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 by), Nick Park (screenplay by)

Stars:

Peter Sallis, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes

Won 1 Oscar. Another 38 wins & 25 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:

pest control | giant vegetable | dog | human becoming an animal | stop motion animation | 

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Taglines:

Something bunny is going on...

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy | Mystery | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

DreamWorks [United States]

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:

$4,005,875 (United Kingdom), 7 October 2005

Opening Weekend USA:

$16,025,987, 9 October 2005, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$56,110,897

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$192,610,372

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

The line "Run, rabbit, run!" is also a reference to the song "Breathe/In The Air" from Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon album. - actually the Pink Floyd song is a reference to the Noel Gay song but the line in the film is not a reference to the Pink Floyd song.

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Goofs

The hammer on Quatermaine's flintlock doesn't have a flint, but it makes a spark anyway.

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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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Alternate Versions

In the German theatrical version, all of the inscriptions seen on the props in the film have been seamlessly translated into German. However, this is not valid for the German DVD: it has an English video master.

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Connections

Referenced in The 100 Greatest Kids TV Shows (2001)

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Soundtracks

Wallace & Gromit Theme
(uncredited)
Written by Julian Nott

User Reviews

Horror Trousers

I am always amazed at how many surfaces film has. There seem to be so many places on which an artist can leave us a message. Usually my comments deal with "normal" differences in these surfaces: the story compared to explicit commentary on the story, for instance.

Or acting in a way that provides a second level on the story. Or a tone or set that does.

This Wallace and Grommit stuff is shocking in this context. Oh, claymation is as old as I am (pretty old), but this claymation was designed from the first to be photographed with all the camera tricks you would use in a "real" noir or Hitchcock film. That's what made it unique.

Once Park crossed into that territory, he had the possibilities to make movies about movies. Many folks do... perhaps a third of all movies have this value, but most take a common approach allowing them to comment on the way others comment on movies. Met-meta movies, but with all this reuse we run out of new ideas.

Park has some new ideas. Check out "The wrong trousers" where the story is about the mechanics of Hitchcock taking control of the movie and being fought back. Those mechanics are denoted in the story by some automated pants, but the style of the cinematography matches as the battle rages.

I guess manipulating that clay for months to get a single scene gives you lots of time to think about movie-making.

Last time around we had Hollywood intruding with "Chicken Run." It was self-referential, but of the stupid kind: lots and lots of obvious references to other movies. Mel Gibson.

This time we go back to the world of characters reinventing themselves. This time the fight is with having the monster genre taking control instead of the Hitchcock one.

Sure, most of this can be seen as simple kiddie fun, and it is. But look at the very first shot where we see the copper's ankle stepping from behind the camera. You won't see anything like this in any Dreamworks drek. That was a shot that tells us who love movies that this is first going to be fun for movielovers.

The story is as incidental and vexing as a rabbit infestation.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.