Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - Palm Beach Post movie review

'Wallace & Gromit': Charming show doesn't live up to 'Chicken Run'

By HAP ERSTEIN
Palm Beach Post

Perhaps after waiting five years for Nick Park's follow-up to his first, exceedingly clever Claymation feature film, Chicken Run, expectations were too high. Or maybe in a marketing decision, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit somehow got aimed more at youngsters than adults.

Whatever the reason, the feature debut of cheese-loving British inventor Wallace and his trusty, silent dog Gromit is something of a letdown. More enjoyable for its intricate, low-tech, plasticine-manipulating form than its mostly kids' stuff content, it is an entertaining enough diversion, but hardly the repeat-viewing-required, grown-up satire that Chicken Run was.

DreamWorks Animation SKG

'Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit'

C+

The verdict: Disarming, intricate clay characters, in a script more geared to youngsters.

Directors: Steve Box, Nick Park
Starring: Sallis, Helena Bonham-Carter, Ralph Fiennes, John Thomson, Peter Kay
Run time: 94 minutes
Release date: Oct. 7, 2005
Rating: G
See showtimes

On the web
Official movie site
View the trailer
Trailers require Quicktime

There are glimmers of sly humor in the screenplay by Park, his co-director Steve Box, Madagascar's Mark Burton and longtime Wallace & Gromit contributor Bob Baker. Since they now run a humane extermination business, the mere mention of its name — Anti-Pesto — promises a level of verbal mirth that rarely shows up again. Add in the book titles hiding Wallace's treasured cheeses — such classics as East of Edam or Grated Expectations — and you have just about exhausted the "sophisticated" jokes.

It is Wallace and Gromit's assignment to patrol and defend the backyard gardens of the horticulturally inclined citizens of their otherwise peaceful Northern England town. The culprits tend to be bunnies, who get sucked out of their underground lairs by Wallace's ingenious Bun-Vac 6000, then blown into his basement where they keep multiplying like, well, you know.

This works relatively well, until Wallace tests out another marvel of modern science, his Mind-O-Matic, designed to brainwash the hares into losing their craving for veggies. Of course, the experiment backfires and creates a mammoth mutant rabbit, who starts terrorizing all leafy greens, just before the annual Giant Vegetable Competition. Yikes!

Most put out is carrot-topped Lady Tottington (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter, on her days off from Corpse Bride), the sponsor of the competition. She is a clay hottie to whom Wallace finds himself drawn. This raises the ire of blustery Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes), who vows to shoot the mega-bunny, even if it takes a solid gold bullet to do it.

All of this affords Park and Box an opportunity to spoof classic horror films, from The Wolf Man to King Kong, but only in the broadest ways. Again, it is hardly with the cunning that Chicken Run sent up The Great Escape and other prison-of-war epics.

Nevertheless, Wallace is a terrific, understated character (voiced with perplexed rigidity by veteran British actor Peter Sallis) and animated with a retro flair that simply makes one smile. The same goes for his sidekick Gromit, whose expressions come almost entirely from his eyebrows. Park, in his wisdom, gave Gromit no mouth, turning him into a silent movie comic.

Wallace & Gromit are virtually national celebrities in England. Perhaps they could never rise to that fervency over here, but The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a bit of a comedown, a pleasant 80 minutes, but hardly a must-see.