By I have vague recollections of the three Wallace & Gromit shorts that were released in the late 80s and early 90s. I definitely remember watching them on a VHS my parents had when I was a kid and I remember certain plot points, like the moon being made of cheese and a robot dog, but they were exactly that – vague recollections. It’s a sense of nostalgia that’s hard to really explain because, while I definitely remember liking them, they weren’t as cherished as some of my other childhood shows such as Power Rangers, Digimon, and Teen Titans.
Once I got older and really started to follow the ins and outs of animation, the Wallace & Gromit shorts, as well as anything having to do with the animation studio behind them, Aardman Animation, became something I respected. Much like Studio Ghibli, this was an animation house with a particular way of creating art. Even after decades of releases, each of its films still contained the same spirit and enthusiasm that those original shorts had all those years ago.
So I was especially excited for Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, not just because it was another movie by Aardman, but because it was the first time since I was a kid I actually sat down and watched a Wallace & Gromit movie. It had been so long since I saw one, and seeing the characters again was like seeing an old friend that I had completely forgotten about. The result is a charming and instantly likable release that you should definitely watch.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Director: Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham
Release Date: December 25, 2024 (UK), January 3, 2025 (Netflix)
Rating: PG
Like all of the entries in the series, Vengeance Most Fowl has us follow the dopey inventor Wallace, played by Ben Whitehead after the passing of the original voice actor Peter Sallis, and his faithful dog Gromit. Wallace invents a gardening robot named Norbot (Reece Shearsmith) that Gromit instantly doesn’t trust. In fact, Gromit thinks that Wallace is becoming a bit too obsessed with technology and is using tech to replace virtually everything in their lives. Gromit’s mistrust of Norbot is only made worse when the diabolical Feathers McGraw hacks Norbot’s CPU to not only break him out of the zoo he’s imprisoned in, but to enact revenge on the two for capturing him and preventing him from stealing the Blue Diamond years ago.
Even if you don’t know who Feathers McGraw is or the short he debuted in, The Wrong Trousers, Vengeance Most Fowl is an excellent jumping-on-point for newcomers to the claymation series. The film quickly explains who Wallace and Gromit are, we understand exactly what their personalities are like, and the film barely wastes time before it drops us into the zany hijinx the two of them get into. Sure, having previous knowledge of the shorts does help with some inside jokes, as well as driving home how Feathers McGraw is one of the best villains in any piece of media period, but it’s not required.
Right from the get-go, something that I’m sure most viewers will take note of is just how good-looking the film is. Yes, there are plenty of other excellent animated movies that stand out for their animation, but there’s just something special about how meticulous each scene looks here. There is an absurd amount of detail with each model and their expressiveness is some of the most fluid I’ve seen in a stop-motion film. While the speaking characters all clearly have their charms with the way their faces emote, it’s the silent characters like Gromit and Feathers who steal the show. It’s amazing how even with no dialogue, you know instantly what they’re thinking thanks to their body movements and physicality, no matter how slight they may be.
Copyright: Aardman Animation & Netflix
No matter how you slice it, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is just a charming movie to experience. It doesn’t have, or frankly need, any over-the-top setpieces to drive home big emotional moments. It just focuses on telling a simple yet goofy story about an inventor, his pet dog, and the absurdly convoluted sequence of events that leads to Feathers McGraw enacting revenge. I suppose in that case there’s a bit too much going on during the middle of the film with Wallace. While it’s not uncommon for Wallace to get into trouble while Gromit winds up being the one to save him, it feels like there’s just a bit too much happening and a bit too much dialogue keeping us away from the zany antics that fans have come to know and love from the series.
Not only is Wallace framed for all of Feather’s crimes with the Norbots, but he also has a bit of a nervous breakdown over how reliant on technology he became, and that’s on top of the Blue Diamond subplot that Aardman brings back from The Wrong Trousers. Was it necessary to tie the plot of this film directly to that one? No, but again, it doesn’t harm the movie since you can understand it just fine without having seen that short. That being said, it does make every scene involving the Blue Diamond feel like it’s come out of left field and the film maybe could have lost that subplot, which also would have reduced the runtime ever so slightly. Then again, the movie lasts a brisk 80 minutes, so you can argue it doesn’t even need to be cut, but the point still stands.
I think that Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is at its best when it’s not bothered by the drama of the situation. This is meant to be a goofy family movie and most people will get a laugh out of watching Gromit become more and more frustrated with Norbot, Wallace’s zany inventions, and how any scene with Feathers in it makes it instantly one of the best scenes in the film. Seriously, that little evil bird dominates the screen no matter what he does and his existence alone is hilarious and brilliant. There’s a reason why after three decades Aardman decided to bring him back into the spotlight.
Copyright: Aardman Animation & Netflix
And that’s really all there is to say about the film. This isn’t some great treatise on the nature of good and evil or how we’ve become overreliant on technology. It’s a goofy movie about a mute penguin who is trying to use garden gnomes to steal a diamond from some British guy and his pet dog. This is a simple movie, and sometimes you just need a simple film. I’ve always been okay with the existence of simple movies. They’re not trying to change the world but instead set out to do one thing and only one thing and succeed at it. Maybe it’s to scare a person or make someone cry, but in the case of Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, it’s to make a person laugh.
I did, indeed, laugh watching it. I also smiled a heck of a whole lot and admired the animation all the while. There’s a certain level of mastery that Aardman has when it comes to claymation and I think that Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is probably their best film to date. It’s not complicated or especially thought-provoking, but it’s filled to the brim with charming and quirky British vibes that it’s impossible to not enjoy even a little bit. Even though it technically got a limited release in 2024, this is a great movie to start 2025 off with.
