Released: 3rd January
Seen: 5th January
In 1989 the world was introduced to a lovable cheese-obsessed inventor named Wallace and his silent sentient super-smart dog named Gromit in the Oscar-nominated short film A Grand Adventure. Little did anyone know at the time that they had created a pair of cultural icons who would go on to be a major part of British pop culture for the next 35 years and counting. The charming little claymation characters and their somehow both subdued and wacky adventures would end up being the stars of a well known trilogy of shorts that included The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave (the last two getting Oscars) and eventually made their way to the big screen with the 2005 film The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. It’s been almost 20 years since then and apart from one more short it’s been very quiet for Wallace & Gromit but now they’re back with their new film Vengeance Most Fowl and once again they’ve proven that charm and a little bit of clay is a match made in heaven.
Vengeance Most Fowl begins rather simply as a lot of Wallace & Gromit stories tend to do, with Wallace (Ben Whitehead) putting his newest invention to the test in Gromit’s garden. Wallace has created a Nifty Odd-jobbing Robot named Norbot who can do all the boring garden tasks that no one wants to do. Norbot ends up being noticed by some of Wallace’s neighbours who start hiring out Norbot to do their own odd jobs. All is well until a news report about Norbot is heard by the evil Feathers McGraw, the thieving penguin who was the principal antagonist in The Wrong Trousers. Feathers uses his evil penguin genius to remotely hack into Norbot and use him to steal from the town everything that Feathers will need to escape from his jail (AKA the local zoo) and go off to steal the Blue Diamond that he was thwarted from stealing so many years ago.
To be honest, there is really not much that can be said about Vengeance Most Fowl that can’t be said about 99% of the output from Aardman. It’s basically perfect, a joyful breezy film that’s got enough intelligence to push its comedy into some fun new strange areas but also has a sense of quiet calm that makes it easy to just enjoy a peaceful time. For a film about an evil penguin who turns garden gnomes evil in order to steal a diamond, it’s impressive how it never crosses the line from silliness into stupidity. It certainly looks in the direction of that line, occasionally makes a gesture like it’s going to head towards it but it never actually comes close enough to be concerning. It’s just a fun silly little film that uses the charm offensive so perfectly that it would be impossible to find anything to really nitpick.
Seeing a claymation film being made today in an era where non-digital forms of animation are getting rarer and rarer is one hell of a treat and this film uses the artform about as expertly as you could hope. You can feel how real everything is, the strange specific look that comes with claymation is pushed to its absolute limit here and it’s a joy to behold. There’s something so unique about claymation that can’t be captured with digital animation, it’s the way that Feathers’ arm moves when he’s lifting himself on a bar like he’s in Cape Fear or the way that something will splat against a piece of toast when thrown, little things that just look different in this specific medium that’s pushed to the extreme and shown off in grand detail that makes Vengeance Most Fowl a joy to look at.
It also doesn’t hurt that Vengeance Most Fowl is so efficiently written, there isn’t a single moment wasted (almost certainly because it takes so long to animate in this style that they need to make sure they’re only keeping the best stuff) and the story moves past at such a brisk energetic pace that you don’t even have the time for your mind to wander. Every line is either a cracking good joke or a charming little bit of character development, there’s not a single second that feels like it needed to be cut or extended to make things flow better, it’s almost scientifically formulated to just be as perfect as a film like this could be. It’s just an effortless ease to experience, you barely even have to know anything about Wallace & Gromit in order to enjoy it (ok MAYBE you might want to watch The Wrong Trousers first just to know a little more about Feathers McGraw but even that isn’t needed since they fill you in on how evil he is).
Vengeance Most Fowl is pretty much as great as you would expect a film by this creative team to be. It’s funny, silly, charming, quaint, filled with a lot of creative displays of the animation technology and the kind of film that’s easy for both adults and children to enjoy without pandering to either end of the age spectrum. It’s the kind of film that feels like it’s easy to be enjoyed by just about anyone, indeed I would be curious to meet someone who didn’t like this film because I just do not see how such a thing is possible. It’s just a delight, pure and simple.
Movie Meister Reviews 