Cracking Movie, Gromit! // Curse Of The Were-Rabbit Review

Plot Synopsis:

Wallace and his loyal dog, Gromit, set out to discover the mystery behind the garden sabotage that plagues their village and threatens the annual giant vegetable growing contest.

Official Trailer:

Full Review:

After my disappointment with Aardman’s 1997 short film Stage Fright (see review HERE), I only remembered how great the studio’s other films are. Works such as Creature Comforts and Chicken Run, without a shadow of a doubt, trump Stage Fright any day of the week. However, I think it’s fair to say that the loveable duo portrayed in this film still remain the studio’s Magnus Opus. First introduced in 1989’s A Grand Day Out, Wallace and his adorable chum Gromit have won over the hearts of the British public as well as the rest of the world with their fantastic imagination and inherent charm. So now after three super-successful 30 minute shorts (and later followed on by a fourth short), the pair star in their own feature length film!

Released in 2005, I still remember when this was first coming out. I was so excited to see this since the claymation moguls are responsible for a small part of my childhood. I used to own all the toys and re-watch the shorts over and over again, never growing tired of the zany but light-hearted humour. So to see a 90 minute W&G adventure on the big screen was like heaven on a cheese cracker. Sorry, expect several references throughout!!! So what did I think? When I was a mindless child, I adored it. As a grown up stubborn teenager who thinks his opinion on movies is more important than others which is why he writes these reviews, I still really liked it but a few minor flaws have since been uncovered.

Let’s begin! The first fantastic factor of this film is that Nick Park and Steve Box, who made all the previous W&G films, take on all creative duties for this film (i.e. directing and writing), which is excellent to see! It is very rare in the movie industry that a film adaption of content which originated on a smaller platform (in this case short films) allows the original creators of said content to tackle the adaption head on. It shows that the studio care about the source material and respect what makes it so great in the first place. And that really shows throughout with the film with none of the humour and atmosphere being diluted or compromised.

All of the comedy enlightens the heart and tickles your inner child (not in that way!!!) despite most of the jokes just being a play on words and the use of a bit of slapstick. If used in any other film, I feel as if the comedy wouldn’t work as well as it would when our amiable inventor and dog address the same humour. There’s just something about their delivery that automatically makes it funny. Merely looking at Wallace’s cheesy grin makes me laugh! Albeit, I’ll admit that Wallace and Gromit really excel in dialogue based humour as opposed to physical humour, much like the old Looney Tunes cartoons produced by Warner Brothers. Although Aardman steer towards more physical humour in this clay crusade, Curse Of The Were-Rabbit finds a wonderful balance between these two conflicting styles of comedy which is bound to please both young and old, as well as long time fans and the uninitiated.

Personally, I’m not a fan of slapstick/physical humour due to my distaste of the original Three Stooges show (GASP! Shocker, I know!). But if done right, it can definitely work wonders. Thankfully, COTWR is injected with so much creativity and ambition I just can’t help but smiling! And if think that’s the only way to describe what makes Wallace and Gromit so brilliant: creativity. Only in this ‘franchise’ will you be able to get away with a giant killer rabbit that steals vegetables from a terrified neighbourhood! And when I say the film is ambitious, I mean that some set pieces are so out of this world it’s truly absurd (in a good way). I’m also referring to the film’s underlying messages about animal cruelty and… yes that’s right, eating your vegetables. But hey, the film has silly message for the kiddies to save you from addressing it yourself as well as a general message which everyone can learn from!

I could just rave about this dynamic duo all day if I could, but unfortunately there are a few flaws that need to be discussed. Just like Stage Fright, the film suffers from a weak villain in the form of the Victor played by Ralph Fiennes (Schindler’s List, The English Patient). He doesn’t have a lot of motivation other than being blinded by jealousy, which I feel is a bit of a cop out since just naturally being an arse doesn’t justify some of this guy’s decisions! I also feel that the film is slightly bloated. By that, I mean the way the film is paced just makes the entire movie feel ironically like a really long short. Maybe that’s because the runtime flew by me so fast, but at the end I kinda felt as empty as Wallace is when there’s no cheese in the fridge.

But at the end of the day, Curse Of The Were-Rabbit manages to do a lot more things perfectly than it does not-so-perfectly. It delights my inner fanboy, inner child, and my overall movie-loving self. If you want to watch an animated film that doesn’t make you want to squelch your eyes and ears into guacamole (cough, Frozen, cough), then this is a high-spirited, lively animation that doesn’t fail to disappoint.

Fergie’s Final Fifteen:

Charming, incredibly witty, and absurdly enjoyable. A much needed breath of fresh air. CHEEEEESE GROMIT!!!!

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few decades and you’re unaware of who Wallace and Gromit are, then I have two things to say to you. First thing is “SHAME ON YOU!”. Secondly, as preparation for this feature length escapade, you can watch all of the pair’s previous short films starting with A Grand Day Out, followed by my personal favourite The Wrong Trousers, which progresses onto A Close Shave and finally finishing off with 2008’s A Matter Of Loaf And Death. Each short is worthy of your time and attention. You can find them all in full on YouTube. Your welcome.

 

These Flaws Almost Scared Me To Death!!! // Stage Fright – Short Film Review

Plot Synopsis:

A vaudevillian’s act involving the juggling of dogs is no longer a hit. He and his partner must face a brutal villain and assorted obstacles in order to secure their future.

Full Review:

Last week, I discussed the very under-rated action film Collateral (see review HERE). So, I thought it would be fitting to talk about a fairly under-rated short film. And to go the extra mile, an under-rated animated short film! After winning the BAFTA for Best Animated Short in 1997, Stage Fright has sort of faded away into the fog produced by modern day CGI animated films. With this in mind, it brings me the (somewhat) pleasure to reintroduce this quirky, dark tale from yesteryear.

To begin, let’s get the obvious out the way. This is beautifully animated. Produced by Aardman, who are responsible for classic animated films such as Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, the use of stop motion is stupendously executed and is utterly seamless. You may not know this, but I’m a HUUUGE fan of claymation; it is obvious how much work goes into making these types of films and I’m astounded each and every time this studio produces something that exceeds my expectations of what they can achieve. Although this was made in 1997, it is somewhat refreshing to see this type of animation put to use in a midst of CGI.

And I’m kind of glad this was made in 1997 as opposed to modern day. Why? Because chances are this would’ve got shunned out almost immediately by modern day audiences. The gothic themes that are being expressed are out of the norm for most animations which makes it stand out more than it would without. Also, it was very wise for the writers to set the film during Vaudeville times since it doesn’t make these gothic themes seem out of place nor unneccesary; they fit perfectly into the short and even lend themselves to create a stunning scene at the end. There’s another reason why they set the film during this time period, which acts as a minor subplot (which I’ll touch upon in a minute), but I’m glad they took advantage of this era to give us some delicious visuals.

Despite the film being under-rated, I feel this is under-rated for a specific reason. Particularly because it isn’t all that great!!! The film has several issues which mainly relate to the overall narative and the sub-par character development. I should say beforehand that I understand that it is much more difficult to make the audience feel for the characters through such a small space of time, considering that feature length have a runtime of two hours to fully flesh out their characters. But Aardman have been quite successful in this area in their previous short films, especially Wallace & Gromit and their TV series Creature Comforts, so it’s a bit of a shock to the system that these characters don’t deserve 12 minutes of my time in the slightest.

First off, the protagonist doesn’t do anything worthwhile. He just mopes and doesn’t really do anything significant; his only purpose is to trigger sympathy in the audience. His predictament is understandable and definitely relatable to some but as a character he just isn’t cutting it. Off to the dog basket you go!!! His stage partner had a bit more interesting devleopment behind her, but her voice was so annoying! It just bothered me since she narrates part of the film and it unfortunately did not work at all, and it didn’t really seem as if she was putting in a lot of effort to give the best performance she could; it just came across as painfully monotone. Finally, the villain. Good lord, this is a generic villain. He has no reason to act the way he does; he’s just evil for the sake of it. Hell, his appearance looks evil purely because they could animate someone of that design! The worst kind of villain is one without any purpose, and unfortunately the villain is not the only character in this short that serves little to no purpose; it’s the entire cast.

I mentioned how there were a few narrative issues, specifically the lack of completeness for some of the story’s sub-plots, including the one I was eluding to earlier. The story deals with our characters transitioning between the age of theatre to the age of cinema. Unfortunately, the conflict and drama that occurs because of this only lasts for approximately two minutes. After that, it sort of meanders in the background like a passer-by foolishly waving behind a news reporter. It appears to focus more time on developing the friction between our protagonist (who’s by no means a hero!) and our antagonist (who’s by no means a villain!). But the trouble is, this friction isn’t interesting. The gist of the main conflict of the film is that the protagonist is annoyed of taking orders from the antagonist. That’s it!!! Stage Fright doesn’t try to go beyond a fairly dull humanistic conflict, which makes me question why it wasn’t a live action short when it very easily could’ve been.

It’s a shame to see a misfire from Aardman Studios since part of my childhood was formed by watching their films. So with that in mind, I’m sort of glad I missed this since it would leave me feeling down for weeks on end and cautiously tearing apart my movie loving innocence. I mean, it isn’t awful. But it definitely isn’t anything of substance. It’s quite forgettable and, with the exception of one scene, doesn’t really win you over with what’s being projected on screen.

Fergie’s Final Fifteen:

Delightful animation that pleases the eye, but doesn’t help you forget about major overall issues.

I didn’t hate this short film but it could’ve been a hell of a lot better, especially for an award winning short. Luckily, Aardman have a vast choice of shorts and feature length films that are more memorable than this one so, although you won’t gouge your eyes out with Stage Fright, I suggest you check out those instead.

If you still want to check it out, you can do so by watching the video below: