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

Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) is the best G-rated movie I've ever seen. It's endearing, funny, and beautiful to watch. Some of the visual humor is quite adult, and quite clever because there is no way a small child could get it (such as when Wallace ends up naked with only an empty box of cheese around his waste - the box has "May contain nuts" printed on it).

As usual, Gromit is the scene stealer. How body language and eyebrows can say so much is a testament to the ability of the animators. The relationship he has with Wallace is unique and lovely.

Ralph Feinnes as the mostly evil Victor Quartermaine is also to be watched. Who knew that an aristocratic nincumpoop could be boiled down to a dour, turned down lip, puffy purple eyelids, and the haughtiest English accent you've ever in your life heard.

I can't but help but note with approval that this is essentially vegetarian, at least by omission. Even the veg ravaging rabbits that Wallace and Gromit catch are 'stored' in cages rather than killed. (In fact, dealing with the ever-increasing storage problem is a central plot-feature of the movie.)

It need not be mentioned that the animation is top-notch. I can only imagine how much work it took to animate some parts of this movie, such as when Wallace & Gromit's "Anti-Pesto" truck is pulled beneath the earth in a giant rabit hole, getting covered in hundreds if not thousands of individual pieces of mud. AFAIK this was a fully claymation movie, and such a feat could not have been easy.

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