Okay for What It Is: #020 - Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
Viewed January 20, 2006
I have to admit that I’ve never really “gotten” Wallace & Gromit. Not that I haven’t found their previous shorts funny, just that they never really grabbed me. I still haven’t seen Chicken Run (2000), Aardman Animations’ previous feature which is supposed to be quite good, so I went into this film without a strong sense of whether I’d like it or not.
Undeniably, Were-Rabbit is funny. I found myself laughing quite a lot throughout the film’s brisk 85 minutes. If some of the jokes are a bit risque, none actually fall into the trap of being bawdy. That said, few of the jokes had the kind of extreme cleverness that were the mark of the W&G shorts.
The main characters are so well-defined by now that they are, naturally, the most solid part of the film. The supporting cast, on the other hand, doesn’t quite measure up. Helena Bonham Carter’s Lady Tottingham would have, for instance, been more endearing if she weren’t so cartoonish. While W&GiTCoTWR is obviously an animated film, Aardman seemed able to make the minor characters in their other films seem natural within the limits of the world they created. Here, they just seem to have gone too far. Chief ‘villain’ Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes) lacks the depth of a truly great cartoon villain. Minor characters range from non-descript (most of the villagers) to irritating (the wa-a-a-a-a-a-y over-the-top Reverend Hedges). The only really well done new character is the rabbit Hutch, who provides some of the best bits. But he’s not really a new character, when you get right down to it (for reasons I’ll leave unsaid).
I’d say this film was good for children, but my niece was actually upset by the revelations concerning the origins of the Were-Rabbit, so I can’t even say that for sure. I think repeated viewings won’t be quite so upsetting for her, but why would what is essentially a children’s film even flirt with these problems?
In the end, I thought Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was a nice enough film from people who’ve done much better in the past with a smaller canvas. There’s certainly no reason to avoid it, since there are plenty of laughs to be had. I just don’t think it’s the sort of thing that will stay a classic for years to come.