A review of 'Wallace & Gromit : Vengeance Most Fowl'
Wallace & Gromit, the stop-motion/comedy franchise that entertained people with its animation and funny storytelling for a few decades, recently released its newest film, Wallace & Gromit : Vengeance Most Fowl. I had the privilege of viewing an early release of it during the New York International Children's Festival.
As someone who has watched several Wallace & Gromit movies and never been disappointed by any of them, I walked into the theater for this new film with high expectations and I am relieved to say that those expectations were met.
In the film Wallace invents a gnome robot, Norbot, to assist Gromit with gardening. The Norbot provides Wallace and Gromit new opportunities to make money when their neighbors want its services, but things don't go as planned. Norbot begins to act out of character and the neighbors want Wallace to pay for the robot's recklessness.
Staying true to character, Wallace is fully unaware of the trouble around him while Gromit has to figure out what is going on and what to do about it. As Wallace continues to be oblivious and Gromit works to discover the source of the problems the audience gets to enjoy physical humor along the way.
While watching this movie and hearing from one of the directors, Merlin Crossingham, after the screening I began to understand what is both captivating and heartwarming about the Wallace & Gromit film.
Aardman Animations, the animation studio behind Wallace & Gromit, specializes in stop-motion and possesses an amazing skill, especially concerning Gromit, which is the ability to animate thoughts.
Gromit, Wallace's beloved dog, is a mute character. Throughout the movie, Gromit never utters a word but the audience understands what he is thinking. Gromit is, of course, not the first and only mute character in an animation but what sets him apart is that he is more limited than other mute characters in that he does not even have a mouth to animate to help with facial expressions. Throughout the movie, the audience has to decipher what he is thinking by mainly focusing on the movement of his brow ridge and his ears.
The audience laughs at Gromit being shocked at Wallace's cluelessness, feels his frustration when one of Wallace's inventions does not help him the way that he wants, and understands his suspicions when he detects that something is wrong.
As incredible as it is to be able to understand what Gromit is thinking by just the movement of his eyebrow ridge, what is even more amazing is being able to understand the thoughts of the antagonist of the film, Feathers McGraw.
Feathers McGraw, a penguin that has the feel of an evil character from Courage The Cowardly Dog, has a beak that does not move, not even to open. Not only does the beak not move but he does not even have an eyebrow ridge. The only thing he can do with his face is blink his eyes. Despite this his anger is felt as he plans his revenge against Wallace & Gromit and his feeling of satisfaction is understood whenever a part of his plan is completed.
Although Feathers McGraw is a villain seeking to get back at Wallace and Gromit he is a lovable character in the film. This is mostly due to him being a penguin, a cute animal that you would not associate with being a danger to anyone.
As Gromit investigates why Norbot is acting differently to protect Wallace from the law, Wallace remains in his blissful ignorance, believing that the neighbors will "naturally come to their senses" and no longer blame him for anything.
The plot is simple but the physical humor and a few twists and turns will keep your attention throughout the film. It is a family film which will keep the adults just as entertained as the children.
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