Those wacky Brits sure have an odd sense of humour which is a good thing when they're behind the animated antics of clay-mation duo Wallace and Gromit.



The first full length feature for cheese-loving Wallace and his side-kick dog Gromit, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit comes to DVD on Tuesday, Feb. 7th. Lucky for me, I know some people who know some people who occasionally get their hands on stuff like this before the general public. Being a Movie Minx has its advantages.

My first exposure to Wallace and Gromit was in the late 90s when I was in England. A friend of mine was horrified that I'd never heard of the famous characters. He dragged me home from the bar, plopped me down in front of the TV, handed me another wicked English cider and turned on the short "Wallace and Gromit in the Wrong Trousers". It was, as the Brits are fond of saying, brilliant. Of course the fact that I was soused throughout probably made it marginally funnier that it otherwise might have been, but most things are, aren't they?

At any rate, I saw The Curse of the Were-Rabbit in the theatre and thought it was entertaining but not quite as good as I'd hoped. Lubricating the funny bone with a little liquor probably would've fixed that up, assuming you could maintain your buzz through the 85 minute duration. Still, it was fresh and cute and made me smile. Think of Rex the Runt, only better. The animation style is distinctly unconventional so you'll either love it's unique look or you'll have to get past the weirdness of it to enjoy the story. Personally, the lips on the leading lady freaked me out a bit.



Wallace and Gromit are up for an Oscar this year for Best Animated Feature and the only contender they have to worry about in the battle is Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. (Interesting little side note, Helena Bonham Carter had leading voice roles in both Wallace and Gromit AND Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. Pretty cool for her.) It's hard to say which way this award decision will sway though. W&G creator Nick Park has done well with the Oscars in the past, snatching up a couple for his earlier short films involving Wallace and Gromit, and he was widely admired for Chicken Run as well. On the other hand Tim Burton is no slouch, The Nightmare Before Christmas might have had a chance at Oscar if the Animated Feature category existed in 1993. But box office numbers show that Wallace and Gromit beat the Bride by a slim $3 million. We'll just have to stay tuned to see who picks up the gold on March 5th.

As for the DVD, there's some great bonus material including deleted scenes and making -of featurettes. Stop-motion animation is so amazing when you think about how each character is molded by hand and then moved ever so slightly to take still shot after still shot. It actually took 5 years to make The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and production managed an average of 3 seconds of usable footage per day. Knowing that really makes me appreciate the movie so much more.

Bottom line: if you like clay-mation, if you like family friendly movies, or if you're intoxicated and silly you will most definitely enjoy Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

MINX