It's been 20 years since Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit first graced our screens, and it's still one of the sharpest and funniest horror comedies – and animated movies – ever made. Now, to celebrate two decades of Hutch the talking rabbit and Philip the dog's change purse, repertory film specialists Park Circus are bringing the movie back to theaters.
Co-directors Nick Park and Steve Box referred to the movie as the world's "first vegetarian horror film", and it combines typical Aardman stop-motion charm with classic monster movie parody. The titular pair's latest scheme is 'Anti-Pesto', a humane pest control company that protects local residents' vegetable patches from hungry rabbits ahead of the annual giant vegetable competition at Tottington Hall. Their weapon of choice is the 'Bun-Vac 6000,' a giant vacuum that sucks up rogue bunnies and traps them in a large glass container, before they're deposited in hutches back at Wallace's house.
With the town's rabbit problem showing no signs of letting up, Wallace has a harebrained (sorry) idea: hook up his new 'Mind Manipulation-O-Matic' machine with the Bun-Vac 6000 to brainwash the bunnies into vegetable hatred. As Wallace says, "It's just a harmless bit of mind alteration." What could go wrong? And, surely, nothing will get in the way of Gromit entering his prize marrow (or melon, if you watch the US cut) into the competition…
Grated Expectations
Wallace and Gromit are joined by some new characters for the new movie, including Helena Bonham Carter's Lady Campanula Tottington and a perfect turn from Ralph Fiennes as Lady Tottington's boorish suitor Lord Victor Quartermaine. However, new additions don't detract from the franchise's signature tongue-in-cheek humor that had previously made shorts The Wrong Trousers, A Grand Day Out, and A Close Shave so beloved.
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When I sat down to rewatch Curse of the Were-Rabbit recently, I realized that it had probably been about 20 years since I last watched it, too. I was eight years old when it was first released, but I found myself still able to quote various chunks of dialogue back at the screen ("It was arson… Someone arsin' around" has been seared into my brain for the past two decades, and for good reason). It's hard to express just how formative Wallace and Gromit was for my sense of humor, and it's the sort of film that's a joy to revisit after such a long time.
It's wall-to-wall gags, with as many visual jokes hiding in painstakingly crafted claymation sets as there are in the movie's dialogue. Wallace's book collection, featuring titles like 'Grated Expectations', 'East of Edam', and 'Waiting for Gouda', is a particular highlight, along with a brilliant exchange between Victor and Wallace that hinges on the similarities in pronunciation between "toupée" and "to pay". It's harmless, silly, clever humor that's aged like a good block of Somerset cheddar.
Worth the wait
The film is littered with hilariously on-the-nose movie references, too, from King Kong (when the Were-Rabbit grasps Lady Tottington in one giant, fluffy paw on the roof of Tottington Hall), to Jaws (when a hysterical crowd is brought to sense by a sage old man), and, most obviously with its full moon transformations, The Wolf Man.
The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was Wallace and Gromit's first big-screen adventure, and only animation studio Aardman's second venture into feature-length territory following 2000's Chicken Run. And, although both films were a commercial and critical success – Curse of the Were-Rabbit won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars and grossed over $192 million at the global box office – it didn't spell the start of a trend for the studio: hapless inventor Wallace and his smart, mute mutt wouldn't get another theatrical outing for another 19 years, when Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl was released.
Vengeance Most Fowl proved to be just as much of a joy to watch in my 20s as Curse of the Were-Rabbit was on first-time viewing as a kid, and on my recent rewatch. If we only see Wallace and Gromit on the big screen every two decades, then that's fair enough – it's worth the wait every time.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is back in UK cinemas from April 18. For more on what to watch, check out the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series.
