Ralph's Movie Reviews: WALLACE AND GROMIT:THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT

Sunday, October 16, 2005

WALLACE AND GROMIT:
THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT

Animated cartoon

BACKGROUND
Clay animation began a short time after the invention of plasticine back in 1897 when people started moulding figures just for the fun of it. The first film that used clay animated sculptures, A Sculptor's Welsh Rarebit Nightmare, was released in 1908. For over 40 years, clay animation was not a very popular technique until The Adventures of Gumby was shown on The Howdy Doody Show , a children’s television program in the late ‘50’s. It proved to be so popular it became The Gumby Show on NBC. Today clay animation is a popular method for producing animated films, several of which have won Academy Awards.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Wallace: a bit of a crackpot cheese-loving inventor
Gromit: his faithful canine companion (and perhaps a lot smarter than his owner?)
Lady Tottington: a beautiful, wealthy, animal-loving carrot-grower
Victor Quartermaine: her suitor, a gun-happy snobby cad

REVIEW
This has all the “essential” elements of any Wallace and Gromit movie: crazy complicated inventions, sight gags, verbal puns, double entendres for the adults, cute characters for the kids. In a word, a must see.

CLASSIFICATION

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
The fingerprints of the animators can be seen in some of the shots, a nice reminder that this form of movie making still needs the human touch.

P.S.
Anyone who sticks around right to the end of the credits get a bonus chuckle.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.