Sometimes I think we put too much pressure on Aardman Animation. They’re the filmmakers who brought us “Wallace and Gromit,” “Chicken Run,” “Arthur Christmas” and “Shaun the Sheep,” so they have a very long legacy of high-quality and hilarious movies. Even their underwhelming films, like “Flushed Away,” aren’t nearly as bad as the worst movies made by their competitors. So we expect Aardman — like we expect Studio Ghibli (or like we used to expect Pixar) — to knock it out of the park every single time, and that’s not fair. They’re only human. It would be no great tragedy if the long-awaited, second feature-length “Wallace and Gromit” movie wasn’t very good.
Fortunately, the long-awaited, second feature-length “Wallace and Gromit” movie is great. So that whole first paragraph was just a big misdirect and I apologize. (It kind of got away from me.)
“Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” is a direct sequel to “The Wrong Trousers,” one of Nick Park’s original Oscar-winning shorts. If you’ve never seen it, stop reading this review right now and go see it. If you have seen it, stop reading this review right now and go watch it again. It’s still absolutely magical.
In “The Wrong Trousers,” dippy inventor Wallace and his loyal dog Gromit take in a new lodger to help pay the bills. Their guest is a chicken, but there’s something off about this chicken. Probably because he’s obviously a penguin wearing a read elastic glove on his head. His real name is Feathers McGraw and he’s a criminal mastermind who used Wallace’s inventions to steal a rare and valuable diamond, before he was ultimately foiled by our lovable heroes.
“Vengeance Most Fowl” picks up years later, with Feathers McGraw still in prison — a.k.a. the zoo — and plotting his revenge like Max Cady in “Cape Fear.” Wallace (Ben Whitehead) and Gromit are oblivious to the danger and busy pondering the pros and cons of how technology has taken over contemporary civilized life. Specifically Wallace’s technology, since his new invention Norbot (Reece Shearsmith), an artificially intelligent robotic garden gnome, now does all of their household chores. Even the ones Gromit likes doing, like tending his garden.
Gromit resents Norbot, which to be fair is one of the most annoying gadgets in the world. But Feathers McGraw sees Wallace’s creations on the news and hatches a plan to reprogram Norbot, build an army of high-tech gnomes, go on a crime spree and frame Wallace in the process. The town’s useless lawman, Chief Inspector Mackintosh (Peter Kay), is easily fooled by McGraw’s schemes, but his apprentice PC Mukherjee (Lauren Patel, “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie”) is a little harder to bamboozle. Not much harder, but a little.
As stories go, “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” is enjoyably uncomplicated. Their last feature “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” is practically “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” in comparison. Wallace’s inventions get them in trouble, Feathers McGraw steals stuff, there’s a bit of a kerfuffle and a chase scene at the end. Bob’s your uncle. And if he’s not, then whoever your uncle is, that’s your uncle. (And if you don’t have an uncle, nobody’s your uncle. Sorry about that.)
We don’t come to “Wallace and Gromit” movies for their plots. Even character development is a low priority. They’re static creations, like many of the great cartoon characters, whose tales are all about upsetting their status quo and then setting it back again. There isn’t even the pretense of a love interest this time around, since there’s no way that’s ever going to stick. Wallace will always be adorably out of it and Gromit will always have the patience of a saint. Feathers McGraw will always be a diabolical mad genius and one of the best movie villains ever created. I will hear no arguments to the contrary.
There may be some concern about Wallace’s portrayal, since the legendary Peter Sallis passed away in 2017. He had big shoes to fill, but they fit Ben Whitehead quite nicely. He captures Sallis’s tonality, cadence and comic timing without ever sounding like a mere impersonator. He doesn’t bring anything noticeably new to the role but it doesn’t seem like he was invited too. Again, Wallace and Gromit are frozen in time. Evolution isn’t in the cards.
What is in the cards are puns. So many puns. Puns for ages. Puns and puns and puns. There are so many puns that [tries to think up a pun about puns] there are a lot of them. Look, I’ll leave the puns to Aardman Animation. They’re the pundits after all.
“Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” doesn’t quite the ambitious razzle-dazzle of “Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” a film which relished in its increased budget and resources and tried to push the envelope on stop-motion animation. This is more like a very long Wallace and Gromit short film. That’s a wonderful thing to be. It’s got great heroes, a memorable villain, and more whimsy than is probably recommended by medical science. Which is to say, just the right amount of whimsy. It’s a lovable, beautiful world that these characters inhabit. It’s always a delight to visit them, and always a shame that we have to leave.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl will be available globally January 3rd on Netflix, except for the UK where it will be available on BBC iPlayer and BBC One this Christmas. It will also be available in select theatres beginning December 18th.
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