A more than pleasent surprise for the christmas listings this year, ‘Wallace & Gromit’ return with their 2nd ever feature length outing in ‘Vengence Most Fowl’ a sequel to the 1995 claymation masterwork ‘The Wrong Trousers’. Having had a soft spot for the pair now for years, this was kind of an easy sell for me. But what surprised me the most is just how close it comes to surpassing ‘Trousers’ in terms of scope and scale!

We pick up many years after the events of ‘The Wrong Trousers’ and Wallace is once again in financial trouble, fearing the baliffs, he puts his thinking cap on and comes up with the ‘Norbot’ a ‘Smart Gnome’ who cant do almost any task inside or outside of the home. When word catches on at just how effective Norbot is, Wallace becomes a household name. But after a news crew interviews the inventor, word reaches a most despicable enemy. Feathers McGraw! Who’s still serving time in the zoo for the attempted theft of the Blue Diamond in ‘Wrong Trousers’.

Feathers hatches a scheme to bust out utilising Norbot and frames Wallace for a spate of burglerys leading the pair to turn detective to find out exactly WHO is framing them and what Feathers could be up to next!

And what we have here is a DAMN solid hour and 20 the isnt afraid to push the pair forward, but is MORE than willing to embrace their past. For a british person who grew up with the pair, it was a warm christmas hug from the screen.

The plot is energetic, rarely slowing down and only really starting to creak a bit towards the end of the 2nd half, where they have to cram in a lot of exposition VERY quickly to crash us into the 3rd act. And the thing I appreciated most about this entry is they finally seemed to have understood that we, as an audience, dont WANT Wallace & Gromit to be some kind of heavily cinematic, highly polished product. a bit of the rough and ‘handmade’ quality to it is what makes it feel home grown and wonderful. And to see that personal touch back again here really was quite wonderful.

The pacings consistant mostly throughout (barring the aforementioned 2nd act slowdown) and the humour is pretty much perfectly balanced, and a DEFINITE improvement over their previous outing ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’. they’ve gone back to what works with this pair, and thats gentle visual comedy and the occasional rhy comedy line well timed. And thats EXACTLY the kind of thing I go to Wallace and Gromit for…Not references to ‘Batman 1966’.

The animation itself is lovely, While I dont think this film *quite* hits the complexity of ‘Wrong Trousers’ or ‘Close shave’ in terms of visual creativity and jaw dropping scene construction. It does have a ruddy good go and that creative effort really does pay off, delivering (arguably) the most solid work the studios produced in *AT LEAST* 20 years. Moments such as the finale or Wallaces new ‘Wake up’ machine are very well handled and the whole thing oozes a charm.

I also have to add that, for the first time in a while, there is ACTUALLY a genuine unsettling quality to the villains in this piece, Norbot has moments that I am fairly convinced WILL traumatise young children (consider that a warning) as *I* as a fully grown adult got the fear from those bloody gnomes at least once or twice…

As for the performances? Sadly Peter Sallis passed away in 2017, but since then the voice of Wallace has been headed up by Ben Whitehead. and honestly? if you didnt KNOW Sallis had died, you’d think it WAS him…I only really picked up on it based on LITERALLY one or two brief line deliveries where the phonics didnt line up *quite* with how Sallis had delivered them in the past. Otherwise its a remarkable performance that really nails the warmth and curiosity Wallace as a character has, and I was quite impressed.

Reece shearsmith delights as Norbot, frankly just knowing its Shearsmith adds a whole other layer of folk horror fear to proceedings. I enjoyed his take a lot, even the cameos from Peter Kay, Lauren Patel and Dianne Morgan were utterly delightful and really more than nailed the brief. They aced it.

And finally the soundtrack. Which again, I cant honestly flaw really…Its maybe not *quite* as memorable as the firm fan favourite entries…But again, it has a ruddy good go, and I could believe it WOULD become a ‘fondly remembered classic’ in future.

In short, this was a very nice christmas present from Aardman animations. A really well built production which, apart from one or two minor pacing issues and a few duff jokes, had me chortling over my cheeseboard (im not kidding, this film prompted me and the missus to go and break the cheeseboard out…it has that kind of mythic power)

Would I recommend ‘Vengence Most Fowl?’ Absolutely! But, if you REALLY want a christmas treat…Maybe either watch it ASAP or save it for next christmas. I think its best watched with the tin of chocolates, a glass of the good stuff and the blinds closed. Enjoy.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/wallace-gromit-vengeance-most-fowl/