Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit is the first film I’ve decided to turn my blogging energies to.
I’ve been a fan of W&G since I first saw “The Wrong Trousers” on TV – and it remains my favourite W&G film.
When I left the cinema I had a feeling of emptyness. The first coherent thought to go across my mind was “What has Nick Park done? That was not a Wallace and Gromit film. Somehow it managed to be stupid.”
A week on, after reflecting on the film and reading comments other people have on the film I’m starting to accept that it wasn’t that bad.
Perhaps, as other Australian viewers might appreciate, it was the inclusion of the Madagascar Penguin short and the Shmackos movie (a 10 minute non-sensical advertisment) that starting things on the wrong foot. All up, 35 minutes was spent staring at inane garbage. The Penguin short was funny but I’ve seen that on DVD – I paid to see Wallace and Gromit!!
Sigh…
When the films titles started and the familiar W&G theme began I had high hopes. Immediately the visual gags started coming – I especially liked the photo of Gromit’s graduation from ‘Dogwarts’ – very cute.
The animation was stop-motion claymation at its finest. I especially liked the fact that it wasn’t perfect. I thought Chicken Run was too highly polished – it had lost that Aardman charm. There is nothing like a shot of Gromit with a big fingerprint on his nose! That is the W&G I love.
Gromit was certainly the star of the show. Silent yet expressive, as always – Gromit is unarguably one of the best silent actors of all time.
It will find its way into my DVD collection…
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