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Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit By David DiCerto Catholic News Service NEW YORK (CNS) -- In 1989 British animator Nick Park received an Academy Award nomination for his claymation short, "A Grand Day Out," about a fanciful flight to the moon, which first introduced us to the darling duo of cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his faithful pooch, Gromit. He repeated the feat in 1993 with "The Wrong Trousers" and again in 1995 with "A Close Shave" (winning Oscars for both). Park -- and his puppet pals -- seamlessly make the jump to feature-length films in the frolicsome and visually delightful "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (DreamWorks). And while the early odds-on favorite to win "Best Animated Feature" may be Tim Burton's recent "Corpse Bride" -- which also uses stop-motion animation -- Park's film (co-directed with Steve Box) is captivating fun. Billed as a "the world's first vegetarian horror movie," "Curse of the Were-Rabbit" finds the twosome running a pest control business ("Anti-Pesto") in a northern English town where the residents are obsessed with growing oversized veggies. With the annual "Giant Vegetable Competition" swiftly approaching, Wallace (voiced, as usual, by Peter Sallis) and Gromit find themselves in a "hare-y" situation, as the town is infested with rabbits feasting on the jumbo harvest. After an experiment to break the critters of their binging goes awry, a monstrous "were-rabbit" begins to ravage neighborhood gardens, despoiling them of their prize produce. Wallace and Gromit are hired by Lady Tottington (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter), a batty blueblood with a soft spot for bunnies, to catch the floppy-eared fiend before it jeopardizes the big contest. Rounding out the voice talent are Ralph Fiennes as Victor Quartermaine, Tottington's glory-seeking suitor who sets out to kill the creature; and Nicholas Smith as Rev. Clement Hedges, the town's daffy parson who provides Quartermaine with special gold bullets (24 "carrot," of course). The film incorporates elements of classic Universal monster movies like "The Wolfman" and "Frankenstein," with comic nods to "King Kong" and "Watership Down" as well. The characters and miniature sets are lovingly rendered down to the smallest detail, giving the film a disarming "handmade" charm, rather than the sterile slickness of more recent animation. (If you look close enough, you can see the artists' fingerprints on the clay figures.) Apart from a few "naughty" jokes that will probably go over the heads of most children, "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" is recommendable family entertainment. The film contains some double entendres and a brief, mildly irreligious sight gag. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-I -- general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is G -- general audiences. - - - DiCerto is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. END Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed. CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250 |
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