Nick Park and Steve Box are legends in the world of clay animation. They started their fantastical careers in the late eighties with Creature Control, and ever since then, they have become legends. Their creations are always highly popular, and oftentimes the best-animated films of the year they release.
They’re known for some fantastic creations, starting with Creature Comforts, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and of course Wallace and Gromit. Wallace and Gromit in particular struck a chord with the general audiences, seeing an abundance of films and a lot of content in general, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was a standout amongst these.
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Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – the Movie Review
In an effort to create a parody of the monster horror films of the eighties and nineties, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit follows the titular characters Wallace and Gromit on a wild goose chase for the mysterious beast that has been ravaging a village by eating all of their vegetables with a glorious fury.
The problem here is that this beast is eating the vegetables just before the Giant Vegetable Competition, so Lady Tottington hires Wallace and his dutiful dog Gromit to track down this fantastical creature and rescue the village from certain defeat at the GVC.
Right out of the gate, you can feel the abundance of love that went into crafting this beautiful stop-motion animation film. Not only is every character distinct in their design, but the way the film is animated is fluid and smooth, at times you cannot even tell that this is hand crafted. In fact, as a child, I always believed that this was a fully animated film and not clear animation due to the nature of its smoothness and the movement of the characters.
Since Nick Park and Steve Box are using clay animation, they had much more creative freedom over the locations where these characters will be setting in. This makes everything feel authentic due to the amount of effort the set designers have put into these miniatures.
Then it was all about combining these footages and making a concrete film out of it, which is done so perfectly with animation work added to the mix. There’s a bunch of visual effects work that has gone into this film which is a standout.
I appreciate the pacing in this film, it never slows down from its slapstick comedy but also adds a lot of humorous dialogues that keep it more engaging for audiences to listen to rather than just watch as a spectacle.
There’s also a lot of pseudo horror that makes this film even more exciting, it’s not actually scary but it sure as hell feels that way to the characters of Wallace and Gromit. This puts the characters and the audiences on an even footing, as you can actually feel what these characters are going through due to the fantastic animation work that has gone into the faces of these characters.
The directors spent a lot of time in developing these characters for a fantastic final act, which is essentially an explosion of different stop motion and visual effects flavors. DreamWorks Animation as a studio has constantly remained a credible source of entertainment, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is the definition of this. It is a perfect film crafted with a ton of love, a lot of passion for the art of stop motion animation, and of course a fantastic team of writers and directors, as well as artists who have designed a film worth gawking at.
The Verdict
In conclusion, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the were-Rabbit is a film to behold. Not only is it a visual spectacle, but it feeds into the classic nostalgia of any and all stop-motion enthusiasts, reminding you of how much life this genre has. It is a tough job to make a fantastic stop motion animated film, but Nick Park and Steve Box I’ve managed to outdo themselves constantly every step of the way.
