A CRACKING GOOD 'WALLACE & GROMIT'.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic THE PECULIAR British inventor and his sensible dog make their feature film debut in ``Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.'' This follows a couple of Oscar-winning, clay-animated shorts about the trouble-prone duo, as well as the delightful ``Chicken Run,'' Claymation studio Aardman's first full-length, plasticine freak-out. Wallace and Gromit have always been a little too Britsy-witsy for my taste. The elaborate devices Wallace builds for simple tasks, the simpering sim·per v. sim·pered, sim·per·ing, sim·pers v.intr. To smile in a silly, self-conscious, often coy manner. v.tr. dialogue whistling past bad teeth (except in the case of Gromit, who doesn't appear to have a mouth), Wallace's irrational fondness for cheese; to me it's quite twee, as the English might say. Yet resident Aardman genius Nick Park, who directed ``Were-Rabbit'' with Steve Box Steve Box (born South Shields Tyne and Wear UK 9 February 1956) is an Oscar-winning animator and director who works for Aardman Animations. His early work in animation included the popular British claymation television series The Trap Door , has come up with a whimsical counterbalance this time around. ``Were-Rabbit'' is an often-enough inspired spoof of classic horror films. Britcentricities still abound, of course, but there's something irresistibly hilarious about watching a group of dithering Simulating more colors and shades in a palette. In a monochrome system that displays or prints only black and white, shades of grays can be simulated by creating varying patterns of black dots. This is how halftones are created in a monochrome printer. gardeners attempt to become a pitchfork-wielding mob. Agriculture is crucial to the story. W & G's Yorkshire village is gearing up for its gala Giant Vegetable Competition, and our heroes have helpfully established a pest-control enterprise to prevent hungry bunnies from gobbling up the entries. They're humane exterminators, though. Unable to kill the fluffy little critters, Wallace scoops them up in his ridiculous but visually stimulating Bun-Vac 6000 (one of several cases in which painstaking Claymation is cleverly assisted by CGI CGI in full Common Gateway Interface. Specification by which a Web server passes data between itself and an application program. Typically, a Web user will make a request of the Web server, which in turn passes the request to a CGI application program. ) and pens them up at home. Naturally enough, space soon becomes an issue. So, brilliant idiot that he is, Wallace (voiced, as always, by veteran actor Peter Sallis Peter Sallis, OBE (b. February 1, 1921, Twickenham, Middlesex, England), is a British actor. He is best known for his role of the level-headed widower Norman Clegg (Cleggy) in the BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, which he has played since 1973. ) attempts to brainwash brain·wash tr.v. brain·washed, brain·wash·ing, brain·wash·es To subject to brainwashing. n. The process or an instance of brainwashing. the bunnies into carnivores or something with one of his mad scientist devices. The upshot is a giant, hairy Lapinstein with a ravenous taste for produce. The despicable suitor SUITOR. One who is a party to a suit or action in court. One who is a party to an action. In its ancient sense, suitor meant one Who was bound to attend the county court, also, one who formed part of the secta. (q.v.) (Ralph Fiennes Ralph Nathaniel Fiennes, (IPA: [ˈreɪf ˈfaɪnz], born 22 December 1962) is a Tony Award-winning, Academy Award-nominated and Genie Award-nominated English actor. ) of the local upper-class twit (Helena Bonham Carter) believes his elephant gun is the only solution. Gromit, for reasons only he knows, must do everything in his mute power to resolve the situation without bloodshed. Silly chase sequences, a series specialty, ensue. There is also a harvest of visual puns - many sexual, others vegetarian, some both - that consistently hits the mark. While retaining their lumpy, finger-manipulated charm, the soft plastic models prove remarkably expressive, especially (and crucially) in silent Gromit's case. The Were-Rabbit itself is marvelously conceived as a shadowy, partially seen presence for a good deal of the movie. And hundreds of little particulars will undoubtedly reward a second viewing. Which, no doubt, is a forgone conclusion for fans of detail-fixated English idiosyncrasy idiosyncrasy /id·io·syn·cra·sy/ (-sing´krah-se) 1. a habit peculiar to an individual. 2. an abnormal susceptibility to an agent (e.g., a drug) peculiar to an individual. . Bob Strauss, (818) 713-3670 bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT - Three stars (G: violence, scary stuff) Starring: Voices of Peter Sallis, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes. Directors: Nick Park and Steve Box. Running time: 1 hr. 25 min. Playing: The Grove Stadium 14, Farmers Market. In wide release Friday. In a nutshell: The Claymation inventor and his smarter dog try to save their English village from a garden-threatening bunny monster. Lots of horror-movie gags enhance the usual whimsy whim·sy also whim·sey n. pl. whim·sies also whim·seys 1. An odd or fanciful idea; a whim. 2. A quaint or fanciful quality: stories full of whimsy. . CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Gromit, the intrepid and mute canine companion of a daffy English inventor, has his paws full in the claymation feature ``Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.'' |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion