Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

I hardly noticed the quick hour and 20 minutes go by because I was so mesmerized by the quirky animation, but Wallace & Gromit is a happy and upbeat claymation film, so I recommend it to anyone who enjoys the animation genre.

Wallace (Peter Sallis) is a clever but clumsy inventor who operates Anti-Pesto, a humanitarian pest elimination service, along with his loyal and levelheaded dog, Gromit. Wallace has set up all manner of contraptions in his house as well as in his clients’ gardens in order to eliminate manual labor, and each gadget, whether it makes coffee or sets off a rabbit alarm, works quite efficiently at its intended purpose. Wallace and Gromit keep all of the apprehended rabbit as pets as an alternative to killing them, and they have been especially busy of late due to an upcoming vegetable growing contest. The contest’s organizer, Lady Tottington (Helena Bonham Carter—again), approves of Anti-Pesto’s humane business practices, so when the town is terrorized by a gigantic were-rabbit, she hires Wallace and Gromit to protect the citizens’ gardens and capture the creature. Because even were-beasts should be treated humanely, after all. Unfortunately, the gun-toting Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes) would rather hunt down and kill the were-rabbit, fearing that Wallace could become a potential rival for the affections of Lady Tottington if he should prove successful in humanely stopping the giant rabbit.

The movie was exceptionally “cute” and definitely funny; however, some might find it slightly dull in spots. While the story moves along fairly quickly, there was a lot of down-time between bouts of were-creature hunting, and the most exciting parts didn’t occur until the end of the movie. I didn’t mind these breaks in action, however, as Wallace and Gromit were absolutely charming and delightful to watch. Despite Gromit’s lack of vocal ability, I found him to be one of the funniest characters in the movie—his facial expressions and body language whenever Wallace was about to attempt something reckless were absolutely hysterical. I thoroughly enjoyed all of their scenes, and I was quite impressed with the filmmakers’ ability to create so much expression and emotion out of nothing more than facial features.

Wallace & Gromit was a very simple story, and I really liked the unique animation style. The characters were extremely lovable, and I thought the film was a delight to watch. I strongly recommend this movie as a fantastic parent-kid cinematic outing, and I don’t doubt that almost anyone who goes to see this film will certainly enjoy it.