Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Written by Bob Baker, Steve Box, Mark Burton, Nick Park
Directed by Steve Box & Nick Park
DreamWorks SKG
2005
Rating:


"Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" is a film of such tremendous joys that one wishes its splendid brand of lunacy would go on for eternity. Fans of Nick Park's "Wallace & Gromit" shorts "A Grand Day Out," "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave" already knew what a delirious duo the cheese-loving inventor (Wallace, voiced by Peter Sallis) and his silent canine companion (Gromit of the ever-expressive eyebrows) make.

As directed by Park and Steve Box, this first full-length "Wallace & Gromit" feature takes their adventures even further into delirium, capturing the spirit of the Tex Avery and Chuck Jones "Looney Tunes" better than any animated feature in quite some time, and they do it with subtle panache that makes the painstaking process of clay-animation look easy.

In "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," Wallace has finally found a way to turn his inventions into a successful enterprise. With Gromit as his right hand, er, dog, the pair has opened Anti-Pesto, a humane pest control company that captures rabbits using the Bun-Vac 6000, a giant vacuum cleaner. Wallace's services are especially in demand with the annual harvest festival just around the corner. The work of Anti-Pesto impresses the middle-aged town matriarch Lady Tottington (Helena Bonham Carter) and she starts to take a shine to Wallace, much to the chagrin of the trigger-happy, toupee-ed Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes).

Matters begin to get out of hand once Wallace starts experimenting with a new invention. Wallace has created a machine intended to curb his undying appetite for cheese by manipulating his brain. He tries to apply the machine to the rabbits and connects his brainwaves with the bunnies. As the moonlight shines ominously, something goes spectacularly wrong, and soon there's a giant rabbit on the loose committing "vegetable carnage."

"The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" unfolds as a loving homage to, besides "Looney Tunes," classic Universal monster movies like "Frankenstein," "King Kong" and "The Wolf Man" (Park and Box tease the reveal of their monster better than any creature feature since the Universal's halcyon days), the slapstick of "Laurel and Hardy" and a literary nod to "Watership Down." All of these influences are melded together with an absurdist wit, but the film is just as effective as a paean to friendship, community and showing kindness to your fellow animal.

Posted Friday, October 14, 2005

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