dragonfire88's Full Review: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Wallace and Gromit became known from the Oscar winning short animated films they appeared in. I haven’t seen all of those shorts, though I have seen enough to know who the characters were. Nick Part, the creator of the characters, made his first full length movie with Chicken Run in 2000. Wallace and Gromit finally get their own full length movie with Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
Before the movie, there was a short cartoon featuring the penguins from the movie Madagascar. The cartoon was cute without really being anything special. Computer animation was used, so the animation was very well done. The penguins were one of the better parts of Madagascar, so it would have been nice if the cartoon had been better. The main characters from that movie were shown briefly without really being involved in what was going on.
Wallace and his dog Gromit were running Anti Pesto, a successful business that protected local vegetable gardens from rabbits in a humane way. Wallace created many unique inventions that they used for their work. The annual vegetable competition was fast approaching and Anti Pesto was protecting the gardens of all the people who intended to enter. Lady Tottington, the sponsor of the event, also hired Anti Pesto because rabbits were overtaking the grounds of her estate. She hired Wallace because she didn’t want the rabbits hurt. She had been seeing Victor Quartermaine, a man that loved hunting and wanted to take care of the rabbit problem by shooting them when he wasn’t plotting how to get his hands on Lady Tottington’s money. Wallace and Gromit were running out of room for all the rabbits they captured so Wallace attempted an experiment that he thought would help the situation. After the experiment, their customers reporting seeing a huge rabbit - the Reverend called it a were-rabbit - eating their vegetables. Wallace and Gromit turned their attention to catching the were-rabbit so the competition could go on.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is an entertaining family friendly Halloween movie. I didn’t think that anything in the movie was scary, so anyone that wants to see a really scary movie shouldn’t bother. There were a few things that could possibly scare younger children a little bit. There were several children in the theater when I saw the movie and none of them seemed to be bothered by anything. Were wolves have been used in many books and movies over the years. The concept was modified for this movie, creating a were-rabbit, which is a little more child friendly. I thought the idea of a were-rabbit was unique. It caused trouble without actually endangering people. I thought this movie was more family friendly than Tim Burton's Corpse Bride was. That movie was stranger and featured more things that could upset or scare children.
I have seen Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit described as a comedy. Several things in the movie did make it laugh. I just didn’t think this was one of the funnier animated movies I have seen. It could have been funnier, though I did still really enjoy it. Wallace’s inventions provided some of the laughs for me. The inventions were a little silly looking and worked in ways that I thought were funny. Wallace and Gromit made some funny attempts to catch the rabbits and later the were-rabbit. Some of the jokes were a little suggestive, but I think that would go right over most kid’s heads. There was a joke related to burping that was the only gross type of humor in the movie. It was rather nice to see a movie aimed at kids that didn’t resort to a lot of gross humor for the laughs.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was made with a type of animation that uses clay figures for the characters. It is a very slow process to make a cartoon or full length movie that way since the figures must be moved one frame at a time by hand. This type of animation isn’t used much anymore and some people may feel that it looks a bit primitive when compared to computer animation. There are more limitations with this type of animation and the movement may not look as smooth as it does with hand drawn or computer animation. The animation was very well done in this movie and probably the best of this kind that I’ve seen. The people did have a unique look, especially around the mouth area. The chicken characters in Chicken Run also had the same look in that area. The sets created for this movie, including the props, were amazing and very realistic looking. The motion of the characters looked good throughout the movie. The one thing I did notice was that fingerprints were visible on characters at different times. That probably isn’t an uncommon problem with this type of animation and hard to avoid.
Wallace was an inventor that never met a piece of cheese he didn’t like. His love of cheese caused him to gain weight which interfered with the performance of some of his inventions. Peter Sallis provided the voice that perfectly matched the character. Gromit was very intelligent, able to use the inventions and even drive. He couldn’t talk though and didn’t even have a mouth. His eyes and even ears were very expressive, which got across what he was feeling and thinking in different situations. He was very loyal to Wallace. Since I really didn’t see much with Wallace and Gromit before, I don’t know for sure if all of the other characters were new for the movie or not. I think that Lady Tottington and Victor were created for the movie. Lady Tottington was a member of a rich old family who wanted to protect the vegetables without harming the rabbits. She had a very unique hair style. Victor was pursuing Lady Tottington to get her money. He loved hunting and wanted to kill all the rabbits. Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Finnes did a good job with the voices.
Voice Talent
Helena Bonham Carter - Lady Tottington Ralph Finnes - Victor Quartermaine Peter Sallis - Wallace
Directed by Nick Box and Steve Park
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was a very entertaining, enjoyable family movie. It is worth seeing, especially for fans of Wallace and Gromit.
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