WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL (NETFLIX) (2025)

SYNOPSIS: From the brilliant Aardman and four-time Academy Award®-winning director Nick Park and Emmy Award-nominated Merlin Crossingham comes Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. In this next installment, Gromit’s concern that Wallace is becoming too dependent on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a “smart” gnome that seems to develop a mind of its own. When it emerges that a vengeful figure from the past might be masterminding things, it falls to Gromit to battle sinister forces and save his master… or Wallace may never be able to invent again!

MOVIE REVIEW:

Almost two decades later after their first feature length movie, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Wallace, the good-natured inventor and his pooch pal, Gromit returns to knock our socks off once again.

Nick Park, an Aardman Animations regular (with Park getting a co-story credit) and Merlin Crossingham helmed this latest adventure involving a recurring villainous penguin Feathers McGraw. With the help from Wallace and Gromit, Feathers was apprehended by the police for stealing a precious blue diamond. And now the said penguin is out for revenge.

While being imprisoned, Feathers manages to hack into Wallace’s computer (don’t ask how tech works here). Anyway Wallace’s latest invention, Norbot, a smart, high-tech Gnome (Reece Shearsmith) who specialises in home improvement is thus being turned into an evil destructive robot capable of more than just trimming bushes and alleviate household chores.

Even with the help of some modern CGI, Aardman’s stop-motion and clay animations remain their bread and butter as the animation consistently entertains in their own unique ways. The trademark silent Brit comedy is old-school yet manages to ignite more chuckles than the typical Hollywood comedy. Take for instance a prolonged scene involving a non-verbal Gromit on a journey to stake out the evil gnomes and Feathers.

Two other side characters, the fumbling Chief Inspector Mackintosh (Peter Kay) and his deputy, Police Constable Mukherjee (Lauren Patel) provided additional whimsical laughs especially an exhilarating boat chase in the finale.

Despite the brisk 70 plus minutes runtime, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a wonderful madcap affair only Aardman can deliver. On the surface, its a hilarious children movie but hey, it seems that Park and his team has something to say about AI and technology beneath the claymation.

In short, we really can’t wait for more Wallace & Gromit adventures, let’s hope it’s not in another two decades.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee