Bliss. In spite of only a handful of Wallace and Gromit stop-motion animations since 1989, and this but the second at feature-length, any lowered expectations of modified rapture can be put aside; VENGEANCE MOST FOWL as good as anything in the Nick Park canon following the adventures of gonzo invertor Wallace and his patient dog/helpmate/companion Gromit, that most empathetic of creatures. A previous feature, CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT/’05, though wonderful, gave the impression the series would always be at its very best in half-hour shorts. Not so! Here, triumphantly equaling their best without any commercially-driven sequelitis faults of going bigger/better/bloated. Instead, retaining the sweet-natured charm and capacity to reduce any open-hearted viewer to incessant ear-to-ear grins rather than pushing to trigger hardened boffo responses, all while carefully building & positioning an explosively propulsive climax that’s cumulatively hilarious, kinetically thrilling, beautiful simply as design and creatively overwhelming. (How’d they physically do that?, really not coming into play as you’re too involved in character & story to bother with stop-motion technicalities. A second watch will do for catching up on the amazing craft & technique that goes into these things.) This time Wallace creates ‘Norbit,’ an intelligent gnome designed to take domestic drudgery & chores off Gromit’s hands . . . er, paws; and it jolts the delicate balance of their routine, usurping Gromit’s place in it as well as making him jealous. But there’s worse to come as a Zoo-incarcerated villain from the past (Feathers McGraw of THE WRONG TROUSERS/’93) has figured out a way to reprogram & reproduce the gnomes to rob the town blind and facilitate a jail break. (Zoo break?) It’s Cautionary A.I. tale meets THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE; and just about perfect. Refined modeling materials used on the action figures no longer regularly capture the animator’s fingerprints. But other than that, I wouldn’t change a thing.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Post prologue, the opening sequence showing the daily routine of the boys getting up and having breakfast with help from mechanized efficiency gadgets (very Rube Goldberg) undoubtedly inspired by the opening scenes of Buster Keaton & comic rival Joe Roberts doing much the same in THE SCARECROW, a comic short from 1920. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2011/09/scarecrow-1920.html
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