Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) Review

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) Review

 

Family-friendly horror is pretty tough to do, since it requires riding such a fine line: don’t make it too scary that it’ll traumatize the kids, but don’t make it so safe that adults are bored or annoyed. The studio Aardman Animations brought back a duo who had starred in some short films they had made in the early 90’s for a feature film—only their second feature, after Chicken Run five years earlier—and most viewers like myself had no idea who Wallace and Gromit were when The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was released in theaters in 2005, but we were very quickly charmed by them in this supernatural tale for all ages.  

Wallace is an inventor, which he also was in the shorts produced many years earlier, and his best pal Gromit, a dog who can do most human things except speak, works with him. Gromit is one of those great silent characters who expresses everything through actions and facial expressions, and the amount of detail the animators are able to create with the plasticine figures is remarkable. These two run the Anti-Pesto pest control business, which seeks to protect the gardens of the villagers from pesky rabbits trying to eat their crops. Wallace’s primary defining characteristic is that he loves cheese—and I mean, he loves it. You think you’re a fan of cheese? Nope, not compared to this guy. Gromit tries his best to look after him, but Wallace’s latest invention makes that task harder than ever: a machine that brainwashes rabbits into disliking veggies. Something goes wrong and Wallace’s thoughts are mixed with the rabbit’s, which produces a rabbit they name “Hutch” who no longer likes vegetables and can now talk, but it also results in a mysterious legendary creature called the “Were-Rabbit” appearing and ransacking all the gardens around town. Who is this creature, Hutch, or Wallace?

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit deserves to be in the discussion of the best stop motion animation films of all time. It’s a solid tribute to the Universal monster movies of old, most notably The Wolf Man, but it isn’t really a pointed parody of werewolves, nor is it ripping them off, it’s a pretty original take on an old concept and done in a really entertaining and earnest way. If you look at other animated films that have won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, none of them are anything like Were-Rabbit, which I think speaks to its unique credibility as a stop motion animated feature with distinct roots in the horror genre.

The humour is clever and varied throughout, there are many exciting scenes, and it’s paced quite fast, running only 85 minutes even with credits. One thing about the movie I find funny is an aspect of the visual design. If rabbits and dogs are supposed to be furry, why is their skin created using a clay texture, but then when the were-rabbit transformation occurs, the were-rabbit’s skin is textured with actual fur? It’s not a criticism, it’s just a weird detail I noticed, and it might be explained away by the directors wanting the were-rabbit to visually stand out in a different way from the regular dogs and rabbits, or it might have something to do with the were-rabbit being larger, but I have no answers and it doesn’t really matter. In terms of issues, this movie has few to none.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a great movie to watch anytime, really, but for anyone looking to be entertained by something with the spirit of a spooky movie without it actually being spooky, it will be of particular interest to those individuals come October. It would be great to see more stop motion animated films tread into this territory of being a monster film or a throwback to the golden age of horror while still being accessible to all ages without getting too creepy.