‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’: Review

Dirs: Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham. UK. 2024. 79mins

The return of Feathers McGraw, the villainous diamond-thieving penguin from The Wrong Trousers, has fired up Aardman Animation to deliver another instant classic in Vengeance Most Fowl, the second Wallace & Gromit feature after 2005’s The Curse of The Were-Rabbit. Nick Park’s quintessentially English pairing of cheese-loving inventor Wallis (voiced by Ben Whitehead, after the death of Peter Sallis) and his faithful, silent hound Gromit is as eccentrically entertaining as ever with a rousing all-action climax. Pass the Wensleydale — or Stilton, given it will be available in select UK cinemas from December 18 and on the BBC at Christmas, and globally on Netflix from January 3.

Pure, idiosyncratic entertainment for everyone

Oddly enough, cheese is the only traditional element missing from this first Wallace & Gromit since 2008’s short A Matter Of Loaf And Death. Despite the arrival of Netflix as a distribution partner to the Bristol-based studio and a world premiere at AFI Fest in Los Angeles, the humour and charm here is as Northern as the day Wallace & Gromit first appeared in The Wrong Trousers three decades ago. Take, for example, when Feathers McGraw makes a break for ‘the border’ – Park and co-writer Mark Burton are referring to the line between Yorkshire and Lancashire, with the kind of individualistic spirit that will keep adults rooting for the film alongside their roundly-entertained children.

The message is also designed to have a wide appeal: Wallace has become too reliant on his tech. He doesn’t even use his teapot any longer, with Gromit pressing buttons to work the machines which pour his master’s brew. Wallace has even invented a ‘pat-o-matic’ to dispense head rubs, to Gromit’s clear dismay. The pressure of mounting bills at 62 West Wallaby Street leads Wallace to create a ‘smart gnome’ called Norbot (voiced by Reece Shearsmith) who takes to Gromit’s beloved garden with a sculptural shears. They set up a Wallace & Norbot ‘gnome improvements’ business, attracting coverage from local TV station ‘Up North News’ and reporters Anton Deck and Anya Doorstep,

Soon, Wallace is exclaiming to Gromit: “See how embracing technology has made our lives better!” Cue Feathers McGraw, with revenge on his pointy-headed mind for the loss of the blue diamond from The Wrong Trousers all those years ago.

There’s something about Feathers as an arch-villain that is the perfect foil to the happy couple of man and dog, and the quaintly Northern charms of the local police station. He’s also mute, like Gromit, with even less contouring to his plasticine features: he’s a streamlined stop-motion black penguin with two beady button eyes and, occasionally, a red rubber glove which he puts on his head to pass as a chicken. From this, the Aardman creative team has devised a master of crime, a flipper-footed Dr No who sits in exile stroking a baby seal, blinking vengeance on the inventor who put him behind the bars of the penguin enclosure of the zoo. (Feathers is now a true ‘jailbird’.)

Changing the settings of Norbert to ‘EVIL’ on Wallace’s ‘gnoming device’ by remote login, Feathers sets a dastardly plan in motion: to say too much would also be criminal, but watch out for a leaf blower, a gnome-footed van, an antique wellington collection and a narrowboat race before a showdown on a 25 mph steam train. It’s impossible not to laugh out loud.

The worry with Aardman has never been about its technical wizardry, or the quality of its stop-motion animation either in short form or feature-length: rather that its global success will somehow dilute the lop-eared charm that is so intrinsic to the joy of the studio’s work. But Park, the creator of Wallace & Gromit and his co-director Gressingham, the creative director of Wallace & Gromit, have constructed a children’s film which is pure, idiosyncratic entertainment for everyone. The pace, the jokes – never over-stressed – the score and even the sight-gags (such as Gromit reading Virginia Woof) all combine to produce a film which is delightfully light on its paws. 

Wallace & Gromit always leave the audience wanting more. Back in 2015, Were-Rabbit grossed just under $200m worldwide, but there is a more limited theatrical exposure this time around. There’s a certain sadness to that: nobody encourages A Grand Day Out at the cinema like Aardman. Still, though, let’s count our blessings. At least these last three decades with Nick Park’s man and his best friend haven’t been counted in dog years: there’s still cause to hope for more treats to come.