de facto film reviews 3.5 stars

Since the late 1980’s, Aardman Animation’s duo of Wallace and his top dog, Gromit, have delighted audiences around the world. After several iconic short films including A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, the stop-motion heroes made their leap to the big-screen in the 2005 film, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The hit film won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature and has continued to show its staying power, charting atop the list of family films last year on Netflix. Finally returning in a feature film after nearly 20 years, the lovable inventor and his silent pooch prove they can still offer up a cracking delight.

Courtesy Netflix

Wallace (Ben Whitehead, taking over for the late, Peter Sallis) and his silent best pooch, Gromit, are living their quaint lives, building endless inventions years after saving the Blue Diamond from the villainous, Feathers McGraw. The evil silent Penguin has been sentenced to prison, where he works forced labor at a nearby Zoo as he carefully plans his escape. Several years later, Wallace, to help out Gromit with his level of yard work, invents a small android gnome named Norbot. However, through a series of humorous close calls and convoluted planning, Feathers McGraw, from his prison cell, manages to hack into Norbot’s mainframe and switch his settings from “good to “evil”. Norbot soon becomes an entire army of evil Norbots, plotting to break Feathers out of prison and wreak havoc, causing reports of crime to pile up. Wallace is oblivious to the real status of his invention, while Gromit senses something is wrong and investigates on his own. Soon, the classic duo is suspected of the crimes,

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, despite coming nearly 20 years after Curse of the Were-Rabbit, feels just as fresh and funny as the films in the duo’s heyday. Serving partly as a direct sequel to the classic short, The Wrong Trousers, with the return of the villainous Feathers McGraw, Vengeance Most Fowl adheres closer to the tone of the whimsical madcap adventures of the first few Wallace & Gromit shorts. Director Nick Park and co-Director Merlin Crossingham fill the frame with numerous, densely packaged sight gags that never fail to generate strong laughs. The inventiveness that comes with the visual gags are first rate, with audiences likely to catch many of the funniest jokes on repeat viewings.

Courtesy Netflix

Park’s film is only boasted by Mark Burton’s whip-smart screenplay that playfully mixes genres while very explicitly calling out the dangers of the over-usage of AI. Throughout the film’s brisk 80-minute runtime, the filmmakers are able to infuse comprehensible threads about our world’s growing dependency on AI, while using those threads to further the film’s stakes. Wallace’s Norbots are painted almost like mini-Terminators, with very little in the way of stopping them. There’s an immediate threat that makes these creations so formidable and even a bit frightening. And yes, the Norbots, who start out looking cutesy, become little demons that seemingly only Gromit knows are capable of real harm. This mix of tension and mystery is well-balanced with the family-friendly hijinks audiences come to expect.

While Vengeance Most Fowl may not have the storytelling prowess of Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the climax is where the filmmakers fully unload their bag of cinematic tricks. Blending in elements of a heist film, chase movie and a throwback to classic action cinema, the final act of Wallace & Gromit becomes a full-throttle blast. Aardman’s trademark stop-motion animation is vibrant and endlessly charming, but manages to still induce awe in how its able to illustrate complex sequences. A climactic set piece aboard a moving train is as stunning a feat of filmmaking as most anything from this past year. The filmmakers’ love of classic film is utilized to its fullest potential with bits of genuine suspense and moving sentiments amidst an exciting and witty finale. This climax would work as its own short film, which goes to show how skilled of storytellers Nick Park and his team are.

 

Courtesy Netflix

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a wonderful new adventure for the classic duo. The animation team at Aardman haven’t lost a step with another inventive, charming and enormously funny new film. Director Nick Park succeeds in telling a timely story about the fear of AI while merging several different genres together for a unique and joyful film experience. This is a terrific piece of work, one that proves some heroes are simply timeless.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is now streaming on Netflix.