CinemaSerf (April 20, 2025)

I was a bit wary of a feature-length story for this pair. I didn’t think there would be enough to sustain ninety minutes, but this is really quite a good fun adventure. Our intrepid inventors “Wallace” and “Gromit” have a successful business protecting people’s crops from pesky rabbits. When they are summoned by “Lady Tottingham” to deal with these rodents wrecking her pristine lawn, “Wallace” is delighted. Not only have they gone up on the world, but he also gets to try out his new suction machine that soon eradicates her problem. Their problem? Well what do they do with all these left-over bunnies? He decides to try his new mind-altering gadget on them to brainwash them into never touching garden vegetables again. Of course that was never going to go to plan, and before they know it their community is being terrorised. None of their state-of-the-art security measures, nor, windows or walls can keep out this new menace - and they are getting the blame. With the pompous adventurer and would-be suitor “Quartermaine” pointing his shotgun at just about everything, our inventive duo are going to have track down this monstrous critter before it eats everyone out of house an home. It’s an homage to all things Hammer, with a little bit of “King Kong” in their too and the attention to detail is really entertaining - not just with the characterisations and expressive faces, but with the more incidental signposts, the shop names, the newspaper headlines: they are a turnip for the books with puns and double-entendres galore peppered throughout this humorous script. It’s got gizmos that would make “007” jealous and the comedy action hits the ground running and rarely stops for breath. Aardman at their best, this, and well worth a watch on a big screen where the creatively crafted stop-motion and Julian Nott’s whimsical score all make for an enjoyable watch.