After the horrors of last week’s Shark Tale I had to give myself a gift of one of Dreamwork’s two Oscar winning films- Wallace and Gromit: the Curse of the Ware Rabbit. This film is made by Aardman Animation in partnership with Dreamworks. I don’t think of it as a true Dreamworks film but it is in the canon so I get to review it. 🙂
Wallace and Gromit are two characters created by director Nick Park as characters in a series of British stop motion shorts. Wallace is the stupid but well meaning inventor and Gromit is his genius dog. Most of the shorts are Wallace getting into trouble and Gromit finding a way to get him out of it. They are charming and full of laughs for the entire family.
Now they make their jump to the big screen, and fortunately they do it rather well. In Curse of the Ware Rabbit, Wallace (Peter Sallis) and Gromit are running a business to remove pesky rabbits from the towns gardens. There is great urgency because the rabbits are eating up all the jumbo sized prize gardens of the townsfolk.
One night Wallace sets up an experiment where he creates a Frankenstein Rabbit called the Ware Rabbit who starts terrorizing the neighborhood gardens. This includes Lady Tottington who becomes a love interest for Wallace.
Wallace and Gromit get on the case and all kinds of shenanigans occur.
This film is a complete delight. It’s funny, the animation is amazing and there is a nice heart to the relationship between Wallace and Gromit. Wallace may be stupid but they do love each other.
I also love Lady Tottington (Helena Bonham Carter) and the evil Lord Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes). It’s a comedy designed for kids but it has those British moments adults will enjoy also.
My only flaw with the film is occasionally the pacing can sag but then it picks back up again pretty quickly with a slapstick sequence or tender scene. Other than that I am glad it won the Oscar as I think it is Aardman’s best stop motion film followed by Shaun the Sheep Movie and Chicken Run. It’s definitely in the top 3 Dreamworks films if you include it in your ranking.
Overall Grade- A
Haven’t seen it in years, but I think it was a really amazing film!
From what I remember, this film was pretty good, but the pacing was a major issue for me.
I remember you werent too high on Aardman
The last time I watched their earlier films was when I was a naive reviewer. Maybe I’ll appreciate it now that I’m older and more experience.
Maybe. Although since you hated Shaun the Sheep so much I’m thinking their style may not be for you but I hope you like it
I loved the original Wallace & Gromit shorts (A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave) and I also enjoyed this film. It had some very funny moments and Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes seemed to be enjoying themselves with the voicework.
I really enjoyed this film too. Only negative thing I can think to say is that I liked the Wallace & Gromit shorts more.
Great review of a great film! A real throwback to my childhood and generally fantastic animated fun. Love the blog too!
Milo.