Wallace and Gromit Films Ranked
2. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
The only feature-length outing for the Wallace & Gromit franchise before the release of Vengeance Most Fowl in late 2024, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is where the Aardman and Dreamworks partnership worked the best. Just let the Brits do their creative thing, and let the American money produce top quality distribution and marketing.
Ahead of the village’s giant vegetable competition, Wallace and Gromit run Anti-Pesto, a rabbit-catching company. Upon trying to use his latest invention to brainwash the captured rabbits into disliking vegetables, things go horrifically wrong, and they unleash a hideous beast from ancient folklore: the Were-Rabbit.
Rumour has it that Dreamworks went to Nick Park and the crew at Aardman and told them they had to change half of the script because it was too British and American audiences wouldn’t get it. Thankfully, Park nodded politely and proceeded to completely ignore everything they said.
Campy lunacy in spades propels the film along at a breakneck speed. Hammer Horror Frankenstein gets a nod, along with King Kong and An American Werewolf in London. Village fetes and parish vicars and big aristocratic halls combine to make the film truly feel like it should have been released 40 years before it was. It’s as much a part of the Carry On tradition of mocking British film trends as it is a Wallace and Gromit movie.
The cast is exceptional, with Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Peter Kay, Mark Gatiss, and other British staples joining Peter Sallis to create a truly stellar line-up of talent. The Vicar, played by Nicholas Smith, who coincidentally had an uncredited role in Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974), draws up even more Hammer links. The jokes are on point, the action incredible, the work with fur (a first for the franchise) just as good as their Claymation. Hayao Miyazaki looked notably upset when Howl’s Moving Castle lost out to this film at the Oscars, but even the Studio Ghibli mastermind could probably see the craft, love, and care placed into this film.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is the perfect family Halloween movie, and a stunning piece of cinema that boosted sales of Wensleydale cheeses by over 20% upon release (a true cultural phenomenon).
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1. The Wrong Trousers (1992)
Who would have thought that one of the most terrifying villains in British film history would be a penguin with a red rubber glove on his head? Somehow, that’s what Aardman managed cook up in 1992 when it unleashed its first sequel to A Grand Day Out, Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers.
Advertising a lodger for their spare room to shore up dwindling finances, Wallace and Gromit take on a penguin, whose beady little eyes seem to have sinister designs. Soon Gromit is forced out of his room and into the doghouse, and Wallace’s invention, the giant dog-walking Techno-Trousers, are seemingly being used for criminal ends.
Everything the franchise would come to encompass is all here. The thumbprints from A Grand Day Out remain, but the face shape is more recognisably Wallace, the inverted T shape there in every scene. The film-genre tropes of the following instalments begin here. The criminal mastermind formula that the next two shorts would feature find its origin in the evil Feathers McGraw. More than that, everything has been boosted up in production value from the first film. The camera is more smooth, and the animation of characters walking is precise if not exact. The storytelling has been elevated to another level. The direction of the suspense sequences mix comedy with genuine thrill and suspense.
Then comes the finale; the famous train chase.
Ignore the house’s impossible size. Ignore endless spare track. If you can believe that a penguin can be a daring criminal mastermind and hold people hostage with a genuine revolver that shoots actual bullets, then you can believe anything. Frantic and frenetic, with the chase narratively structured with such craft and imagination that it should be considered amongst the very best, the sequence keeps us on our toes and the edge of our seats with its inventiveness and creativity, each section perfectly timed, set up and paid off. 99% of modern action blockbusters don’t get to the level of tension that this chase on a toy train set manages. Added to all of this, the animation craft to be able to create it frame by frame, photograph by photograph, and achieve the clarity that it ends with, is beyond comprehension. It is the best chase scene ever filmed, capping off one of the greatest films of all types and lengths and mediums to ever bless cinema.
When the films were announced at the Oscars, The Wrong Trousers was the one that got the applause smattering. When Nick Park went up to collect his award, he had decided to wear a gigantic green shimmering bow tie, much to the delight of the audience. Right from the start, even at the biggest awards ceremony in the anglophonic world, Park and Aardman refused to be anything other than themselves, regardless of occasion and convention and propriety. They are out to make films and have fun. The Wrong Trousers is a perfect example of both the creativity and the sheer delight that filmmaking can bring to the world.
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Which Wallace & Gromit film do you like the most? And which moments do you rewatch whenever you get the chance? Let the world know in the comments below, and be sure to follow @thefilmagazine on social media – including Facebook and Bluesky – for updates on more insightful movie lists.
Updated to include Vengeance Most Fowl 28th Dec 2024. Originally published 6th Dec 2024.
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