with us--was the pacing. In a thirty-minute movie, Wallace and Gromit are always on the move, always on the run, and the entire film is filled with mayhem. In an 85-minute movie, there's more "downtime." The first half of the movie had a lot of set-up...and even the downtime is clever, but not nearly as funny, not as exciting as the previous Wallace and Gromit adventures.
The secondary characters created for this particular movie, including Lady Tottington and hunter Victor Quartermaine, aren't as funny as Wallace and Gromit are, and whenever Wallace and Gromit are offscreen, the movie seems to drag a bit. The other characters grew on me by the end of the movie, but their introduction seemed like an entirely different movie...one that I wasn't nearly as interested in.
That said, this was a good outing for Wallace and Gromit, and it will definitely be one I'll add to my DVD library. It was fun for my boys, but more fun for me and my wife. If you're looking for entertainment for your family that you can stomach as well--that's what you'll find with "Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit."
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