Due to difficulties with working with DreamWorks Animation during the production of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Park was hesitant on directing another feature-length Wallace & Gromit film for several years. Vengeance Most Fowl, which was announced in January 2022, with Park and Crossingham attached as directors, and Burton as screenwriter, was initially conceived as another 30-minute short, before expanding into a feature. The score was composed by Lorne Balfe and series composer Julian Nott.
Wallace has invented a robotic garden gnome called Norbot and opens a business hiring it out to work in gardens. Gromit feels left out and is concerned about Wallace's reliance on technology. Annoyed at Norbot's loud recharging, Gromit plugs it into a computer in their basement.
The criminal penguin Feathers McGraw hears about Norbot on television. He hacks into a computer and reprograms Norbot to serve him and mass-produce an army of gnomes as part of a plot for revenge against Wallace and Gromit.[a] While working at homes around the city, the gnomes steal various objects. Chief Inspector Albert Mackintosh[b] and his new recruit, PC Mukherjee, conclude that Wallace is responsible and confiscate his inventions, but they do not find the gnomes.
Gromit reclaims Wallace's tracking device from the police station and tracks the gnomes to a zoo where Feathers is imprisoned. He discovers they have used their contraband to build a submarine for Feathers to escape in through the sewers. Feathers spots Gromit and has Norbot cut him from the tree he is hiding in. They fall into an enclosure and the impact resets Norbot.
Gromit goes to the museum, where the Blue Diamond is being put back on display[c], but Mackintosh discovers it has been replaced with a turnip; Feathers hid the real diamond in Wallace's house prior to his arrest. Wallace and Gromit are captured by the gnomes. Feathers recovers the diamond and locks the duo in a pantry.
Wallace and Gromit use a leaf blower to escape with Norbot. They pursue Feathers down a canal on narrowboats while Mackintosh and Mukherjee, who expresses doubts about Wallace's guilt, pursue on a bicycle. Wallace invents a machine that launches boots at the gnomes, resetting them. Gromit jumps aboard Feathers's narrowboat, but when Feathers sees that the police have blocked the canal, he steers off an aqueduct. With the boat teetering over the edge, Wallace convinces Gromit to surrender the bag containing the diamond to Feathers. Feathers jumps off the narrowboat, which falls, but Gromit is rescued by Norbot and the other gnomes.
Feathers escapes to Yorkshire on a goods train, but discovers that Gromit gave him a turnip instead of the diamond. Wallace is cleared of suspicion, while Mackintosh praises Mukherjee for trusting her instincts and retires, passing his position to her. Wallace returns to inventing, though admitting that machinery cannot replace the human touch, and Gromit gains a new respect for Norbot.
Ben Whitehead as Wallace, an eccentric inventor and Gromit's owner. Vengeance Most Fowl was Whitehead's first full film performance as Wallace following Peter Sallis' retirement in 2010 and death in 2017. Whitehead has voiced Wallace in video games and commercials since 2008.
Reece Shearsmith as Norbot, Wallace's latest invention designed to do jobs around the house, but whose personality setting is altered by Feathers McGraw[4]
Shearsmith also voices Norbot's fellow robotic gnomes, who act as minions for Feathers McGraw.
During production of A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008), Nick Park remarked on difficulties with working with DreamWorks Animation during the production of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), such as the constant production notes and demands to alter the material to appeal more to American children.[8][9] This discouraged him from producing another feature film for years, with Peter Lord noting that Park preferred the "half hour format",[10] as well as the end of the partnership after the poor box office performance of Flushed Away (2006).
A new Wallace & Gromit film was announced in January 2022, with Park and Merlin Crossingham as directors, from a screenplay by Mark Burton, while Claire Jennings was announced to produce.[11][12] Park conceived the film as another 30-minute short, which expanded into a feature film.[13] Newclay Products, the factory that made Lewis Newplast, the modelling clay used by Aardman, shut down in March 2023; Aardman purchased enough remaining clay to cover the film.[14]The Daily Telegraph reported that the studio may not be able to produce further films, but Aardman released a statement clarifying that it would find a new supplier.[15][16]
The title was announced on 6 June 2024, alongside the reveal that Feathers McGraw, the villain of The Wrong Trousers (1993), would return. At that time, Richard Beek was announced to have replaced Claire Jennings as the producer, although Jennings would remain credited as a consulting producer.[17]
The score was composed by Lorne Balfe and series composer Julian Nott, with the themes composed by Nott. Balfe previously provided additional music for Nott's score in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).[18] Gromit listens to Eric Coates' By the Sleepy Lagoon before being interrupted by Norbot. "Born Free" by Matt Monro is also briefly in the film, played by Feathers McGraw during the escape scene. McGraw at one point plays J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor on the organ mounted in his submarine, a reference to the piece's use in the 1954 movie 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, as played by Captain Nemo.
Release
Vengeance Most Fowl premiered worldwide on the closing day of the AFI Fest on 27 October at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, with a limited theatrical release on 18 December 2024.[19] It aired in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 25 December 2024, and was released outside of the UK on Netflix on 3 January 2025.[20][21][22][11][12] To promote the film, the BBC also commissioned three Wallace & Gromit-themed idents for BBC One, which were aired through the Christmas season.[23][24]Vengeance Most Fowl was viewed by 9.38 million BBC One viewers on Christmas Day. It was the second-most-watched broadcast in the UK since 2022, after the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, also broadcast that day.[25] After 28 days of catch up viewing, that figure increased to 21.6 million, becoming the BBC's most-watched scripted show since 2002.[26] Park said Vengeance Most Fowl would not be the final Wallace & Gromit film, and that "there's always ideas worth kicking about".[27]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 131 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.3/10.The website's consensus reads: "Comforting as cheese and crackers, with some gentle ribbing of modern technology sprinkled on top, Vengeance Most Fowl revives this lovable pair with all their charm intact."[28]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 83 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[29]
Writing in The Guardian, Stuart Heritage called the film "a triumphant return" for a series "genetically incapable of being bad". He did, however, feel that the extended runtime made it "less densely packed with jokes and invention than we've become used to" and that its greater focus on dialogue was a detriment to Wallace and Gromit's international appeal.[30] In the Irish Independent, Vicky Jessop praised Aardman as still being "head and shoulders ahead of everybody else when it comes to delivering the warm and fuzzies", though similarly felt the film presented fewer jokes and lacked innovation compared to previous Wallace and Gromit stories.[31]
↑ "Wallace & Gromit return with Vengeance Most Fowl". British Comedy Guide. 6 June 2024. Archived from the original on 7 June 2024. Retrieved 7 June 2024. Peter Kay will return to voice PC Mackintosh, the character who previously appeared in The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. Mackintosh has now been promoted to Chief Inspector.
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