Barnes & Noble

Heartening news for Wallace & Gromit fans who have waited a decade for the British clay-animated duo to return to the screen: Their first feature film, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, is just as funny, clever, and inventive as their trio of sublime short subjects (collected on Wallace & Gromit in Three Amazing Adventures). Cheese-loving inventor Wallace (indelibly voiced by Peter Sallis) and his resourceful, steadfast canine companion, Gromit, rank among the screen's great buddy teams. Curse of the Were-Rabbit > -- co-directed by W&G creator Nick Park and fellow Aardman Studios animator Steve Box -- finds them happily employed as the owners and operators of Anti-Pesto, which uses humane methods and ingenious contraptions to make local gardens rabbit-free. Things really get hopping on the eve of the annual vegetable competition, when Wallace and Gromit are hired by Lady Tottington (Helena Bonham Carter) to solve her magnificent garden’s rabbit problem. An untested Wallace invention, intended to brainwash rabbits into becoming anti-vegans, malfunctions; and soon a behemoth bunny is on the loose. Rabbit hunter Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes) is determined to kill the beast to impress Lady Tottington (to whom Wallace has also taken a fancy). Curse of the Were-Rabbit is brimming with Rube Goldbergian delights, gentle humor, and dazzling set pieces, such as Gromit's climactic airborne rescue of his friend and master who, typically, has gotten himself into a hare-raising pickle. It is one of the best films of the year, family or otherwise, and, with apologies to Wallace, not at all cheesy. The bountiful extras include Steve Box's own award-winning short film, "Stage Fright," segments devoted to the painstaking stop-motion animation process, and "A Day in the Life" at Aardman Studios. Donald Liebenson

All Movie Guide

Eccentric inventor Wallace (voice of Peter Sallis) and his faithful if often perplexed dog Gromit are back in their first feature-length adventure from animator Nick Park. Wallace and Gromit have launched a new business venture just in time for a major gardening competition in their neighborhood of West Wallaby. "Anti-Pesto" is a humane pest-relocation service in which Wallace and Gromit capture rabbits and other critters who have been eating the produce from local gardens and give them new homes somewhere else. Business has been going well, and when the woman hosting the garden show, Lady Tottington (voice of Helena Bonham Carter), discovers a massive tribe of rabbits has been making a mess of her garden, she calls in Wallace and Gromit to move the bunnies elsewhere. Wallace is quite taken with Lady Tottington, but he's not the only one -- Victor Quartermaine (voice of Ralph Fiennes) is a slick but arrogant upper-class type who wants to win Lady Tottington's hand (and fortune) and is convinced he can do a better job capturing the rabbits than Wallace. However, Wallace's attempts to brainwash the rabbits away from veggies using his latest invention has disastrous results, and soon Wallace has to deal with a beastly bunny as well as a heavily-armed Quartermaine. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit followed Park's previous film with the duo, A Close Shave, by ten years, and was produced after Park broke through to mainstream success with the feature Chicken Run. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 678149434224
• Source: DREAMWORKS ANIMATED
• Region Code: 1
• Time: 1:25:00
• Sales Rank: 7,304

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