Cracking Good Film

Well, Friday night I went to see Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. And it was awesome. I just love the Wallace and Gromit films. I find them so clever, the plays on words and the visual references are so wonderful. The animators get so much expression out of the clay model faces, espcecially Gromit, who can convey more emotion in a cocked eyebrow than most real people can with actual lines. One of the things I love most about the films (and I suspect that most people feel this way) are Wallace's inventions. They're elaborate contraptions that rely on a well placed kettle, sleeping in the correct position and never, ever gaining any weight. One of the things I loved about this movie (and the shorts) is that they are uncompromisingly British. The characters have a very distinctive look (especially the town vicar, with his cloud of white hair and bushy eyebrows), the houses with their gardens are quintessentially British, and the language, for the most part, has been retained. From what I read, the only word they replaced was "melon" for "marrow." I also loved the rabbits in the film. They're up there with the seagulls from Finding Nemo. Only they have more expression.

It was well worth waiting for for five years. Stop action can be so tricky - it's either cheap and creepy (pretty much every Christmas special ever made between 1964 and 1970), or it can turn out like this: charming, quirky and amazing.