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Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit review
2005.11.05 — Entertainment | Movies | Movie Reviews | by Andrew Cole
Together, they are quite a team. [official site] |
Wallace and his redoubtable canine Gromit return to theaters at last in Curse of the Were-rabbit. The cunning pair have a plan to rid the town of pesky rabbits before the giant vegetable show. Not only do they want to stop the ravenous thievery not only for the clients whose gardens they protect, but because they are giant veggie growers themselves.
Or, at least, Gromit is. Wallace seems interest only in cheese, which appears to be some sort of mental disorder.
Nick Park and Steve Box teamed up again to create the clay world that Wallace and Gromit inhabit. Peter Salis returns as Wallace, naturally, this time romancing client Helena Bonham-Carter as Lady Tottington. Ralph Fiennes, fresh off Constant Gardner, plays nasty Victor Quartermaine, a gun-happy suitor of Lady Tottington who is happy to try to hunt down the monster of the title.
The creepiness of 84-year-old Salis romancing 39-year-old Bonham-Carter is gracefully masked by the animated clay characters.... |
The creepiness of 84-year-old Salis romancing 39-year-old Bonham-Carter is gracefully masked by the animated clay characters, but Lady Tottington is frightening enough on her own. She appears to have a lipstick-application problem, for one thing.
The usual fun and crazy gadgets are here, including Wallace's morning prep machine and some clever anti-rabbit devices. The were-rabbit (couldn't it have been a were-hare?) is the accidental creation of Wallace and Gromit themselves, after they try to create and use a machine to alter the vegetable-loving minds of the furry creatures they've captured.
Bonham-Carter's Tottington is pleasantly both air- and level-headed. |
Gromit is once again the brains of the operation, altho Wallace is certainly no dim bulb. Together, they track the were-rabbit with relentless cunning... until things go hilariously awry. Fiennes's nasty Victor is an excellent, if somewhat inept, villain and rival, and Bonham-Carter's Tottington is pleasantly both air- and level-headed.
The action never quite rises to the ingenious level of past efforts, but the whole is a very satisfying ride. |
There are the usual chases and confrontations, with Parks's and Box's trademark complications and humor. The action never quite rises to the ingenious level of past efforts, but the whole is a very satisfying ride. The story is ostensibly a horror story, and the twisty plot plays that out well, but not particularly frighteningly. In some ways, The Wrong Trousers was more frightening.
[T]hey seem more spontaneous and whimsical than the calculated plotting of Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks SKG. |
But Wallace and Gromit still stand head and shoulders over most animated characters in feature film. Despite the incredibly tedium of animating clay figures, they seem more spontaneous and whimsical than the calculated plotting of Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks SKG.
Park and Box tell simple stories with clever elements; not clever stories with simple elements. They don't explore the angst of single parenthood or the malaise of bourgeois middle-class suburban life. They don't exploit the latest elements of pop culture and cram heartfelt ballads into the tale. Wallace wouldn't know a heartfelt ballad from a heart by-pass operation. But he does know his cheeses....
f e e d b a c k
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