Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Released 2005
Voices Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham-Carter, Peter Kay
Directed by Nick Park, Steve Box

Wallace (voice of Peter Sallis) is a cheese-loving, chatty inventor living in a small village in rural Great Britain. His lone companion is his impossibly intelligent but always silent canine, Gromit. When The Curse of the Were-Rabbit opens, these two have formed a PETA-friendly animal removal service called "Anti-Pesto." When rabbits threaten garden vegetables, in come Wallace & Gromit (armed with a giant vacuum cleaner) to save the day. It's their job to ensure that everyone's carrots, squashes, peppers, and melons are ready for Lady Tottington's (Helena Bonham-Carter) annual Giant Vegetable Contest. However, just when Wallace and Gromit appear to have everything under control, there is a new arrival - a fearsome brute of a creature with an appetite to match its monstrous size. It is a were-rabbit, and no one is sure how to deal with it. Wallace and Gromit devise a trap. Lady Tottington's would-be husband, Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes), loads his gun with gold bullets (the only thing that will kill a were-rabbit), and the rest of the townspeople arm themselves with pitchforks and shovels from the Mob Supply Store.

Summary by James Berardinelli

I've enjoyed the previous Wallace & Gromit shorts, but this is my favorite. I knew I'd like it, but I was surprised by how much I loved it. It's truly a joy and succeeds on all levels. The film surprised me by including some subtle cheeky humor that made me (slightly) raise an eyebrow, but it's a perfect film for the family. There's one big plot twist that keeps the movie from going on auto-pilot, but it doesn't distract from the gentle humor that is Wallace & Gromit. It's a shame it takes so long (five years in this case) to make a stop-action movie like this, but it would lose much of its charm if they didn't use the their plasticine models. I noticed they used some CGI in this movie, but I appreciated the way they integrated it to give us floating bunnies and drifting fog. It worked as an enhancement to the models, and it didn't overpower the rest of picture. The directors deserve a lot of credit for taking the step of using CGI while not overusing it. The result is a gorgeous film that's a very charming experience. --Bill Alward, March 1, 2006