Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

Wallace and his loyal dog, Gromit, set out to discover the mystery behind the garden sabotage that plagues their village and threatens the annual giant vegetable growing contest.

Directors:

Steve Box, Nick Park

Writers:

Steve Box (screenplay), Nick Park (screenplay),

Stars:

Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter

Won 1 Oscar. Another 32 wins & 19 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Sallis	...	Wallace / Hutch (voice)
Ralph Fiennes	...	Victor Quartermaine (voice)
Helena Bonham Carter	...	Lady Campanula Tottington (voice)
Peter Kay	...	PC Mackintosh (voice)
Nicholas Smith	...	Reverend Clement Hedges (voice)
Liz Smith	...	Mrs. Mulch (voice)
John Thomson	...	Mr. Windfall (voice)
Mark Gatiss	...	Miss Blight (voice)
Vincent Ebrahim	...	Mr. Caliche (voice)
Geraldine McEwan	...	Miss Thripp (voice)
Edward Kelsey	...	Mr. Growbag (voice)
Dicken Ashworth	...	Mr. Mulch (voice)
Robert Horvath	...	Mr. Dibber (voice)
Pete Atkin	...	Mr. Crock (voice)
Noni Lewis	...	Mrs. Girdling (voice)

Storyline

It's 'vege-mania' in Wallace and Gromit's neighborhood, and our two enterprising chums are cashing in with their humane pest-control outfit, "Anti-Pesto." With only days to go before the annual Giant Vegetable Competition, business is booming, but Wallace & Gromit are finding out that running a "humane" pest control outfit has its drawbacks as their West Wallaby Street home fills to the brim with captive rabbits. Suddenly, a huge, mysterious, veg-ravaging "beast" begins attacking the town's sacred vegetable plots at night, and the competition hostess, Lady Tottington, commissions Anti-Pesto to catch it and save the day. Lying in wait, however, is Lady Tottington's snobby suitor, Victor Quartermaine, who'd rather shoot the beast and secure the position of local hero-not to mention Lady Tottingon's hand in marriage. With the fate of the competition in the balance, Lady Tottington is eventually forced to allow Victor to hunt down the vegetable chomping marauder. Little does she know that...

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Plot Keywords:

vegetable | competition | dog | pest control | giant vegetable | 

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Taglines:

They've made gadgets, they've made contraptions, and they've made a movie.

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

DreamWorks [us] Official site [uk]

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 October 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$140,565 (South Africa) (6 January 2006)

Gross:

$470,392 (South Africa) (13 January 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Aardman Animations, DreamWorks Animation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

During the scene where Victor chases the were-rabbit through the town's back gardens, there is a poster on one of the walls for a show called "Rock around the Crop" featuring Carl Gherkins (Carl Perkins) and Roy Aubergine (Roy Orbison).

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Goofs

When Wallace and Gromit are trapped by Victor's dead end tree in the road, Victor throws the hatchet into the tree next to Wallace. Wallce, nor his clothes, are touching it. Yet when Wallace tries to run off, we see his suspenders caught in the hatchet. The very next scene, Wallace is next to the tree again, and again his clothes are still not caught under the hatchet.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Wallace: Oh ho ho, cracking job, Gromit!

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Crazy Credits

The word "Were-Rabbit" on the opening title grows fur, a cottontail, and long ears.

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Connections

Featured in Smagsdommerne: Episode #2.11 (2005)

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Soundtracks

"1st Movement from 'Symphony No. 1 in A Flat Major, Opus 55'"
Written by Edward Elgar (as Sir Edward Elgar)
Performed by BBC Philharmonic (as The BBC Philharmonic)
Conducted by George Hurst
Sound Recording licensed by kind permission of Naxos Rights International Ltd.
Published by Novello & Co. Limited
Licensed by Music Sales Film & TV

User Reviews

Fantastic Feats of Clay: Wallace & Gromit Save the Day! Crackin' Good Entertainment!

WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT (2005) **** (Voices: Peter Salis, Ralph Fiennes Helena Bonham Carter)

Fantastic Feats of Clay: Wallace & Gromit Save the Day! Crackin' Good Entertainment!

Nick Park, the creator of the animated team of Wallace & Gromit, is a genius. His painstaking art in the form of Plasitcine claymation is a unique process involving literally thousands of hours (it takes roughly an 8 hour work day to contribute 3 minutes of action to a film; this foray into feature length storytelling took 5 years!) in making his lovable master & loyal dog team take form is finally on the big screen in the duo's first full-length motion picture and it's cracklin' good (to coin a phrase from Wallace's usual reply to all things good!)

Park, who co-directed with Steve Box and co-wrote with Mark Burton and Bob Baker, sends up the horror genre in this rollickingly funny and swift paced action comedy with the geeky inventive Wallace (voiced by British vet thespian Salis) and his mute yet loyal (and sharper-minded) mutt Gromit (all furrowing eyebrows and mouth-less insouciance) have devised a service to their community: pest control ("Anti-Pesto" as they are known) for the upcoming Giant Vegetable Festival that has the entire town in the mood for all things vegetative a gigante and the biggest pesk are troublesome rabbits eating the crunchy goods. Wallace's inventive mind has created a vacuum container that is quick, efficient, and more importantly harmless to the cute vermin that plague the estate of Lady Campanula Tottington (voiced by Bonham Carter, making a fast-break to be the first lady of stop-motion animation what with her earlier turn in "Corpse Bride" a few weeks ago), who is housing the competition and is a love interest for the nerdy Wallace.

The only fly-in-the-ointment is vainglorious, bombastic loud-mouth and jerk Victor Quartermaine (voiced by Fiennes, his first attempt in the animated arts coming across as a Patrick Stewart lunged braggard with hilarious results), a badly toupeed wearing macho moron who is plotting to marry Lady Tottington for her riches while he is a chief competitor to W&G's humane attempts by resorting to his trusty guns and nasty bulldog.

To add insult to injury the duo are facing a terrible plight in the form of a huge were-rabbit (the titular monster a nice nod to both Universal and Hammer horror flicks) that is terrorizing the village and devouring every veggie in sight. The two set out to trap and dispose of the creature but there is more than meets the eye as things progress.

Relentlessly funny and with such amazing elastic, and kinetic energy to his wonderful clay counterparts, Park and Box have created a truly magical and highly entertaining film with so much amazingly detailed production design to their little world that it may take more than one screening to absorb just how much effort in their blood, sweat and tears have gone into making this instant classic for children of all ages.

Wallace, the cheese loving balding inventor, could easily be Homer Simpson's UK cousin with his rotund body and constant knack for getting things wrong while attempting to do the right thing; his heart is in the right place but his head is in the clouds. His sweet crush for Lady Tottington (resembling a pre-plastic surgery Carol Burnett) who is a head taller than our hero will perhaps remind those of their first unrequited love with a smile of awkward admission. His Rube Goldberg-like gift for making the complicated into ease is inspired lunacy that fans will recall from the earlier shorter films "The Wrong Trousers", "A Close Shave" and "A Grand Day Out".

But it is in my opinion the wise, silent and long-suffering Gromit, his poached egg eyes of slow-burns and disbelief at what is transpiring, is one of the best animated characters ever created with such an amazing arsenal of exasperated, mouthless expressions and subtle nuances that most live-action actors would kill to accomplish in the attempt of conveying dismay, concern, grief, genuine surprise and relief. His final chase – a signature of the immensely popular comic team – is ingeniously set and quickly improvised especially his literal dog-fight with the equally soundless bulldog with tenacity, wit and a Chuck Jones fueled smartness that would have Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger green with envy.

Wallace and Gromit match the best of Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello and any other classic comedy team that comes to mind; here's hoping their longevity continues on screen for just as long as their predecessors. The waiting is most eager.