‘Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ review: A thrilling clash with an anti-AI streak

For more than a decade, we have been Wallace & Gromit drought. It’s been 16 years since the short-lived franchise, The Story of Bread and Deathand 19 since its first, Academy Award–winning film Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Rabbit. That’s a long time to be apart of two of Britain’s greatest treasures.

Thank you, Wallace & Gromit: Revenge of the Many Birds here to end this global problem. A new film from Aardman Animations and Netflix reunites us with the beloved Claymation duo, and the results are as punchy as a comforting cheese platter.

What Wallace & Gromit: Revenge of the Many Birds about?

Directed by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham, Revenge Most Birds begins with the return of a familiar face: that of Feathers McGraw, the penguin (and criminal mastermind) who tried to steal a precious diamond in 1993. The Wrong Pants. Thanks to cheese-loving inventor Wallace (voiced by Ben Whitehead) and his faithful beagle Gromit, Feathers ends up locked up in the local zoo, plotting revenge.

Meanwhile, at 62 West Wallaby Street, Wallace has been throwing out many inventions, including a clever gnome named Norbot (voiced by Reece Shearsmith). Gromit is already disturbed by Wallace’s reliance on many of his inventions, but Norbot is the last race. Not only does he destroy Gromit’s carefully tended garden, he appears to take Gromit’s place as Wallace’s right-hand man.

The threat of replacement is terrifying – and fits with the current fear of AI replacing musicians – but things take a turn for the worse when Feathers McGraw, genius that he is, manages to hack Norbot and send him down a dark path. With an army of angry Norbot customers and suspicious police breathing down Wallace’s neck, it’s up to Gromit to save the day and defeat Feathers again.

Wallace and Gromit are as adorable as ever Revenge Most Birds.

Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

While Revenge Most Birds it doesn’t hit very well Curse of the Rabbitpartly because of its reliance The Wrong Pants with a brand new story, the film is still a fun romp in every way. Stupidity reigns supreme here, with Revenge Most BirdsIt’s the smallest details – including umbrella puns and a cheese-themed captcha – that are likely to send you into orbit like its madcap pieces, which include everything from boats to office chairs.

Wallace and Gromit’s dynamic remains endearing too, with a frustrated Gromit cleaning up after Wallace’s often-overlooked mess. Beyond this central pairing, new and old characters add other layers to them Revenge Most Birds. Feathers McGraw continues to prove his mischief and wit, making him the perfect Wallace and Gromit foil. Curse of the RabbitChief Inspector Mackintosh (portrayed by Peter Kay) returns again, his ineptitude a source of many laughs. Joining him is PC Mukherjee (voiced by Lauren Patel), a new police officer who is possibly the most talented actor in the film. (A person character, that is.)

Revenge Most Birds takes a stand against AI.

But it was Norbot who made the biggest splash Revenge Most Birdsbursting onto the screen with her bright red cheeks and text about collecting that will get stuck in your head. In addition to providing some of the Revenge Most BirdsIn the best moments, like the absurd charging sequence that drives Gromit to extremes, Norbot’s presence also gets the film’s important message across about the dangers of using AI and technology instead of human creativity and communication.

That message comes from the beginning of Revenge Most Birdswith the sheer number of things Wallace has invented that creates distance between himself and Gromit. Worst case? The Pet-O-Matic, a dog sprayer that removes any connection between a human and his best friend, leaving Gromit feeling more distant from his master than ever. Meanwhile, Wallace hopes Gromit will “embrace the technology” – even naming the AI ​​to prove a point.

Norbot takes these themes to the extreme. When we first see Gromit’s garden, it is a colorful wonderland full of personality. By the time Norbot is done with it, however, it’s no longer a personality, its flowery variety and landscaping techniques subsumed in smooth lawns and cubed topiaries. Looking at it, it’s hard not to think about the so-called “AI art,” which steals the work of other artists and lacks any soul of its own. Revenge Most Birds it’s the first one Wallace & Gromit a film that will come out after the rise of AI, and it is clear that the garden area alone already has a lot of thoughts on this subject.

The reason Wallace talks to Norbot in Gromit’s garden in the first place is because he thinks Gromit finds the manual labor of tending his plants boring. But for Gromit, who we see in the small, peaceful moments of farming, the process is something the point. And it’s hard to think of a form of filmmaking where this emphasis on process is more pronounced than Claymation itself, Wallace & Gromit‘s bread and butter.

Claymation and motion is a painful, time-consuming process, but like Revenge Most Birds evidence, their rewards are great. The hand-crafted sets and actors breathe new life and texture into the film, while Wallace’s elaborate Rube Goldberg-esque compositions are a testament to the immeasurable creativity of Claymation’s era. If you are looking Revenge Most Birdsany animated movie, you know for sure that you are watching the culmination of years worth of effort, in the same way that you are looking at Gromit’s treasured garden for the first time. That appreciation of effort and process is something that no fast Norbot or other AI can give you, either Revenge Most Birds you rightly want to know that.

Wallace & Gromit: Revenge of the Many Birds hits Netflix Jan. 3.