Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: From the team that made Chicken Run, another claymation classic, comes Wallace and Gromit, a famous British staple, finally has a theatrical release.

The world would be a better place if Nick Park and Steve Box could be cloned, shipped to Hollywood, and forced to make more children's' films. These are films in the tradition of Bugs Bunny, and not of Shrek or of Madagascar or of Chicken Little. Those films rely on two levels of humor to succeed. They prefer obvious, sometimes profane humor to appeal to children (the "oh look, the princess burped," or "the ogre used his ear wax for a candle, how droll," variety), and pop-culture references to appease adults, and divert them from the base humor used to attract children (such as the, "oh look, that shot is a take off of Frodo/Gollum looking through the Ring, how droll"). These films, while amusing, are not all that clever or witty, and, for the thinking adult, cannot be viewed more than once, which is a key to quality family entertainment. After all, I am likely to view, or at least be in the presence of, some of these films two or three dozen times in the course of family trips, movie nights, or cases of illness. Wallace and Gromit employs a more sophisticated brand of humor, and though it is sometimes cheeky, it is never stupid. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is great fun because it treats children like they are more than slobbering idiots.

Wallace is a cheese-loving pest-control expert, and he is always aided (though in honesty it seems Wallace needs more help than his "assistant") by his faithful companion, Gromit, a wily canine. Together they run Anti-Pesto, a humane animal/pest control company. They are particularly busy because of the upcoming Giant Vegetable Contest, which has always been held on the Tottington family grounds. Lady Tottington (voiced by Helena Bonham-Carter) has a soft spot for bunnies, and hires Anti-Pesto to rid her land of the pests, but only if our intrepid heroes wont harm them. Wallace and Gromit employ a giant sucking machine (one of many hysterical contraptions in the film) to do the task, much to the chagrin of Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes), who is seeking to impress Lady Tottington, and who prefers a more traditional approach. Though Anti-Pesto succeeds in eliminating rabbits from the Tottington manor, the company is soon called in to find the Were-Rabbit, a raging furball that threatens the Contest by eating everyone's prize veggies. The plot unfolds in an unexpected way, and is not as linear or simplistic as that generally found in kiddy films.

The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is freakishly funny if you have a sense of humor. The film is quite British, with Lords and Ladies running about, and its giggles are more Fawlty Towers than Chicken Little, and we should all be thankful for that. There is hope for the future of children's animation so long as Pixar and Aardman (the company responsible for Wallace and Gromit) are around. Now, if they could just make films a little faster...