Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)

 

7/10

Starring the voices of

Ben Whitehead

Peter Kay

Lauren Patel

Reece Shearsmith

 

 

Directed by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham

 

 

First, you must understand that the Wallace & Gromit universe is like a child’s early morning cartoon hour. With that in mind, when you watch this stop-motion animation, prepare yourself for anything to be possible, with characters that are hilariously exaggerated in their intelligence or stupidity.

Of all the Wallace & Gromit adventures I’ve seen, this is one of my favorites. I love how it picks up from where the 1993 short The Wrong Trousers left off. We see the return of the penguin villain, Feathers McGraw, who has been apprehended and locked up in a high-security facility.

Meanwhile, Wallace and Gromit are back to their usual lives, with Wallace constantly inventing contraptions to handle mundane household tasks, leaving Gromit to clean up after him.

If you’re not familiar with Wallace & Gromit, this British stop-motion animation is a production of Aardman (created by Nick Park), the studio behind Chicken Run, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Arthur Christmas, and more. The Wallace & Gromit series has been a staple since the 1980s, with numerous shorts produced over the years. This film marks the second full-length feature in the series.

The duo consists of Wallace, an eccentric inventor, and Gromit, his loyal dog. Gromit is an intelligent, anthropomorphic beagle who, in this universe, even has a degree in Engineering for Dogs.

In The Wrong Trousers, Feathers McGraw temporarily stayed with Wallace and Gromit while Wallace tried to raise money to pay off his debts. Unbeknownst to Wallace, Feathers used his techno-trousers to steal the blue diamond. That story ended with Feathers being caught. Fast-forward to the present, and Wallace is still in debt. He decides to use an invention he made for Gromit—a gnome named Gorbot, designed to help with garden work—as a tool to rent out to others.

However, Feathers learns about Wallace’s invention during his incarceration and devises a new scheme. Using his cunning, he gains access to a computer and hacks the Gorbot.

Gromit immediately dislikes Gorbot, believing that Wallace is becoming overly dependent on machines. This creates tension, as Wallace dismisses Gromit's concerns when he begins to suspect that Gorbot has turned evil.

Things take a dark turn when Gorbot starts replicating itself and stealing from the neighborhood. Wallace becomes the prime suspect, with the police closing in on him. Meanwhile, Gromit uncovers the truth: the Gorbots are linked to Feathers, who is once again up to no good. Now, Gromit must convince Wallace to join him in stopping Feathers and his mechanical minions.

As always, the animation is fantastic and well worth watching.