Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham’s “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” is the second “Wallace and Gromit” film from Aardman Animations, the sensible manufacturing unit that creates great comedies by using stop-motion, clay-animated figures.
The opposite distringuishing function of Aardman Animations is that they’re completely hilarious.
I knew their new film was off to an awesome begin when it introduces its mega-villain, Feathers McGraw, by doing a parody of the jail scenes from Martin Scorsese’ “Cape Concern” (1991). Any kids’s movie that manages to justify a Scorsese spoof is ok with me.
The story opens with McGraw’s twisted incarceration (it’s greater than only a jail sentence), the results of him being thwarted by the kindly inventor Wallace and his silent however eager canine Gromit. Whereas McGraw plots his revenge behind bars, a wierd new improvement enters Wallace and Gromit’s residence: a robotic backyard gnome named Norbot, who aides in family chores and backyard pruning.
Gromit rapidly realizes that Norbot is bother, whereas Wallace is grateful to have an environment friendly employee and ignores Gromit’s warnings that Norbot is as much as no good.
Norbot is such a humorous character (a form of cross between C-3P0 and a Gremlin), I by no means grew uninterested in it, nor all of the facial expressions Gromit shares with Norbot that establishes their rising unease with one another. By the best way, this film is rated PG: the reason being acknowledged as “Impolite Humor,” however particularly younger audiences could discover the eerie close-ups of Norbot to be type of scary.
The timing couldn’t be higher, with the rise in movies portraying modern fears of synthetic intelligence garnering sinister personas and agendas. Within the wake of “Imaginary” and “AfrAId,” each from this yr, in addition to the just-warming-up “M3GAN” franchise, the depiction right here of mistrust and outright terror in the direction of handy residence know-how feels very “of the second.”
There’s a sequence early on the place Gromit witnesses how Norbot can “cost” itself in a single day, a gag that’s the solely laugh-until-you-cry little bit of film hilarity I’ve had all yr. An in depth second is the usage of Matt Monro’s “Born Free” at an ideal second.
The grand finale is a ship chase down a canal, which isn’t solely creative and hilarious, however fairly thrilling. This exceptional set piece manages to parody massive scale motion films (a second from “Mission Inconceivable: Lifeless Reckoning- Half 1” is given a nutty spin) and works as a correct climax.
One of many joys of being on the film beat was getting to fulfill Peter Lord, one of many Aardman founders; Lord was doing press for “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” (2012) and agreed to an interview.
I obtained to inform him how I had not too long ago handled a household tragedy and that watching “Shaun the Sheep” with my spouse and laughing hysterically had been a shared consolation for us. Lord then opened his rucksack, pulled out a figurine and confirmed me one of many characters used within the Pirate film: seeing it up shut was dazzling, because it didn’t resemble an motion determine as a lot as a pint-sized character, with immaculate element within the costume and close-up particulars.
That degree of care and high quality has all the time been seen of their work. Moments in “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” that happen in an ornate backyard are price watching carefully, as tiny bugs or birds within the background are straightforward to overlook.
There’s so much right here that’s beautiful in its artistic richness, in addition to the type of impressed silliness we’d get from Monty Python. When it comes to related satire, there’s sufficient right here to make you giggle and admire each new and outdated know-how.
Sure, it is a comedy for each technophiles and technophobes.
The place does the movie fall on the Aardman movie legacy? It’s as humorous and dazzling as “Hen Run” and “Shaun the Sheep Film,” and higher than “Flushed Away,” “Early Man” and “The Pirates!” (2012). I beloved the primary “Wallace and Gromit” film, “The Curse of the Had been-Rabbit” however this one is a lot funnier.
I’m scripting this assessment on December 1st however I’m going to name it: that is the very best comedy of 2024.
4 Stars