Knock on Wood

I grew up with Wallace & Gromit. I’ve seen all of the iconic shorts, I’ve watched The Curse of the Were-Rabbit more times than I can count, and its unique character designs have stuck with me for decades. I don’t revisit those stories often enough, but they were formative in my early life, both as a creative and a consumer of all things pop culture.

Even though the oddball inventor, Wallace, and his silent pooch companion Gromit haven’t been seen on-screen in 16 years (nearly my entire lifespan), the English studio that brought them to life through meticulous stop-motion, Aardman Productions, has kept on going. Shaun the Sheep, a character that originated in an early W&G short, has appeared in a five-season television series and multiple features, and the studio has found other feature success with films like Early Man and Chicken Run. But it was only a matter of time before they returned to their flagship characters, and after years of development, our favorites are back…and like some of the best classic revivals in the modern era, they have something to say about the state of the world we’re living in.

But don’t worry. Wallace and Gromit haven’t sold out. It’s quite the opposite – director Nick Park (the characters’ creator) clearly cares deeply about animation and the evolution of the medium, and right now, animation exists under the constant threat of being superseded and replaced by the so-called “power” of generative artificial intelligence software which, despite being touted by supporters as the miracle answer to workload problems, is actually a genuine danger to the creativity of this beloved art form.

The new film, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl takes this idea and runs with it while still maintaining the lovable and incredibly endearing nature that made Wallace and Gromit iconic in the first place. While Wallace’s bizarre, impractical inventions have been used as punchlines and narrative devices in the past, here they’re front and center as the root of the issue. Gromit comes to worry that Wallace has become too reliant on technology for efficiency and ease, a notion compounded by Wallace’s latest invention: a smart gnome called Norbot, which ends up disrupting the creativity and ingenuity core to Wallace and Gromit’s lives in an effort to “streamline” their everyday tasks.

But there’s a sinister twist – Vengeance Most Fowl also features the return of Feathers McGraw, a penguin mastermind who seeks a way to escape imprisonment after Wallace and Gromit foiled his jewel heist (seen in 1993’s The Wrong Trousers). This new film is the confluence of the best ideas and imagery this series has offered in its 35 years of history, and to bring back one of their most iconic baddies is just icing on the cake.

A Wallace & Gromit movie about AI and technology shouldn’t work – the concept, which has dominated pop culture conversation for over a year now, feels too “new” for the classical British society depicted throughout the series – but they pull it off. It doesn’t feel preachy, it doesn’t feel ham-fisted, it just feels like a warm, comforting hug. There’s nothing they can’t do, and for people like me who remember watching old Wallace & Gromit tapes on our basement VHS players, it’s more of a love letter to old-school tech and an effective recapturing of the euphoria I felt watching pure, unbridled, kid-friendly creativity play out on-screen in front of my eyes.

But in the age of technology dominance, I feel like this is an especially timely story (especially considering how long stop-motion animated films take to produce…the fact that this message is just as relevant as it was when production began is a miracle) in its portrayal of how the same tech we’ve come to rely on – or, in Wallace’s case, the wackadoodle inventions that are solely responsible for getting him up in the morning – is simultaneously putting up walls between us. The more invested Wallace gets in his inventing, the more he drifts away from his best friend, and Gromit (as he always does) must become the voice of reason, all without a voice of his own. Not only is the film further proof that the entertainment industry is in a technological crisis, it’s also a reminder that electronic substitutions can never replace the genuine connections we can make with our fellow human beings. Oddly enough, a mute, anthropomorphic dog made of clay is the best conveyor of that message.

Gromit is still one of the most subtly expressive animated characters ever – like Kermit the Frog, there’s a unique communication in the lack of facial flexibility that conveys an incredible amount of emotionality – and with a film that also features Feathers McGraw, a fellow silent character required to be Gromit’s polar opposite, Park proves that his beloved series is able to do more without dialogue than any practically any other non-silent long-running property.

Despite its two wordless characters, there’s still plenty of dialogue, and a snappy English script requires snappy English actors. Ben Whitehead voices Wallace in his feature debut, replacing previous voice actor Peter Sallis, who passed away in 2017, and picking up the mantle with a familiar voice that feels like a reinvention just as much as a homage. Peter Kay reprises his role from Were-Rabbit as Chief Inspector Albert Mackintosh, a former constable who proves to be less adept than his job would suggest, alongside Lauren Patel as PC Mukherjee, Mackintosh’s eager protégé. My favorite voice performance comes from British comedian Reece Shearsmith, who voices Wallace’s latest invention, Norbot, with all the classy (and exaggerated) cheer you might expect from a jolly robotic gnome.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is an exciting caper, with impeccable action and slapstick stunts that showcases just how far Aardman’s spotless animation has come. It’ll be a big hit with fans of the franchise, but I hope it becomes equally as notable with newcomers, if only because it’s genuinely attempting a spirited and entertaining debate about technology instead of bemoaning its prevalence. Whenever a piece of media is actively interested in engaging in a dialogue instead of repeatedly hitting you over the head with its message, it’ll always be ahead in my book. I’m glad I live in a world with new Wallace & Gromit, and I hope it encourages our increasingly fractured society to remember that pure happiness does exist…in 24 frames-per-second claymation form.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl opens in select theaters on December 18 before debuting on Netflix on January 3, 2025.