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 Wallace & Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Widescreen Edition) :: 0262220598
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| A decade after their last hilarious short, the Oscar-winning A Close Shave, Claymation wonders Wallace and Gromit return for a full-length adventure. Daffy scientist Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis) and his heroic dog Gromit are doing well with their business, Anti-Pesto, a varmint-hunting outfit designed to keep their English town safe from rabbits chomping on prized vegetables. Wallace meets Lady Tottington (Helena Bonham Carter), who appreciates Wallace's humane way of dealing with rabbits (courtesy of the Bun-Vac 6000), and sets up a rivalry with the gun-toting Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes, enjoying himself more than ever). Creator Nick Park, with co-director/writer Steve Box, delivers a story worthy of the 85-minute running time, although it stretches the act a bit; the formula plays better shorter, but the literally hand-crafted film is a joy to watch. Taking a chapter from classic horror films, a giant were-rabbit is soon on the prowl, and the town is up in arms, what with the annual vegetable contest close at hand. (Anyone who's seen the previous three shorts knows who saves the day.) Never content to do something simply when the extravagant will do, W&G's lives are filled with whimsical Rude Goldberg-style devices, and the opening number showcasing their alarm system is pure Aardman Animation at its finest. Even though there's a new twist here--a few mild sight gags aimed at adults--this G-rated film will delight young and old alike as Park, like team Pixar, seems incapable of making anything but an outstanding film. --Doug Thomas See more clay animation and Wallace & Gromit titles...
Director Nick Park on DVD
Stop-Motion & Clay Animation Titles
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Author: Guest
i think that this film is a whole new thing for wallace and gromit and all the crew too.it took 5(?)years to make and only doin 3-4 seconds a day is pretty slow work and its only 84 mins anyway.gromit has never said anything but the amount of feelings from a clay dog is pretty amazing. if the question was whether to do another full length movie then i would say no they are better left short and sweet!!!its a v. funny film for all ages but would have been beta if a full lenght movie wasnt made -too much hard work for a film that never may become a family claasic for our and the next generation to come.
p.s im over 13 i just didnt no how else 2 do a review!
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Author: Guest
2005 was not a good year for movies at all. 3 of the better ones to come out were actually foreign films that were finally released here after 1-3 years. 2005 was an especially bad year for family movies. Disasters like Valiant, Madagascar, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and many more didn't do a good job of capturing what it is that makes a family film family oriented. It's not just cooky characters, pop culture references, and cheap jokes. It takes more than that. Disney, who's lost their magic over the years, is the main offender, and smaller companies are going more for visuals than anything else. But there was one ray of hope last year from someone who still knows what he's doing and how to make a family picture. Nick Park brought us the first real movie for two of the most lovable characters in animated history- Wallace and Gromit. What's amazing about Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is how simple it is. Claymation, not computer animation, is the style here, and it doesn't look dated at all. If anything, it looks better than more recent CG attempts like Hoodwinked and Madagascar. If more studios realized this, we wouldn't be in the family movie slump that we're in today. Wallace and Gromit will always be something worth watching, no matter who you are.
Wallace is a simple-minded inventor, with nothing but good intentions in any situation. His pet and partner, Gromit, keeps the peace- often saving Wallace from his own inventions, as shown in their previous outings. They're working as pest control in order to save vegetables for the local Giant Vegetable Festival from rabbits, which have been popping up like crazy lately. The two get a big job offer from the wealthy Lady Tottington, whose land has become infested. The two take care of the problem, in a humane manner, but bump into her jealous hunter boyfriend (or hopeful boyfriend?), Victor, who insists that the rabbits should be killed. Wallace begins to get a crush on Tottington, which doesn't help Victor's view on him. After a rabbit rehabilitation experiment goes wrong, a Were-Rabbit begins to terrorize the town. And by "terrorize", I mean "eat all their hopeful prize vegetables". Wallace and Gromit race to put an end to the Were-Rabbit in a non-harmful manner, while Victor tries to be the hero, with a more permanent solution to the problem.
See how simple the plot is? And yet, a lot happens in this movie. A plot twist, a great plane battle later on, a noble sacrifice, cute bunnies, and more is what you can expect with this movie. This really is an all-out family movie. It's not just for kids: there are a few things that adults will get a kick out of too. It's something I'd show to my kids without hesitation. Previous fans of Wallace and Gromit were wondering how an hour and a half movie of the dynamic duo would hold up, since their previous adventures were mere half hour installments. I can tell you that this movie does definitely hold up. There are a few minor times when the movie's pacing gets slow, but it's never for too long. Who knew that what was originally 30 minute shorts could translate into a full length motion picture so easily? Actually, this makes me wish they would go back and make A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave longer as well. If anything Curse of the Were-Rabbit has made me an even bigger fan of Wallace and Gromit, and sparked my interest in claymation after a few years of pretty much forgetting about it. I also have to mention how much the characters and animation have improved since A Close Shave. If you remember the three shorts, you could see some finger prints and other minor errors with the clay models for the characters. Here, there's none to be found. Nick Park and company have perfected the art, making it almost look CG at times. And how about those sets? The attention to detail is to die for. Yep, every aspect of this movie is perfect (despite the minor things I said about pacing). And it only gets better with the dvd treatment.
Thank god they didn't release this in full screen only. Everything shows up perfectly in this transfer. You can make out all the tiny details, see each individual stand of hair on the Were-Rabbit, enjoy the colors, and everything. There's no grain or anything to hinder the viewing experience. It's as clean as it can possibly be, which is more than I can for A Grand Day Out, which was plagued with some artifacts and grain more times than not. My god are there a lot of audio options here: English and French Dolby 5.1, and English and Spanish 2.0. That's more than most animated fares these days. The audio is perfectly transferred from the big screen. There's no fuzz or crispy sounds that shouldn't be there. There's a great use of surround too, like the rabbit rehab scene, where the dialogue's center channel focused, but the sound effects and soundtrack move around, making for a great experience.
They didn't hold off on the special features here. First is a commentary track with Nick Park and his crew is great. The guys have an absolute blast talking about everything regarding the movie. Original ideas for scenes, what they decided to add in order to get more laughs out of the audience (who might've assumed the movie was scary), what little CG there was, and more, you'll learn a lot from this track. You can tell that Nick Park wanted what was best for the audience, not himself. Breaking down scenes, editing them countless times, the guy really knows how to give 100%. Nick was definitely happy with the finished product here- especially the music. I'm glad this guy's gotten the success that he has. He deserves it. The deleted scenes are a bit misleading- there are only a few finished deleted scenes, and the rest are story boards put together with the proper audio. Though, the voices aren't done by the original actors. It's worth noting that there are some alternate endings here, all of which are fun to watch. There's optional commentary by Nick Park, in which he explains why they were cut (in a very detailed manner), and apologizes for the hard work that had to be taken out. Very cool of him. How Wallace and Gromit Went to Hollywood is a 20 minute featurette, and probably the best extra aside from the commentary. It gives a good timeline of how far Nick Park's work has come along, interviews with his friends and coworkers, and everything else. One of the more interesting tidbits here is that the W+G shorts saved the Wensleydale cheese factory from being shut down. I also learned that, sadly, the movie's figures and sets burned down just one day after the movie hit theaters. Behind the Scenes is a 12 minute featurette that covers some of the usual behind the scenes things. Footage of story boards, interviews, and the usual are here in this talking heads extra. A Day in the Life at Aardman is a short look at the Aardman studios, and is only really worth watching once. Unless you absolutely need to see everything W+G related, there's not much to get out of this. How to Build a Bunny is just that- a short featurette with one of the animators going over how to make your own clay bunny. It's cool to see just how simple it is, with or without the metal skeleton. I do wish they would've shown how they made the Were-Rabbit though. Stage Fright is an animated short from Steve Box (Park's co-director) about a dog juggler and his problems entertaining people. You can really see the influence this had on Chicken Run. This has optional commentary by Box. It's a fun piece to watch, and not too long (11 minutes). Finally are trailers and photo galleries, and even some games for the kids (found under the main menu's DWK logo).
Simply put, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is perfection, as a movie, and as a dvd. If you don't buy this for your kids, you are a terrible parent, and deserve to have them taken away from you. If you don't buy this for yourself, you are a terrible person, and deserve to watch Elektra and Michael the Hutt Moore films for the rest of your life.
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Author: Guest
My family loved "Chicken Run," but we knew nothing about Wallace and Grommit. We popped in the disk and kicked back for the first few minutes of mild, yet imaginative, entertainment.
Then the fun kicked in. This movie is full of creativity, quirky characters, and laugh-out-loud humor.
It seems familiar and fresh, all at the same time, as we watch this pest control team (Anti-Pesto) try to deal with a growing threat to the neighborhood's vegetable gardens. With an upcoming vegetable contest, Wallace and Grommit must discover the identity of the Were-Rabbit and capture the destructive creature before the entire contest and neighborhood go down the tubes.
The voices, the characterization, and the animation are superb. There are moments of adult humor, cleverly veiled, and the climax is heart-racing and side-splitting. We thoroughly enjoyed the film and were thrilled to see it win the Oscar it deserved.
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Author: Guest
What is astounding about the films featuring Wallace and Gromit is their ability to capture the attention and imagination of adults and children alike.
The animation is of a traditional form and truly outstanding, the humour is fast paced and laden with quick witted references, film genre homages and a wonderful depiction of Northern, British life and humour that is so precise as to take one's breath away via the route of aching belly laughs.
All the components are top notch but for me it is the nippy witted canine, Gromit, who steals the show on each occasion. The animation of his non verbal stance is so precisely accurate as to give a silent character all the best lines, every time.
A perfect and delicious little world a small hereos, fighting for the stronger values in life without ever preaching sugary doctrines. Just lovely and in spite of the abundance of caerphilly and wensleydale in each film, they are never cheesy!
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Author: Guest
This is the best W&G I have seen, although I know older ones exist. Every scene is chock-full of so many clever details that one wonders how they managed to shoot it all. Unlike too many computer graphics movies where the CG replaces plot, character, and pretty much everything else, this one has homages to more classic movies than I can count, plus its own wonderful plot. Even when the original was a horror movie, the homage is loving and funny. You could watch this many times and catch something new every time. My DVD collection has outgrown its case, and I vowed never to get a new one unless I thought it good enough that I would be willing to sell (or give away) one of my old ones, but this definitely qualifies. Movies that keep you laughing are a rarity and a blessing. This is one.
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