Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit
![Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit [2005]](http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000B83YWM.02.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)
I’ve been an ardent Aardman fan since the first Wallace and Gromit short (A Grand Day Out), adored the short-lived Rex the Runt series, and—-while I thought ‘Chicken Run’ didn’t quite hit the spot—-I was itching to see this full length film film. It is, quite simply, brilliant. All the charm of the short W & G films is there, and the pace barely slackens over the entire 85 minutes. As usual, there are visual puns aplenty, as well as a lot of literary and film allusions, and you really need to watch it several times to pick everything up.
The plot concerns our heroes’ latest money-making venture: a pest control service called Anti-Pesto, which seems mostly to involve installing complex, hi-tech anti-theft devices in vegetable gardens and greenhouses to stop rabbits eating prize veg destined for the village Vegetable Show. Viewers unfamiliar with the world of giant leeks and prize marrows will think this is a joke, but it’s probably not too far from the truth. Wallace and Gromit, being gentle souls, can’t quite bring themselves to kill the rabbits they catch, so their home is overflowing with ultra-cute but ravenous bunnies.
As usual, things start to go wrong when Wallace tries to use his latest invention (the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic) to brainwash the rabbits into disliking vegetables. The giant and terrifying were-rabbit is created as a result, and Gromit must once again save the day. Gromit, as we all know, is the brains of the operation, and manages to convey more emotion with his eyebrows and eyes alone than most actors do with their entire body and voice.
There’s a fantastic scene where a slightly spooked Gromit is waiting in the Anti-Pesto Austin van for Wallace to finish sorting out a giant female rabbit lure. To calm his nerves, he turns on the radio which is playing ‘Bright Eyes’ by Art Garfunkel. His eye-rolling cracked me up for ages afterwards. There’s also a ‘dog fight’ between Gromit and the baddie’s dog Philip, conducted in coin-operated fairground fighter planes. The money runs out and the plane chugs to a halt, whereupon Philip (a tough bulldog or bull terrier) produces a little purse (one of those snap open, beaded affairs) and primly fishes around for some coins, prompting a very dubious look from Gromit on his choice of change receptacle.
I could go on for ages about all the puns and references, but you’ve got to see it yourself. Look out for the ‘May Contain Nuts’ gag (one for the adults in the audience) and the neat, inverted King Kong parody.
Often, DVD extras aren’t up to much, but there’s some great stuff on this disc. The ‘Making of’ feature is particularly good, but slightly let down by being narrated by American Trailer Guy: not the gravelly voiced disaster/horror movie one (“It was a time of scary things…”), but the comedy, laugh-in-the-voice one (“[Ha ha] This Holiday season, follow the zany adventures of…”). In all other respects (apart from being produced by Dreamworks), this was a thoroughly British film1. Would it have been so difficult to find a British actor to do the narration? The guided tour around the Aardman studios is also very good, particularly because your appreciation of the film is greatly enhanced by knowing that one poor guy spent four years just making vegetables out of Plasticene.
I see from the trailers on the film that their next feature-length animation is going to be a CGI affair, rather than stop-motion. I hope that it’s not a trend for Aardman. Computer animation is time-consuming in a different way of course, but I think that there’s just something about the literally hand-crafted nature of stop motion that makes it uniquely appealing.
1 I wonder how many non-British viewers understood the reference to ‘Ay Up!’ magazine? ↑
1
Our entire family loves Aardman's works, particularly the W&G;series. I must admit that I've missed some of the smaller bits (like the magazine you mention) and so it'll probably keep me re-watching it for years to come. "It's ravaged my wife's maracas!" Excellent stuff.
by Damien @ 29/08/2006 4:09 pm • Permalink •
2
Congratulations go to the American moneymen who resisted the temptation to "re-profile" it for the American market.
by Jonathan Briggs @ 29/08/2006 6:08 pm • Permalink •
3
Yeah, I completely missed the reference to magazine... and probably quite a few other things.
I'd heard that the move to CGI is due to the fire that broke out last year. Is that not the case?
by stephen tudor @ 29/08/2006 7:08 pm • Permalink •
4
No, I think the tie-up preceded the fire, but I'm sure a film buff will set us straight.
by Jonathan Briggs @ 29/08/2006 8:09 pm • Permalink •
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I feel I must defend Chicken Run here. The material is maybe a bit more likely to appeal to males in the audience. If you are familiar with The Great Escape (i.e. if you had TV on during Christmas anytime since 1975) the pardoy is hilarious. I watched it for the first time in a cinema in Sweden and nearly died laughing. I then nearly died because most of the three hundred odd Swede's in the audience had no idea what I was laughing at (clarification- not because they had no sense of humour but because some of the jokes were Brisith and obscure).
by Ian @ 31/08/2006 6:09 am • Permalink •
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I loved that film! Peter Kay was the absolute best choice for the voice of PC Mackintosh. My favourite visual pun was the sticker in the back window of the van. It was a play on those daft slimming club slogans and said "Eat cheese now....Ask me how"
by Julie @ 31/08/2006 8:09 pm • Permalink •
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Damien: Excellent quote
Maracas are always funny.
Jonathan Briggs: Yes, though I noted in the extras that there was an alternative ending which would have left non-British audiences scratching their heads (releasing the bunnies just over the Yorkshire border).
stephen and Jonathan: I'm not sure if the fire had anything to do with it or not, but I'd guess probably not.
Ian: Don't get me wrong -- I liked Chicken Run a lot, but I just felt it was just missing a little something that makes the W and G films sparkle. Perhaps it was the fact that we didn't know any of the characters before, as we do with W and G. I loved the Great Escape references, and the Star Trek ones, and there was a particular scene which made me laugh like a drain. The chickens are busily building The Crate, drills, hammers and saws in wings, when Mr. Tweedie opens up the roof of their hen house and gapes at them, while they freeze and look at him. He shuts it and opens it again, and they've gone back to pecking around and doing chicken-y things. If you've ever worked with quite smart animals, as I have, you've had that kind of paranoia many times: the feeling that all activity stops when you walk in, because they were just doing something amazing.
Julie: Yes, he was great. There are so many wonderful signs and labels on things. The book spines on the bookshelf alone are great ('East of Edam', 'Fromage to Eternity').
by bsag @ 02/09/2006 1:10 pm • Permalink •
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Hi,
I work at Aardman and I just wanted to let you know that we’ve just re-launched a brand new Wallace and Gromit site and we would love you to be one of the first to look at it - http://www.wallaceandgromit.com.
Who runs this site? Let me know what your email address is, I would love to talk to you about our fan program, an exclusive club for our most dedicated fans.
Many thanks, Miranda
by miranda @ 15/08/2007 3:48 pm • Permalink •
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miranda: I am a fan, but since this blog only has a couple of articles about Aardman, I'm not quite sure it's what you're looking for promotion-wise.
by bsag @ 16/08/2007 5:57 pm • Permalink •
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