Wallace and Gromit make a return for “Vengeance Most Fowl”
There is often a difficulty in children’s movies balancing comedic timing and serious themes for younger audiences to consume, and in “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Foul,” there seems to be the perfect mixture. “Wallace and Gromit” is the epitome of British comedy for children’s TV, and it delivers in every way. The playful claymation and lively vintage color scheme works well with the decade and situations Wallce and Gromit find themselves in. Wallace and Gromit do not take themselves too seriously yet are able to form creative conflicts. The witty banter and older feel to the movie makes it timeless and overall an enjoyable watch.
Wallace and Gromit are nowhere near being new on the animation scene. They first appeared in “A Grand Day Out,” a 1989 short directed by Nick Park, who created the iconic duo. Throughout the years, the pairing of an innovative British man and his precocious dog has brought joy to many, including other adventures on the big screen. Prior to “Vengeance Most Fowl,” Wallace and Gromit’s last theatrical romp, “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” garnered the team at Ardman an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. After almost 20 years, Wallace and Gromit are back to the movies, as “Vengeance Most Fowl,” follows the duo trying to stop a robot gnome gone wild. The film is funny, creative and jam-packed with small nods and references that any Wallace and Gromit fan is sure to recognize.
The movie begins when Wallace invents a smart bot named Norbot to support him in household chores and daily living until their prior opponent, the penguin Feathers McGraw, shows up and wires Norbot for his own evil plot. Gromit soon becomes suspicious of Norbot’s behavior, leading up to a long series of events where he must rescue Wallace from being blamed for crimes curated by the now turned evil robot, Norbot.
The film continues on with its iconic stop-motion claymation design, where Ardman has integrated CGI for the more detailed scenes. This keeps the fluidity within the animation without disregarding the old quirks and charm from the previous movies. With the good animation it makes the plot easy to follow, the detail so impressive and intricate it sets a new standard for the claymation industry, especially for children’s films. I deeply enjoyed the stylistic choices for the movie and the character choices they made. Everything felt so cohesive and melted into the script effortlessly.
“Wallace & Gromit” has always utilized slapstick traditional comedy, as seen in Wallace’s careless and clumsy interactions with the characters around him, and Gromit’s attempts to fix everything up. Comedy is hard to grasp when watching a children’s movie or show and often does not stick for older audiences, but the clever writing really allowed me to enjoy the majority of the jokes without seeing them coming or getting bored after a while. Wallace and Gromit’s dynamic is shown throughout the series but in this movie, their bond seems to have strengthened to a new level when they are wrongly accused of a plethora of crimes and fight back for their freedoms.
“Wallace and Gromit” is a well-rounded movie that has comedy for all ages, action for all levels and a heartfelt story showing human connection during a time of technological advancement.
