Movies: Wallace and Gromit
Sometimes you follow a movie for years, eagerly anticipating its arrival, following the development of something you surely know will be wonderful. I certainly did that for Lord of the Rings, I first heard of its production by New Line when I saw a little sticker in Barnes and Nobles in 2001. I kept my ear to the ground for a long time, watching the development, hoping the movie would do justice to its book. It did. This review, however, is not of that movie. Nay. It is of a movie whose development I would have eagerly followed had I known about it: Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were Rabbit.
First off: fantastic movie. It incorporates all the magic, humor, and fast plot of the Wallace and Gromit shorts, while innovating in a full-length feature way (consider the special effects of floating bunnies in the Bun Vac and explosions, to name those that I can remember). Voices, as usual, are wonderfully expressive, and the human quality of these little clay chracters is breathtaking. This is exactly the kind of low-tech dose we need in the age of Toy Story and all-computer animated films. While I never spotted the finger prints on the bunnies that so many critics pointed to as a supreme example of the human investment in the movie, I did see the movie as a funny and endearing work of love.
Second, some subtle but rather dirty bits of humor presented themselves in the movie. Now I certainly don’t endorse all aspects of our Puritanical United States Façade of Political Correctness, but if you are watching with your children, better hope you don’t have to explain anything. Oh you British.
Even though it’s barely 70 minutes long, it’s an epic of wonder and delight, filled with laughs and little amazements, a nearly perfect entertainment that pulls off the impossible trick of making you feel good about the commercial cinema.
Third, if you haven’t seen this movie, its perfect for the Halloween season: fall harvest, full moons, myyystery. Plus, it is unique and lovable. A little trivia: the man who voices Victor Quatermaine, the villain of the show, also was the intriguing main character in The Constant Gardener and plays Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter. Small acting world.
I hope to show this movie to my children in the future, when movies will probably incorporate some sort of virtual reality. While today’s movies on the flat screen may be seen as “simple pleasures,” I hope books aren’t ancient artifacts by then. I’m going to be such a nostalgic old man.