Review: Wallace & Gromit are back in 'Vengeance Most Fowl,' and so is an old nemesis in this lively, clever return to form.
It would be difficult to find two characters on film who provide more pure entertainment, more laughs and smiles, than the two blobs of modeling clay who go by the names of Wallace & Gromit — and their latest adventure, “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” shows exactly how well they carry a movie.
Now, it’s been about 20 years since movie audiences got to see W&G in action, in “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” so maybe an introduction is in order. Wallace is a kindly inventor, clever enough to create brilliant gadgets but not so observant to see that it’s his silent partner, his dog Gromit, who is the brains of the outfit.
Together, they have gone to the moon (in their first short, “A Grand Day Out,” in 1989), thwarted a jewel thief using “techno trousers” (“The Wrong Trousers,” 1993) and faced off against a robotic sheep-rustling bulldog (“A Close Shave,” 1995).
The duo’s creator, animator Nick Park, returns to direct this new adventure, with co-director Merlin Crossingham — and the results are as delightful as ever.
The story starts with Wallace surprising Gromit with his latest invention, an eager robotic garden helper called a SmartGnome. The gnome is eager to do any chore, even the ones that Gromit has reserved for himself. Wallace is so impressed that he builds an army of helpful gnomes and hires them out to perform odd jobs around the community.
The only thing that could go wrong is if someone with malicious intent were able to reprogram the gnomes for evil purposes. Fans of W&G know who that someone is: Feathers McGraw, the felonious penguin who tangled with our heroes in “The Wrong Trousers.” Once again disguised as a chicken (with a red rubber glove on his head), Feathers devises a scheme to bust out of jail — actually, the zoo — and frame Wallace for his many crimes. But what is Feathers’ ultimate goal? That would be telling.
Park and co-writer Mark Burton devise a wickedly clever story to run our heroes through, devising more complicated inventions that would make Rube Goldberg smile, toward a breakneck finale.
For all the inventive animation and colorful scenes, the most spectacular effect in “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” is the series’ best weapon: Gromit’s wordless reactions to the chaos going on around them. Park has clearly studied the great silent comics — particularly Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton — and transferred that expressiveness and economy of movement to his clay-molded dog. Gromit and his cheerily oblivious human partner cement their status as one of the great comedy duos in movie history.
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‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”
★★★1/2
Starts streaming Friday, January 3, on Netflix. Rated PG for some action and rude humor. Running time: 79 minutes.