Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

Cheese enthusiast and inventor Wallace (Peter Sallis – voice), and his much put upon dog, Gromit, run a humane pest control service, saving the local’s “veg” from rabbits. Things are looking up when they are hired by Lady Tottington (Helena Bonham Carter), though her less humane suitor, Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes), is less than thrilled. As the village’s vegetable-growing contest approaches, a new pest appears, one which the vicar proclaims to be a were-rabbit.

The Bunny-Vac 6000™ sucks happy-go-hopping critters out of their holes and into its whirling chamber. And that says it all. Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit has a Bunny-Vac 6000™ and it is as delightful as every other aspect of the film.

The first three half hour Wallace & Gromit shorts (A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave) won two Academy awards and three BAFTAs, and are arguably the best short films since Elmer sang “Kill the Rabbit,” certainly since Linus missed the Great Pumpkin. Still I was concerned when I heard a feature was coming. Theatrical disappointments have been plentiful in recent years, and the Wallace & Gromit short-shorts Cracking Contraptions, while enjoyable, didn’t have the magic of the originals. Director/Animator Nick Park’s earlier feature, Chicken Run, was amusing, but it was no A Close Shave.

I needn’t have worried.  The idiosyncratic Wallace and Gromit, the dog who only communicates through his eyes, and then it’s usually worry, are back with all the magic in place. The word “charming” was invented for this film. The jokes, many of them puns, don’t miss and the action is exciting (very rare in G-rated animation). It is easy to be sucked into this 3-D claymation world (a bit like the bunnies were), and care if this cheese-loving Brit will save the day, or more likely, if his trusty dog will.

You can find plenty written on the technique used in making this film and how amazing it is. But I don’t care about the work that went on behind the scenes (or I’d be praising Waterworld). I only care about what ended up on screen, and I have no complaints. I’m in the rather annoying position as a critic of finding nothing wrong with this picture. It’s been a while since I could say that.

In order to expand the duo’s adventure to feature length, Park, and writers Bob Baker, Steve Box, and Mark Burton filled in the world, creating a richer environment. Always very British, this outing has even more of the feeling of an old Ealing comedy, with eccentric, dim, but basically good characters living in an idyllic, never-never land of an England we all wish existed. In this world, nothing is more important that winning a vegetable contest at the faire.

But don’t think it’s all just cuteness. There’s a touch of the old Looney Tunes mania running wild.  Plus, the film is seeped in the atmosphere of the old Universal horror movies. No film made since 1943 has been better at summoning up the tropes of Frankenstein and The Wolf Man. Plus, this one has carrots. Park has called this “the first vegetarian horror movie ever,” and so it is.