Review of the film “Wallace and Gromit: A Bird’s Revenge”

It’s all about fingerprints. Stop-motion animation inherently draws attention to its creation—the labor-intensive nature of the process, the sheer amount of work that goes into the design, the collective strength required to bring any project to fruition. Fingerprints left by director Nick Park and his Aardman Animation comrades on clay figurines their flagship duo Wallace and Gromit are clear proof of the tactility inherent in their design. Because they were handcrafted, every adventure they go on, or more accurately, every Wallace-related scrape Gromit helps them get out of, has a personal touch that emanates from the screen.

In the film “Wallace and Gromit: Bird’s Revenge” duet second feature filmPark and co-director Merlin Crossingham contrast humanity—the kind that brought the eponymous inventor and hound to life—with technology run amok. The gimmicks that the eccentric Wallace created were always flawed, Rube Goldberg-like solutions to simple or non-existent problems. They usually never worked as intended and often caused problems, but there was charm in Wallace’s determination and, yes, his machines had a handcrafted quality. However, in Vengeance Most Fowl, Wallace followed the lead of big tech and took advantage of the “miracles” of smart technology. He devoted almost every aspect of his life to devices, even going so far as to pet Gromit, Wallace’s extremely capable, perpetually skeptical best friend.

A silent, introverted dog, Gromit prefers to garden by day and read Virginia Woolf at night; in other words, he enjoys a fancy life without the need for technological intervention. He sees how far down the automated rabbit hole his master has fallen, but even he is dumbfounded when Wallace introduces Norbot, an artificially cheerful “smart” gnome programmed to help Gromit maintain his domain. Norbot’s help not only eliminates Gromit’s relaxing daily routine, but also transforms their beautiful garden into a cool place, untainted by hand or paw imperfections. While Wallace (voiced by Ben Whitehead, who replaced Peter Sallis after his death in 2017) babbles on about the need for technology, the long-suffering Gromit looks longingly at the old kettle collecting dust on the mantelpiece, knowing in his heart that it works just as well or better than any newfangled water boiling gadget.

“Revenge of the Bird Itself” isn’t some dry lecture on technological advancements, as Mark Burton’s script clearly addresses the visual elephant in the room throughout the noir-tinged thriller. It’s been almost 20 years since Wallace and Gromit’s last effort, the 2005 Hammer Horror parody The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and naturally animation techniques have advanced significantly since then. While Vengeance Most Fowl retains many of the quirky elements and tried-and-true techniques that made Wallace & Gromit a worldwide favorite, it’s also undeniably a more engaging and brilliant project than anything that came before. The figures are no longer made entirely of clay (they are a mixture of clay and silicon), and computer generated visual effects are all over the place. movieespecially during the climactic boat chase with pristine animated water. Vengeance Most Fowl updates the established world of Wallace and Gromit by combining classic craftsmanship with cutting-edge tools for the modern era. While the results are impeccable (Aardman Animation never works on the phone) and the irreverent comic tone remains the same, it inevitably draws attention to the loss of something intimate and handcrafted that was previously part of the infrastructure.

In form and content, A Bird’s Most Revenge confronts this reality through the return of Feathers McGraw, the wily criminal penguin whose plot to steal the diamond was foiled by Wallace and Gromit in the 1993 short film The Wrong Trousers. Since then, Feathers has been imprisoned in the local zoo, which Park and Crossingham designed as a prison, plotting revenge on the hometown heroes who locked him up. While behind bars, Feathers remotely hacks into Wallace’s Norbot and turns him evil. Suddenly, Norbot gathers an army of other clever gnomes who steal tools from the townspeople, terrorize the surrounding area, and conspire to break Feathers out of the zoo so he can reclaim the diamond. As with the Techno Pants, Feathers uses Wallace’s invention against him, but now he has also made him a prime target in the eyes of his neighbors and the press as an inept inventor capable of anything… even stealing the diamond he previously mined. Gromit must investigate to help his friend.

Anyone familiar with the Wallace & Gromit series can predict what will happen on a broad narrative level: Gromit’s nagging suspicions about the Norbots are confirmed, Wallace only learns the truth when it becomes abundantly clear, and the two of them are forced to escape mortal danger and save the situation. Revenge of the Bird Itself doesn’t suffer from predictability—if anything, watching these two achieve familiar goals is enjoyable—but it falters when the action strays too far from the film’s cherished protagonists. Feathers and Norbot(s) are essentially one-note gags, and while that note is sometimes hit well at the right moment, it can also threaten to become monotonous. Meanwhile, former constable and now Chief Inspector Mackintosh (Peter Kay) from Were-Rabbit returns with a new recruit, the brave and gifted Constable Mukherjee (Lauren Patel); these two can be funny, but their parallel banter feels too disconnected from the main action, and their banter just can’t match the chemistry of Wallace and Gromit.

It’s no surprise that this relationship is at the heart of the film, as it cycles through a variety of villains and elaborate Mission: Impossible-style chase sequences. Wallace and Gromit are as reliable as Wensleydale cheese, and only a particularly seasoned person wouldn’t be confused by the way they both express their love for each other – both in words and in Buster Keaton-style facial expressions – when it comes down to it. tough. Park and Crossingham rarely lose sight of their connection, even when the action moves into blockbuster territory. “The Revenge of the Bird Itself” is ultimately ambiguous about the pervasiveness of technology: it’s not the tool, but the person (or animal) who uses it, as evidenced by the Norbot army proving its usefulness in a crisis. However, there is an understanding that even as tools evolve beyond our wildest imaginations, it is important to maintain a delightful ordinariness so that people do not lose sight of the people behind the machines.

Rating: B

Wallace & Gromit: Wildest Revenge premiered at AFI Fest 2024 and will be available worldwide on January 3, 2025 on Netflix, except in the UK where it will be available on BBC iPlayer and BBC One Christmas 2024. It also will be available in select cinemas from December 18, 2024.