Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nick Park Steve Box
Produced by	Nick Park Claire Jennings Peter Lord Carla Shelley David Sproxton
Screenplay by	Nick Park (creator) Steve Box Bob Baker Mark Burton
Starring	Peter Sallis Ralph Fiennes Helena Bonham Carter Peter Kay
Music by	Julian Nott
Editing by	David McCormick Gregory Perler
Studio	DreamWorks Animation Aardman Animations
Distributed by	DreamWorks Pictures
Release date(s)	7 October 2005 (2005-10-07) (United States) 14 October 2005 (2005-10-14) (United Kingdom)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$30 million
Box office	$192,610,372

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 British clay-mation animated family comedy film. The film was produced by Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation, and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. It was directed by Nick Park and Steve Box as the second feature-length film by Aardman after Chicken Run.

The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is based on the characters and short film series of Wallace and Gromit, created by Park. The film follows eccentric inventor Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis) and his silent and intelligent dog, Gromit, as they come to the rescue of the residents of a village which is being plagued by a mutant rabbit before an annual vegetable competition.

The film introduces a number of new characters, and features a voice cast including Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes. It was a critical and commercial success, and won a number of film awards including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Plot

Tottington Hall's annual Giant Vegetable Competition is approaching. The winner of the competition will win the coveted Golden Carrot Award. All are eager to protect their vegetables from damage and thievery by rabbits until the contest, and Wallace and Gromit are cashing in by running a vegetable security and humane pest control business, "Anti-Pesto".

However, they are soon faced with two problems: first is Wallace's growing weight, while the second is inadequate space for the captured rabbits. Wallace comes up with an idea – use his Mind Manipulation-O-Matic machine to brainwash the rabbits. While performing the operation, Wallace accidentally kicks a lever and a rabbit gets fused to Wallace's head, causing the machine to malfunction, and Gromit is forced to destroy the Mind-O-Matic in order to save Wallace. The resulting failure somehow leaves them with a semi-intelligent rabbit who no longer has an appetite for vegetables, whom Wallace dubs "Hutch". That night, town is threatened by the "Were-Rabbit", a giant rabbit-like monster which eats vegetables of any size. During a chaotic town meeting, Anti-Pesto enters into a rivalry with Lord Victor Quartermaine, who seeks to court Lady Tottington and who believes that it is better to be rid of the rabbits via the use of guns. With Lady Tottington's persuasion, the townspeople agree the Anti-Pesto front the capture attempt.

After a hectic night-time chase, Wallace and Gromit come to the theory that Hutch is the Were-Rabbit. Wallace is overjoyed, because this technically means he has already captured the beast, and cheerfully goes to inform Lady Tottington. Securing Hutch to make sure that he does not escape, Gromit instead discovers that the Were-Rabbit is in fact Wallace, suffering from the effects of the accident with the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic having caused him and Hutch to each take on aspects of the other. Alarmed, Gromit seeks out Wallace, retrieves him before the sun sets, and drives him home. Victor corners Wallace during the night, jealous of Lady Tottington's growing fondness for him because of his humane practice of pest control. But when the full moon appears, Wallace transforms into the Were-Rabbit before a petrified Victor and his dog Philip. Gromit immediately departs after Wallace. Victor, having identified the Were-Rabbit, decides to dispose his rival to win Lady Tottington's heart. Reverend Clement Hedges allows him access to three "24-carrot" gold bullets – supposedly, the only things capable of killing a Were-Rabbit.

The following morning, the day has finally arrived for the Vegetable Competition, but Lady Tottington reluctantly bows to public pressure to sanction Victor's offer to shoot the Were-Rabbit. Meanwhile, an oblivious Wallace rebuffs Gromit's accusations of him being the Were-Rabbit, but when Wallace witnesses Hutch expressing his own personality traits, he accepts the truth. Lady Tottington informs Wallace of Victor's plan, but he begins to transform and is left with no other choice but to send her away. Victor and Philip arrive on the duo's doorstep moments later, but Gromit is one step ahead, luring the Were-Rabbit away with a female Were-Rabbit marionette. However, his getaway plan is foiled when Victor mistakenly fires upon what he believes to be the Were-Rabbit, instead discovering it to be Gromit in disguise. Victor and Philip imprison Gromit, who subsequently escapes with help from Hutch and decides to use the marrow he had been growing for the competition as bait for Wallace who has burst in upon the vegetable contest. Victor tries to take the Golden Carrot award from a distressed Lady Tottington, as it is the only golden bullet-like object left to him after he exhausted his supply of golden bullets. Wallace ascends to the rooftops, holding a screaming Lady Tottington in his hand. Discovering his identity after recognising his palm-shaking gesture, she promises to protect him, only to be interrupted by Victor. Meanwhile, in a mid-air dogfight in toy biplanes, Philip pursues Gromit to prevent him from stopping Victor. Phillip's plane is at one point destroyed when Gromit quickly wields round a drainpipe corner, but Phillip clings on to the tail of Gromit's plane. The fight does stop suddenly, when the plane runs out of money, but Phillip eventually restores it with a pound coin piece. The fight concludes when Gromit releases Philip through the bomb doors, dispatching him into a bouncy castle. On the roof of Tottington Hall, Gromit's toy biplane circles Wallace, who clings onto the flagpole at the top of the building. Victor, this time wielding the Golden Carrot trophy inside a blunderbuss, tries one last time to shoot Wallace, but Wallace is saved by Gromit, who grabs onto a rope from a flagpole and swings his plane into the path of the improvised bullet. But as it is a toy plane not intended for flying, when Gromit accidentally lets go of the rope, the plane begins to descend rapidly. Wallace sacrifices himself to save Gromit, thereby breaking Gromit's fall into the cheese tent below. Victor gloats, but is knocked unconscious by Lady Tottington. He falls into the tent, where Wallace lies unconscious and seemingly dying of his injuries. Using the marionette to protect Wallace from the angry mob outside, Gromit dresses Victor up as the monster, as the angry mob chases Victor away.

Gromit and Tottington tend to Wallace who seemingly passes away and morphs back into his human form, but Gromit is able to revive Wallace with a slice of Stinking Bishop cheese. Gromit, for his bravery, is awarded the slightly dented Golden Carrot trophy, and Lady Tottington turns Tottington Hall's front garden into a wildlife sanctuary, where Hutch and the rest of the rabbits can live in peace.

Cast

See also: Wallace and Gromit

• Peter Sallis as Wallace, an inventor with an obsession about cheese.
• Ralph Fiennes as Lord Victor Quartermaine, an arrogant, vain, upper-class bounder who is fond of hunting; he is rarely seen without his rifle and his hunting dog Philip. He wears a toupee and hates Anti-Pesto. His hunting rifle is apparently a high calibre bolt-action model with a sniper scope. It soon becomes clear in the film that Victor's only interest in Lady Tottington is her vast fortune which he is eager to get his hands on. After Lady Tottington discovers that Victor knew that the were-rabbit was Wallace all along, he reveals that all he wants is her money. Victor is inspired from Gaston the villain from Disney's Beauty and the Beast. His surname is similar to Allan Quatermain, the British novelist's H. Rider Haggard's big-game hunter character.
  • Philip is Victor's hunting dog who resembles a Miniature Bull Terrier. He and his master will do anything to stop the Were-Rabbit, although Philip is bright enough to know that the Were-Rabbit is beyond his hunting skills, and that Gromit, closer to his own size, is a better prospect as the target of premeditated violence. He also owns a lady's purse decorated with flowers for spare change.
• Helena Bonham Carter as Lady Campanula "Totty" Tottington, a wealthy aristocratic spinster with a keen interest in both vegetable-growing and 'fluffy' animals. For 517 years, her family has hosted an annual vegetable competition. Lady Tottington asks Wallace to call her "Totty" (which is a British term for attractive upper class women) and develops a romantic interest in him. Her given name is similar to Campanula, a bellflower.
• Peter Kay as Police Constable Albert Mackintosh, the village bobby who judges the Giant Vegetable Contest, although, with the havoc it creates every year he would rather it did not happen at all.
• Nicholas Smith as Reverend Clement Hedges, the local vicar and the first person in the village to witness the Were-Rabbit. He describes the full horror of his encounter with the beast, but Victor refuses to believe him. However, when Victor discovers the true identity of the beast, he turns to the vicar for advice on how to kill it. Reverend Hedges appears to have a wide range of knowledge on the habits and the slayings of supernatural animals, and has a whole cupboard filled with the weapons to defeat them. Although his name appears in the credits, it is never said inside the film.
• Dicken Ashworth and Liz Smith as Mr. and Mrs. Mulch, clients of Wallace and Gromit's Anti-Pesto. Mrs. Mulch has a fixation on her gigantic pumpkin. Mrs. Mulch is a more prominent character than her husband, who talks little.
• Edward Kelsey as Mr. Growbag, an elderly resident of Wallace and Gromit's neighbourhood and a founding member of the town's veg grower's council. He constantly recalls memories of incidents from previous Vegetable Competitions – comparing them to what may happen to the forthcoming one. Two of the "disasters" he mentions are The Great Slug Riot of '32, "when there were slugs the size of pigs", and the Great Duck Plague of '53.
• Peter Sallis (with a sped-up voice) as Hutch, originally just another captive rabbit. He receives special treatment, and his name, after an attempt to brainwash him and his fellows goes wrong. He was the first to be suspected of being the Were-Rabbit. Everything that Hutch says is a quotation from Wallace (though, surprisingly, some of the lines were originally spoken by Wallace after the incident with the Mind-Manipulation-O-Matic). Hutch wears clothes like Wallace's, including his slippers and tank top.

Production

The directors, Nick Park and Steve Box, have often referred to the film as the world's "first vegetarian horror film". Peter Sallis (the voice of Wallace) is joined in the film by Ralph Fiennes (as Lord Victor Quartermaine), Helena Bonham Carter (as Lady Campanula Tottington), Peter Kay (as PC Mackintosh), Nicholas Smith (as Rev. Clement Hedges), and Liz Smith (as Mrs. Mulch). Keeping with the tradition of the original short films, Gromit remains silent, communicating only through body language.

Park told an interviewer that after separate test screenings with British and American children, the film was altered to "tone down some of the British accents and make them speak more clearly so the American audiences could understand it all better." Park was often sent notes from DreamWorks, which irritated him. He recalled one note that Wallace's car should be trendier, which he disagreed with because he felt making things look old-fashioned made it look more ironic.

The vehicle Wallace drives in the film is an Austin A35 van. In collaboration with Aardman in the spring of 2005, a road-going replica of the model was created by brothers Mark and David Armé, founders of the International Austin A30/A35 Register, for promotional purposes. In a 500-man-hour customisation, an original 1964 van received a full body restoration before being dented and distressed to perfectly replicate the model van used in the film. The official colour of the van is Preston Green, named in honour of Nick Park's home town. The name was chosen by the Art Director and Mark Armé.

For the US edition of the film, the dialogue was changed to refer to Gromit's prize marrow as a "melon". Because the word "marrow" is not well known in the US, Jeffrey Katzenberg insisted it be changed. Park explained "Because it's the only appropriate word we could find that would fit with the mouth shape for 'marrow'. Melon apparently works over there. So we have Wallace saying, 'How's your prize melon?'". The US version is also heard in the UK bootleg DVD release.

Release and reaction

The film was released in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and the United States on 14 October 2005 to very positive reviews, including "A" ratings from Roger Ebert and Ty Burr. The DVD edition of the film was released on 7 February 2006 (USA) and 20 February 2006 (UK). On the Rotten Tomatoes website, the film won 2 Golden Tomato awards for "Best Wide Overall Release" and "Best Animation" and the film also received a 95% "Certified Fresh" rating from the website. Actor Peter Sallis was dissatisfied with Wallace & Gromit, saying that he preferred the half-hour films to the film. However, Richard Roeper gave a "thumbs down" to the film on At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper. Roeper said that, "It's slightly amusing and I'd say when it comes out on video or if you catch it on cable, but to rush out to theaters...".

Box office performance

Wallace & Gromit grossed US$192,610,372 at the box office, of which US$56,110,897 was from the US, where it opened in 3,645 cinemas and had an opening weekend gross of US$16,025,987, putting it at number one for that weekend. During its second weekend it came in at number two, US$200,000 behind The Fog. It remained number one worldwide for three weeks in a row. Despite the big difference between the production budget and the overall gross, DreamWorks considered its returns low in comparison to Chicken Run, which made a slightly larger amount (US$224,834,564) worldwide, but nearly twice as much (US$106,834,564) within the United States. When it is factored in that Chicken Run also cost US$15 million more to make, the overall profits for both films end up looking very similar. Nevertheless, it was reported on 3 October 2006 and confirmed on 30 January 2007 that the partnership between DreamWorks and Aardman has ended due to "creative differences" about Aardman's CG feature, Flushed Away. But, given the film's US$30 million budget, Aardman have judged it successful enough for a new Wallace & Gromit film to be made.

Awards

Group	Award	Recipients	Result
78th Academy Awards	Best Animated Feature Film	Nick Park Steve Box	Won
33rd Annie Awards	Best Animated Effects	Jason Wen	Won
	Best Animated Feature		Won
	Best Character Animation	Claire Billet	Won
	Best Character Design in an Animated Feature Production	Nick Park	Won
	Best Directing in an Animated Feature Production	Nick Park Steve Box	Won
	Best Music in an Animated Feature Production	Julian Nott	Won
	Best Production Design in an Animated Feature Production	Phil Lewis	Won
	Best Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production	Bob Persichetti	Won
	Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production	Peter Sallis as the voice of Wallace	Won
	Best Writing in an Animated Feature Production	Steve Box Nick Park Mark Burton	Won
	Best Character Animation	Jay Grace Christopher Sadler	Nominated
	Best Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production	Michael Salter	Nominated
	Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production	Helena Bonham Carter as the voice of Lady Campanula Tottington	Nominated
	Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production	Ralph Fiennes as the voice of Victor Quartermaine	Nominated
	Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production	Nicholas Smith as the voice of Reverend Clement Hedges	Nominated
Bodil Awards	Best Non-American Film		Nominated
59th British Academy Film Awards	Best British Film	Claire Jennings David Sproxton Nick Park Steve Box Mark Burton Bob Baker	Won
British Comedy Awards	Best Comedy Film	Nick Park	Won
Broadcast Film Critics Association	Best Animated Feature		Won
Cine Awards	Best voice actress	Helena Bonham Carter	Won
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association	Best Animated Feature		Won
Empire Awards	Best Director	Nick Park Steve Box	Won
	Best British Film		Nominated
	Best Comedy		Nominated
	Scene of the Year		Nominated
Florida Film Critics Circle	Best Animated Film		Won
50th Hugo Awards	Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form		Nominated
Kansas City Film Critics Circle	Best Animated Film		Won
Las Vegas Film Critics Society	Best Animated Film		Won
London Film Critics Circle	British Film of the Year		Nominated
Los Angeles Film Critics Association	Best Animated Film		Won
53rd Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Awards	Best Sound Editing in Feature Film – Animated		Won
New York Film Critics Online	Best Animated Film		Won
Kids Choice Awards	Best Animated Film		Nominated
Online Film Critics Society	Best Animated Feature		Won
17th Producers Guild of America Awards	Producer of the Year Award in Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures	Claire Jennings Nick Park	Won
10th Satellite Awards	Outstanding Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media		Nominated
32nd Saturn Awards	Best Animated Film		Nominated
Southeastern Film Critics Association	Best Animated Film		Won
Toronto Film Critics Association	Best Animated Film		Won
Ursa Major Awards	Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture		Nominated
Visual Effects Society	Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture	Lloyd Price for "Gromit"	Won
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association	Best Animated Film		Won

Awards shown here are those detailed by the Internet Movie Database.

Home media

In Region 2, the film was released in a two-disc special including Cracking Contraptions, plus a number of other extras. In Region 1, the film was released on DVD in Widescreen and Fullscreen versions and VHS on 7 February 2006. Wal-Mart stores carried a special version with an additional DVD, "Gromit's Tail-Waggin' DVD" which included the test shorts made for this production.

A companion game, also titled Curse of the Were-Rabbit, had a coinciding release with the film. A novelisation, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: The Movie Novelization by Penny Worms (ISBN 0-8431-1667-6), was also produced.

It was the last DreamWorks Animation movie to be released on VHS.

Soundtrack

All music composed by Julian Nott, except as noted.

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"A Grand Day Out"		1:54
2.	"Anti-Pesto to the Rescue"		3:18
3.	"Bless You, Anti-Pesto"
4.	"Lady Tottington and Victor"		2:03
5.	"Fire Up the Bun-Vac"		1:47
6.	"Your Ladyship"		1:07
7.	"Brainwash and Go"		2:28
8.	"Harvest Offering"		2:30
9.	"Arson Around"		2:23
10.	"A Big Trap"		3:27
11.	"The Morning After"		1:44
12.	"Transformation"		4:05
13.	"Ravaged in the Night"		1:45
14.	"Fluffy Lover Boy"		4:36
15.	"Kiss My Artichoke"		4:31
16.	"Dogfight"		3:39
17.	"Every Dog Has His Day"		2:43
18.	"All Things Fluffy"		1:07
19.	"Wallace and Gromit"		1:08
Total length:			48:11

References

• The Art of Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit by Andy Lane & Paul Simpson. ISBN 1-84576-215-0

External links

• Official website (UK)
• The Curse of the Were-Rabbit at the Official Wallace & Gromit website
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit at the Internet Movie Database
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit at the British Comedy Guide
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit at AllRovi
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit at Box Office Mojo
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit at Rotten Tomatoes
• Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit at Metacritic