Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
★★★½ — Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
When Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit arrived in cinemas in October 2005, it marked something of a landmark moment for British animation. Nick Park had already introduced the world to Wallace and Gromit through a series of short films produced by Aardman Animations, beginning with A Grand Day Out in 1989, and the characters had become genuinely beloved figures in British popular culture. Stretching the duo out to a feature-length runtime (85 minutes, give or take) was always going to be a risk. Short-form animation lives and dies by economy, and what works in half an hour can easily overstay its welcome at feature length. The question hanging over the production was a fair one: could Park, co-directing here with Steve Box, sustain the momentum across a full film without the whole thing going a bit soggy in the middle?
The film was a joint production between Aardman and DreamWorks Animation, a partnership that brought serious resources to bear on the stop-motion process. The Aardman house style, that warm, slightly lumpy, handmade aesthetic, remained entirely intact, which was reassuring given that American studio involvement had occasionally softened other British properties into something more blandly palatable. Park and Box chose to frame the story as a loving send-up of Hammer horror, complete with gothic atmosphere, panicked villagers, and a creature feature at its centre, all set against the backdrop of a village vegetable competition taken very seriously indeed by its participants. It is a premise that sounds slightly daft when written down, and that is rather the point. Aardman has always understood that the most affectionate comedy comes from treating the absurd with complete sincerity.
Peter Sallis, the voice of Wallace across the entire run of films (as he is in A Close Shave and The Wrong Trousers), brings the same bumbling warmth he always has, and the film surrounds him with a strong supporting cast. Helena Bonham Carter plays Lady Tottington, the well-meaning aristocrat whose vegetable show is under threat, while Peter Kay and Nicholas Smith fill out the village ensemble with the kind of character-comedy cameos that reward a British audience in particular. Ralph Fiennes, however, is the real talking point in the voice cast, playing the villainous Lord Victor Quartermaine with a pomposity that sits somewhere between Basil Rathbone and a particularly self-important county councillor.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) is Aardman at the peak of its powers. A feature-length expansion of the duo's world that loses none of the charm, wit, or tactile beauty of their shorter outings. Directed by Nick Park and Steve Box, the film transplants our cheese-obsessed inventor and his long-suffering canine companion into a full-blown Hammer horror pastiche, complete with misty moors, villagers clutching pitchforks, and a lycanthropic menace terrorising the annual Giant Vegetable Competition. The stop-motion animation is nothing short of exquisite: every woolly jumper, every leaf on every cabbage, every expressive eyebrow raise from Gromit feels lovingly handcrafted. The gags land with clockwork precision (visual, verbal, and gloriously silly) and the voice cast (including a deliciously pompous Ralph Fiennes as the villainous Lord Victor Quartermaine in what is probably my favourite role for him so far) commits fully to the absurdity. What elevates it beyond mere pastiche is its heart. Beneath the monster-movie homage lies a gentle, deeply British comedy about community, eccentricity, and the quiet heroism of loyalty, embodied, as ever, by Gromit himself. Wallace bumbles; Gromit acts. Their chemistry remains the franchise's bedrock, and the film understands that the real magic lies not in the spectacle, but in the silent glances between man and dog. A near-great family film that earns its place just behind The Wrong Trousers in the canon. It's funnier, warmer, and more visually inventive than almost anything else in the genre, though the slightly baggier runtime of a feature means it lacks the diamond-sharp precision of its half-hour predecessors. Still: a triumph of craft, comedy, and character. Delightful from first frame to last.
For me, that point about the shorter films holds. There is something about the concentrated wit of those half-hour predecessors that a feature format inevitably dilutes, however slightly, and I think the film is honest enough with itself not to pretend otherwise. But that is a mild quibble against a genuinely generous piece of work. It is the kind of film that reminds you what family animation can be when nobody is trying too hard to be clever or aspirational about it. Just good craft, good gags, and a dog who says more with a single raised eyebrow than most characters manage with a full script. Sometimes that is more than enough.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2005 | Watched: 2026-03-31
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) on YouTube
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Nick Park: Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) · A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008) · A Grand Day Out (1989) · A Close Shave (1995)
More with Peter Sallis: A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008) · A Grand Day Out (1989) · A Close Shave (1995) · The Wrong Trousers (1993)
More from United Kingdom: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) · Blue (1993)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
