Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)
★★★ — Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)
Vengeance Most Fowl brings Wallace and Gromit back to long-form animation for the first time since A Matter of Loaf and Death in 2008, a gap of sixteen years that made this Netflix and BBC co-production one of the more anticipated British animated releases in recent memory. Nick Park, who created the characters at Aardman Animations and won Academy Awards for both The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995), shares directing duties here with Merlin Crossingham, a long-time Aardman creative director who has shepherded the Wallace and Gromit shorts and specials for years. The film reintroduces Feathers McGraw, the silent penguin villain from The Wrong Trousers, giving it a built-in nostalgia pull while also leaning into contemporary anxieties around AI and automation. Aardman's stop-motion process remains famously labour-intensive, with plasticine sets and characters animated frame by frame.
Vengeance Most Foul (2024) marks Wallace & Gromit's long-awaited return, and while it's undeniably slick, meticulously animated, and packed with Aardman's signature tactile charm, it also highlights why sometimes less really is more. The film brings back the beloved villain Feathers McGraw for a heist involving a priceless diamond, but his screen time feels disappointingly brief, overshadowed by a swarm of chatty garden gnomes who chatter incessantly and dilute the duo's quiet chemistry. What once felt cozy now feels cluttered. The animation itself remains impeccable, every woolly texture, every expressive glance from Gromit, every Rube Goldberg contraption is lovingly crafted. And there are genuine laughs. But the magic of early Wallace & Gromit lay in their simplicity: two characters, one problem, zero filler. Here, the plot meanders, the gags feel busier than funnier, and the emotional core gets lost in the noise. Watching it with a young child only underscored the pacing issues, when even a kid starts fidgeting, you know something's off. A competent, visually polished outing that proves Aardman hasn't lost its craft. But charm isn't about budget or scale, it's about heart, silence, and space to breathe. This one tries too hard to entertain and forgets that Wallace & Gromit were always at their best when they were just… together.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2024 | Watched: 2026-03-20
Where to watch (UK)
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Kids · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Nick Park: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) · A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008) · A Grand Day Out (1989) · A Close Shave (1995)
More from United Kingdom: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) · Blue (1993)
More from the 2020s: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · The Long Walk (2025) · Americana (2023)
More family: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Wonder (2017) · Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anastasia (1997)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
