‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix © 2024.
Arriving on Netflix on January 3rd, ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ is the long-awaited return for oblivious, cheery inventor Wallace and his loyal but endlessly put-upon pooch Gromit, who ever since they were created by animator/director Nick Park in 1989.
And it’s a relief to reveal that the pair do not disappoint, the new film featuring them proving to have all the charm and wacky humor audiences have come to know and love from their shorts and movies.
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Is ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ a cracking caper?
‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix © 2024.
The new movie featuring Wallace and Gromit carries a fair amount of baggage. Not only are the main characters a staple of short films for British audiences, but they have a storied history around the world, including 2005’s horror spoof ‘Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,’ which went on to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year.
While their style and humor is uniquely British (it’s unlikely that a large portion of the viewing audience in the States will know exactly what “flippin’ Nora!” means, but you can figure it out from context), the mime/pantomime elements of the stories have always made them more universal than efforts that rely more on dialogue.
And though it might be helpful to watch TV movie ‘The Wrong Trousers’ (sadly not available to stream easily here), the team have filled in enough of the backstory to make it easily digestible to anyone whose first encounter with the inventor and his dog is this movie.
Script and Direction
(L to R) Directors Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix © 2024.
Written by Nick Park –– who has shepherded the characters since he created them –– along with Mark Burton, an Aardman regular who also worked ‘The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ among other projects, the script for the new outing feels truly of a piece with precious ‘Wallace & Gromit’ stories.
There is the winning blend of charming British humor, movie references and a welcome depth to the characterization of the main duo, which is all the more impressive since one of them doesn’t even talk. This feels fueled by an obsession with classic movie comedy and yet is also up to date with its ruminations on the impact of technology on today’s society).
Park is also the main director for the movie, working alongside Merlin Crossingham who has risen through the Aardman ranks from the animation department and makes his directorial debut here. ‘Vengeance Most Fowl’ is both a leap forward in terms of the visual style and the techniques used, but also still looks like it was made by the same people who carefully crafted the previous entries.
It might not quite match the sheer audacity and breakneck pace of the shot it directly follows, ‘The Wrong Trousers,’ but ‘Vengeance Most Fowl’ is certainly worthy of standing alongside it.
Performances
‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix © 2024.
Ben Whitehead as Wallace
As with the movie itself, Whitehead is tasked with continuing the legacy of its central voice performance, played for years by beloved British character actor Peter Sallis. Whitehead has taken on the role since Sallis’ death in 2017 and there is an admirable continuity here –– Wallace is still his absent-minded, goofball self.
Peter Kay as Inspector Mackintosh
The ‘Wallace & Gromit’ movies have always excelled at their portrayals of clumsy, blowhard authority figures, and the bumbling police officer here is a great one. Kay gives him the right blend of know-it-all attitude and utter confusion.
Lauren Patel as PC Mukherjee
There has been a welcome move towards more racial inclusion in the last couple of decades of ‘Wallace’ shorts and movies, and Patel’s performance fits in well with the story overall. She’s the overenthusiastic young police officer who figures out what’s really going on but faces disbelief from her idiotic superior.
Reece Shearsmith as Norbot
Shearsmith, a long-time comedy performer in the UK only has a limited amount of actual dialogue in the movie as the robot garden gnome Wallace invents, but he’s hilarious with his cheery delivery –– which slowly becomes something more sinister.
Gromit and Feathers McGraw
‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix © 2024.
Neither character has a voice in the film, but they are the twin keys to truly making this one fly –– the ying and yang of smarts among the ensemble. Gromit has always been a fantastic comic creation, his eyebrows, eyes and posture speaking volumes and his indomitable spirit still intact here.
Master criminal Feathers McGraw, the penguin felon who was introduced in ‘The Wrong Trousers,’ returns here and he’s still a fantastic villain –– silent but with all the crafty invention of Moriarty from the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ series. And despite just having two beads for eyes and an unmoving beak he is, like Gromit, superbly expressive.
Supporting Cast
The ‘Wallace & Gromit’ stories have always needed a deep bench of other characters to function on a bigger scale such as this, and Wallace’s home town features a welcome gaggle of them, including the local TV news crew and town officials, plus the various customers who initially appreciate Wallace’s efforts with his robo-gnomes, and then are outraged when they start to steal from them.
Final Thoughts
‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’. © 2024 Netflix, Inc.
Considering it has been nearly 17 years since we had Wallace and Gromit on our screens, it feels like almost no time at all has passed.
Brought to life with typical care, attention and pop cultural references (though they never overwhelm the story), ‘Vengeance Most Fowl’ is worthy of consideration among their best outings.
‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ receives 8.5 out of 10 stars.
“New friends. Old enemies.”
Gromit’s concern that Wallace is becoming too dependent on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a “smart” gnome that seems to develop a mind… Read the Plot
What’s the story of ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’?
In this latest adventure for the animated duo, Gromit’s concern that Wallace (Ben Whitehead) is becoming too dependent on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a “smart” gnome that seems to develop a mind of its own.
When it emerges that a vengeful figure from the past might be masterminding things, it falls to Gromit to battle sinister forces and save his master… or Wallace may never be able to invent again!
Who else stars in ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’?
The voice cast for the movie also includes Peter Kay, Lauren Patel, Reece Shearsmith, Diane Morgan, Lenny Henry and Adjoa Andoh.
‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix © 2024.