The beloved characters Wallace & Gromit first appeared in Nick Park and Steve Rushton’s 1989 stop-motion-animated short film “A Grand Day Out,” a whimsical comedy about the human Wallace (Peter Sallis) and his non-speaking dog Gromit inventing a rocket ship to travel to the moon. Wallace is the world’s most passionate cheese enthusiast, you see, and he knows the moon is made of cheese. When they arrive on the moon, Wallace and Gromit find that it is indeed made of cheese, while the surface is being protected by a coin-operated sentient vending machine. They witlessly evade capture for the bulk of the film. “A Grand Day Out” was slick and funny enough to get an Oscar nomination, only losing to “Creature Comforts,” another stop-motion-animated short directed by Park for the same studio, Aardman Animations.
Since then, Wallace & Gromit have appeared in three other shorts (1993’s “The Wrong Trousers,” 1995’s “A Close Shave,” and 2008’s “A Matter of Loaf and Death”) and two feature films, including 2005’s Oscar-winning “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.” Their second movie, 2024’s “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” is a direct sequel to the events of “The Wrong Trousers.” It only received a limited theatrical release in the U.S. before making its way onto Netflix in January 2025. Although Wallace & Gromit remain massively popular characters, “Vengeance Most Fowl” wasn’t given any fanfare upon its release, and many U.S. Netflix subscribers may not even know it exists. Luckily, it remains on the streamer and is ready to be watched on a moment’s notice. /Film even deemed it one of the best animated movies of 2024, and it currently had a 100% approval rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
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Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a lightweight little hoot
Wallace in a helmet looking at himself in a robotic mirror in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl – Netflix
To recap, “The Wrong Trousers” finds a financially destitute Wallace having to rent one of his rooms to a lodger: a mysterious non-speaking penguin that seems to have unknown plans. The penguin takes over Gromit’s room, coddles Wallace, and gains his trust. Gromit can see that he’s being supplanted, but Wallace is oblivious. This all happens in the wake of Wallace having invented Techno-Trousers, a new contraption that allows the wearer to walk up walls and on ceilings. As it turns out, the penguin intends to use Wallace’s apartment as a home base for a diamond heist, using the Techno-Trousers. Amusingly, when the penguin commits his crimes, he wears a rubber glove on his head to make himself look like a chicken. The penguin is actually Feathers McGraw, international diamond thief.
Feathers is apprehended at the end of “The Wrong Trousers” and sent to a zoo as punishment. “Vengeance Most Fowl” catches up with Feathers, still in “prison,” but forming an elaborate escape plan. It seems that Wallace (now voiced by Ben Whitehead, doing a crackerjack Sallis impersonation) has invented a new device that Feathers can use for dastardly purposes. The invention is a robotic garden gnome named Norbot (Reece Shearsmith). Gromit hates Norbot, as the robot intercedes all of the dog’s favorite gardening activities. Norbot also has a vulnerable, hackable robo-brain, and Feathers, secretly using a zoo computer, is able to hack into Norbot and force it to commit acts of thievery and general evil.
Feathers, of course, is mostly motivated by revenge, trying to frame Wallace for sending him to prison in the first place. “Vengeance Most Fowl” also repurposes some scenes from “The Wrong Trousers,” revealing that Feathers actually hid a stolen diamond at Wallace’s apartment at one point. Wallace now looks like a thief.
Vengeance Most Fowl is pretty great
Feathers steering a speed boat in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl – Netflix
The film climaxes with a pretty hilarious boat chase down a slow-moving, narrow brook. It’s a great blend of high-octane action and twee British placidness. Wallace invents a device that can fling rubber Wellington boots at a furious pace; there are no guns or real violence in the “Wallace & Gromit” films, and projectiles are replaced by boots, globs of porridge, or balls of dough.
“Vengeance Most Fowl” is not the best Wallace & Gromit film, but it is a delightful return to form for characters not seen on-screen in nearly two decades. The animation is slick, but Aardman wisely doesn’t change its characters designs, retaining their marble-like eyes and bean-like smiles. Also, it’s hard to be mad at something so whimsical and delightfully unassuming. There’s an irrepressibly plummy quality to “Wallace & Gromit” that survives the ages and outlasts any kind of commercial overexposure. Plus, it was wise for the filmmakers to go back to 1993 for their sequel, as “The Wrong Trousers” has many fans. Feathers McGraw is a marvelous villain for how inexpressive he is. He looks like a Fisher-Price toy and yet has the mind of a James Bond antagonist. Closeups imply that Feathers is deep in thought, but we may as well be looking at an umbrella handle.
As such, no critics could think to give the film a negative review. All 137 reviews of “Vengeance Most Fowl” on RT are positive, giving the film a coveted and rare 100% approval rating. The movie is more comforting and delightful than meaningful or hilarious, but that’s really not a problem. Plus, at only 79 minutes, it’s brisk and breezy. It’s about 49 seconds shorter than the longest episode of “Game of Thrones” (and probably a better use of your time).
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
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