It’s been almost 20 years since we last saw Wallace and Gromit in a feature-length adventure. In 2005’s Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the beloved duo found themselves in a Jekyll and Hyde-type send up of horror films. Now they return to face a robot apocalypse and a familiar villain in Vengeance Most Fowl.
Wallace and Gromit — much like Paddington Bear, Harry Potter, Mary Poppins, and Winnie The Pooh — stand as British icons among families everywhere. Since their debut in Aardman’s first adventure for the duo, the Oscar-nominated short A Grand Day Out (1989), Wallace, the dim-witted inventor, and his brilliant dog Gromit have won the hearts of critics and audiences everywhere. And this critic is no exception.
What’s special about their latest adventure, however, is that it’s actually a direct sequel to one of their finest adventures ever, the 1993 Oscar-winning short, The Wrong Trousers. In that short, the duo meets a penguin named Feathers McGraw, who, unbeknownst to them, is actually a wanted criminal. Feathers uses Wallace, and a mechanical pair of pants Wallace invented, to steal a precious diamond. However at the last second, Wallace and Gromit save the day, and successfully capture Feathers, and turn him into the police.
Thirty-one years later, Vengeance Most Fowl sees the return of Feathers. As the penguin serves his life sentence at the local zoo, Wallace has found a way to invent a “smart lawn gnome” to help with landscaping duties, hoping to start a new business with Gromit to pay their bills. That being said, thanks to some questionable information security practices from Wallace, Feathers is able to find a way to hack into Wallace’s “smart gnome” system, creating an army of smart gnomes that he can remotely control. The nefarious penguin enacts his revenge against the duo and plots once more to steal the diamond he once sought after. It’s up to Gromit to once again save the day and his hapless friend, and put their nemesis to justice once and for all.
When you go into a Wallace and Gromit adventure you know exactly what you’re getting: wit, laughs, and charming animation. Vengeance Most Fowl is no exception. It’s a fast-paced and funny caper that reminds you why these characters, and creator Nick Park, are such legendary icons in British culture. Once again, the latest Wallace and Gromit film is packed with heart and comedy that never wears thin, and always keeps you smiling. In short, it’s simply delightful.
While we haven’t seen these two characters since 2008’s A Matter of Loaf and Death, they have not lost their luster, chemistry, or the dynamic that made them favorites 35 years ago. Voice actor Ben Whitehead, who has portrayed the character of Wallace since original voice actor Peter Sallis retired in 2010, then sadly passed away in 2017, steps into his first feature-length role as the character with ease.
It feels as if the spirit of Sallis is still with this character, as Whitehead, a regular in Aardman’s productions, perfectly matches the performance seamlessly. Combined with the wonderful signature quirk of Aardman’s stop-motion style, fans are easily immersed back into this world, feeling exactly as they did growing up with the shorts and the previous film.
What makes Vengeance Most Fowl even more enjoyable for fans is the connectivity and the consistency; particularly in the return of Feathers McGraw. McGraw — a voiceless role, like Gromit — need not utter a single line to be as diabolical as he is. His return and clever machinations and scheming remind you why his first appearance earned the franchise its first Oscar in 1994. The character is a perfect foil to the true star of the franchise, Gromit. As they are evenly matched in wit and brilliance. It makes for a very exciting and entertaining tit-for-tat with the two, as they outmatch each other scene after scene.
Naturally the humor is as wonderfully sharp as ever, with regular Aardman screenwriter, Mark Burton, adding incredibly witty and funny puns, and brilliant Chaplin-esque sight gags throughout the film. There’s some cracking humor with the police characters in the film, Chief Inspector Albert Mackintosh and PC Mukherjee. And there’s a bit of a lesson too, for families, about over reliance on technology, for characters known for being inventors. As well as a lesson for Wallace to really appreciate his buddy Gromit more.
I actually do also love that they included the PC Mukherjee character, voiced by actress Lauren Patel; a passionate advocate for the inclusion of British Asian actors in British entertainment. While the series has never needed to be one defined by diversity and inclusion, it’s nice to think that the addition of Patel’s character in a franchise as iconic to Britain as Wallace and Gromit really symbolizes a sense of change within British film and television to do better.
On a technical level, you can’t do better than the hardworking animators at Aardman. Much like the geniuses at Laika, the crew behind Wallace and Gromit go to painstaking levels to bring us 90 minutes of entertainment with every stop-motion action they take with their puppets. The result is a blend of the iconic look of the franchise since 1989 with a couple new tricks thrown in for good measure. The score from legendary composer Lorne Balfe is also charming, as he perfectly crafts a sound that fits in perfectly with the light jaunty tones of what we’re used to hearing from the duo’s adventures.
If there’s one critique I’d give the film, it’s that when compared to some of the masterpieces that came out this year — such as The Wild Robot, Inside Out 2, and even Transformers: One — as charming as the movie is, it honestly does feel slight. There’s never been a whole lot of weight to this franchise, which is perfectly fine. However, with animation becoming more sophisticated and mature with every year that passes, it wouldn’t hurt Aardman to begin thinking about going deeper and more emotional on future projects. As someone who personally feels there’s a level of sophistication that needs to be recognized in animation, Aardman’s works have more or less stayed more juvenille thematically, potentially just adding more fuel to the fire for the argument that “animation is just for kids.”
That being said, there’s no way I’m ever going to fault a Wallace and Gromit movie for staying true to what this franchise is. Vengeance Most Fowl never betrays the roots that made these characters and Aardman Animation so iconic. It remains the charming, quirky, hilarious, and delightful series that it should be. And there’s no way I’ll ever want that to change. They may be almost 40 years old. But one thing’s for sure. Vengeance Most Fowl proves that these are still the characters we love, and they can still charm the wrong trousers off of you!
Overall Score: A-
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl hits Netflix on January 3.
