The Reel Review
After their police tip lands him in prison, the vengeful penguin and blue diamond thief Feathers McGraw uses computer hacking technology to turn Wallace’s new invention – a robotic garden gnome named Norbot – against him and his dog Gromit, in this British stop-motion, claymation animation comedy.
The impressive, painstaking animation itself is a visual spectacle loaded with cute puns, as the gleefully manic and super cute Norbot and its minions of fellow robots take on various “gnome improvement” projects. It is the non-verbal Gromit, however, who steals the show as the clever canine who figures out what is really on when the robotic gnomes go on an evil rampage. Be on the lookout for Diane Morgan (Cunk on Earth, Cunk on Life) as the TV news reporter.
The story itself, while cute, doesn’t always make sense and is bit sluggish in its midsection. But it pick up in the rousing third act for a sweet, heartfelt ending.
REEL FACTS
• Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl has been nominated for a 2025 Oscar, for Best Animated Film.
• This is the first of the six Wallace and Gromit animated films not to feature the voice of Peter Sallis as Wallace. Ben Whitehead, who also voiced Wallace in video games and commercials, took over after Sallis retired in 2010 and died of natural causes at the age of 96 in 2017.
• 2005’s Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is the second highest grossing stop-motion animated film ($192 million worldwide), after 2000’s Chicken Run. The franchise won Best Animated Short Oscars for 1994’s The Wrong Trousers and 1995’s A Close Shave.
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