‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ Review: There’s No Place Like Gnome | AFI FEST

For 35 years, an inventor and his trusty, loyal canine have delighted audiences from their home on West Wallaby Street. From innovative, crafty home improvement creations to a penchant for feasting on cheese, Wallace and Gromit have become an iconic pair in stop-motion animation, raising the bar for the medium along the way. Now, filmmaking duo Nick Park (Academy Award Winner for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit) and Merlin Crossingham (Creative Director of Aardman Entertainment) have gifted filmgoers with Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, a brand new caper featuring our beloved dynamic duo and a timely message about our overreliance on technology.   

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl begins “many years ago…” when Wallace and Gromit foiled Feathers McGraw’s scheme to steal the blue diamond. In one of the early moments of humor in the film, Feathers is sentenced to prison, only for the directors to reveal that the iron gates are actually a part of his enclosure at the local zoo. Now, stewing inside, the series’ most inscrutable, silent villain (and the film’s MVP) will stop at nothing to get revenge on Wallace and Gromit. Instead of directly connecting this new entry to the previous feature film, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Park and Crossingham stretch back in time to a classic Wallace and Gromit short film, The Wrong Trousers (1993). They don’t rely solely on the nostalgia of the existing property, though, and instead expand the story to incorporate new ideas for a contemporary audience while retaining the hand-crafted charm of the original tales. 

As the story jumps forward to the present, it’s clear that Wallace (Ben Whitehead) is still the same inventor he’s always been, going absolutely overboard with creations to simplify his morning routine. Like Vincente Minnelli and Gene Kelly’s introduction to Jerry Mulligan in An American in Paris, Park and Crossingham capture Wallace’s meticulous morning routine, all supported by his signature inventions. He’s not particularly keen on doing anything for himself in the morning (a relatable concept), and he has everything down to a science. He’s flung out of bed and into the bath, slides down a tube into his daily uniform of a sweater vest and trousers, and down to the breakfast table where he doesn’t even have to spread jam on his toast. Gromit is, naturally, a bit annoyed by all of this as he’d prefer his quiet time to be invention-free as he reads Virginia Woolf. He also seems particularly frustrated with one invention, a contraption that gives him a few pats on the head via a mechanical glove. Wallace is so dependent on technology, that he even needs a machine to show Gromit affection. While this inclusion is a bit obvious, it introduces a core theme that will stretch across the film: the fractures in Wallace and Gromit’s friendship in the face of shiny new things.

In Vengeance Most Fowl, that central shiny new thing is Wallace’s exciting innovation, a robot garden gnome named Norbot (Reece Shearsmith). One of Gromit’s hobbies is tending to the garden, and Norbot, programmed with hundreds of hours of “DIY Garden Squad,” quickly usurps him, transforming the backyard into a chilly, pristine topiary installation. Wallace is addicted to Norbot’s talents and efficiencies, and soon, the rest of the neighborhood wants to rent the gnome to take care of their own landscaping. The design of Norbot is excellent, with the animators emphasizing his bright, colorful characteristics and shiny eyes and cheeks that could only belong to a robot. He’s a bit creepy, too, like he could snap or change course at any moment. It’s a necessary, sharp contrast to the rough edges and fingerprints on the clay constructions that make Wallace and Gromit so lovable. Norbot’s design and Shearsmith’s chipper voicework perfectly juxtapose Gromit’s silent stoicism and make Wallace’s obsession with the new character that much more frustrating. If only he could appreciate Gromit’s longtime, authentic loyalty.  

Quickly, Norbot becomes a household gnome (another fantastic play on words), and he and Wallace start getting a bit of notoriety and local news coverage. This catches the attention of none other than Feathers McGraw. Feathers has had thirty years to build up his grudge, and with the announcement that the blue diamond will be back on display, the timing is perfect for him to plot his escape. In another hilarious sequence, Feathers uses an invention of his own to hack into Norbot’s system and change his core function to evil, unleashing an army of robot gnomes on the unsuspecting, quaint English town. It’s here that screenwriter Mark Burton (Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Shaun the Sheep) incorporates film references that only an Aardman project would be bold enough to get away with. As Feathers plots his escape, Burton references several prison-related cinematic classics, including Cape Fear and The Shawshank Redemption. But the greatest visual cue for our avian antagonist comes when he sits in a chair and menacingly pets a white seal, instantly recalling Blofeld’s cat in From Russia With Love. These imaginative moments add a layer of humor for the adults in the audience and will remind viewers of the particular flavor of humor found in a Wallace & Gromit film. 

Of course, Wallace refuses to believe that Norbot could be responsible for all of the havoc wreaked on the town, but soon enough, soon-to-be-retired Chief Inspector Mackintosh (Peter Kay) and the enthusiastic young bobby PC Mukherjee (Lauren Patel) have a search warrant and strip Wallace of all of his prized inventions. The story then evolves into a thrilling action-adventure tale, with chase sequences, creative camerawork, and a train sequence straight out of a Mission Impossible movie. Perhaps most importantly, though, the film is, at its core, a story of two friends trying to find each other again. When Wallace can no longer rely on technology, he can finally see Gromit for the loyal, dependable companion that he is. It’s a strong message for viewers of all ages, especially as it becomes increasingly difficult to pry the latest inventions from our hands. 

Late in the film, Wallace has an idea for a “reboot” invention, a playful creation made up (of course) of a stack of boots. While the reboot’s purpose directly connects to Norbot, it’s difficult not to think of it in relation to sequels and IP in the current cinematic landscape. But instead of completely rebooting or recycling ideas, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl captures the magic of the earlier entries while introducing a new generation to the animation style and characters of the past. As I watched the film, I thought back to my early childhood in the ‘90s when my dad gave me a three-pack of VHS tapes, each with a different Wallace & Gromit adventure. I couldn’t articulate why I adored them at the time (maybe it was our shared love of cheese), but I knew even then that there was something special about this quirky British man and his dog. With the latest entry, it’s comforting that Aardman and the creators of Wallace & Gromit know that, too, especially as the film industry (and the rest of the world) becomes as enamored with technological shortcuts as Wallace. 

Grade: A-

This review is from AFI FEST 2024. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl will stream on Netflix beginning January 3.