As prestigious as the filmmaking center is, it really isn’t that much Wallace & Gromit. Thirty and a half years have given us four TV shorts, a feature-length film, and a handful of bite-sized short films. But what made it endure, more than its quality, was Aardman’s ability to make each return to West Wallaby Street and its lovable inhabitants fresh and impactful—a series where the main characters and stories exist for one myth, then are removed. So there was a lot of excitement when Aardman announced that it was teaming up with Netflix for the first time Wallace & Gromit movie from 2008 The Story of Bread and Deathand that the film will see the series break with tradition and bring back an iconic enemy. That is a challenge Revenge Most Birds it always counts—and alone sometimes wins a little.
Coming out early next year on Netflix, Wallace & Gromit: Revenge of the Many Birds it also raises the titular duo in a familiar way. Wallace (Ben Whitehead, a much-missed stand-in for Peter Sallis) tries to balance his impending debt pile with his obsession with innovation, hoping he can stay out of trouble—leaving his faithful dog very distracted by his master’s fixation with technology. over his friend next to him. So when that frustration sets in with each other when Wallace unveils his latest money-making scheme, Norbot the robotic garden gnome (a terrifying performance by Reece Shearsmith), Gromit finds himself feeling more alone than ever… until the gnome crowd is related. breaking into Wallace’s universe for crimes he didn’t commit, and the revelation that someone is pulling their strings. That is, none other than one of the worst villains in the history of animation, making a return that has not been seen for the first time since 1993. The Wrong Pants: Penguin-Slash-Chicken-Slash-Renowned-Jewel-Thief, Feathers McGraw.
This time it’s back there Revenge Most Birds hanging on to all its greatest achievements and its most difficult struggles. Amidst the gag-a-minute laughs (whether comedic farces, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gags, or the many puns that go with Aardman’s trademark British charm), moments where Revenge you want to think that it actually means to agree Wallace & GromitThe past, both narratively and in context, are some of the best. It’s especially bold for a series that hasn’t had a major entry in more than 15 years, and it draws on the theme of wanting to do something new with each story—even if doing something new is, ironically, revisiting the past. Combining this with film’s brilliant ability to emphasize range while maintaining a hand-crafted aesthetic allowed for it Wallace & Gromit persevere through all these years, and there is a glimmer of a film that might have had it all: a love letter to Wallace & Gromita long history, embedded in a story that felt like it was all these years in the making.
Alas, those moments are lightning. Revenge Most Birds sure it’s always good looking throughout (eagle-eyed viewers will love Aardman’s detailing with multiple gags placed in each of them), and it’s often uproariously funny, but all too often those high points are undercut. the stream of omniscience. The set pieces start to feel a little different when they become homages to action moments and chase sequences Wallace & GromitIt’s over. Feathers’ return isn’t really about the revenge of the title, but just another extended plot to try and find the green diamond that Wallace and Gromit stopped him from stealing all those years ago. Even specific images and lines of dialogue from films of the past are invoked here, and there is little in the way that makes a surprising amount of sense for this new story, but instead it’s a way to appeal to casual viewers and say “remember a bit, that one? It was good, wasn’t it?”
The elements of the film are very new—especially in how Revenge uses Wallace and his style of retro-analogue gadgeteering to comment on our modern obsession with technology and “smart” devices, playing as he does in a fantasy world where otherwise the Internet doesn’t exist and nobody seems to have a cell phone—he finds himself pushed. aside once Feathers really enters the picture to focus on his comeback. But Revenge Most Birds prefers not to comment on that return and its impact in favor of just doing the things you would expect from this return: new places and new scales, but episodes and moments that feel more than respect for the ideas that came before. For a series that prides itself on constant reinvention and innovation, with new characters, it feels like a shame to miss the mark like this.
For a new audience coming to Netflix with no familiarity with the franchise however, that almost constant sense of mockery of past series will have very little impact. A celebration of the greatest hits Wallace & Gromitbut if you don’t know what those hits are, they are still funny and attractive this time. Well, given the time since then Wallace & Gromit The latest hit screens have had time for generations of fans to grow up and raise other generations to come in the series. On a broad scale, Revenge Most Birds it succeeds as a wonderful and sincere love letter to everything you have done Wallace & Gromit institution, in the home nation and around the world. But part of the great joy of Wallace & Gromit it’s always been there in the smallest details—and if you look closely at the outward appearance, Revenge Most Birds it did not pass the sniff test in comparison Wallace & GromitEarly additions to the proverbial cheeseboard.
Wallace & Gromit: Revenge of the Many Birds begins streaming worldwide on Netflix from January 3, 2025. The film will be broadcast on the BBC in the UK and Ireland on a yet-to-be-disclosed date.
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