Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a 2024 British animated comedy film produced by Aardman Animations for the BBC and Netflix. The sixth instalment in the Wallace & Gromit series and the second to be feature-length following The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), it was directed by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham and written by Park and Mark Burton. In the film, Wallace's latest invention is hijacked by a vengeful Feathers McGraw; it serves as a sequel to The Wrong Trousers (1993). Ben Whitehead voices Wallace in his first feature-length appearance following the death of original voice actor Peter Sallis in 2017. The remaining voice cast consists of Peter Kay, Lauren Patel, and Reece Shearsmith.

Owing to difficulties with working with DreamWorks Animation during the production of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Park was hesitant on directing another feature-length Wallace & Gromit film for several years. Vengeance Most Fowl, which was announced in January 2022, with Park and Crossingham attached as directors, and Burton as screenwriter, was initially conceived as another 30-minute short, before expanding into a feature. The score was composed by Lorne Balfe and series composer Julian Nott.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl premiered at the American Film Institute on 27 October 2024. It was broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on 25 December in the UK and was released on Netflix internationally on 3 January 2025. After 28 days of catch-up viewing, it became the BBC's most watched scripted show since 2002. The film received critical acclaim, holding a 100% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. It was nominated in the Animated Feature categories at the Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Annie Awards and the BAFTAs, winning the latter. It also won the inaugural BAFTA Award for Best Children's & Family Film, in addition to being nominated for Outstanding British Film at the same ceremony.

Plot

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Wallace has invented a robotic garden gnome called Norbot and opens a business hiring it out to work in gardens. Gromit feels left out and is concerned about Wallace's reliance on technology. Annoyed at Norbot's loud recharging, Gromit plugs it into a computer in their basement.

The criminal penguin Feathers McGraw hears about Norbot on television. Plotting revenge against Wallace and Gromit for foiling his plan to steal the Blue Diamond, he hacks into a computer and reprograms Norbot to serve him and mass-produce an army of gnomes. While working at homes around the city, the gnomes steal various objects. Chief Inspector Albert Mackintosh and his new recruit, PC Mukherjee, conclude that Wallace is responsible. They confiscate his inventions, but they do not find the gnomes.

Gromit reclaims Wallace's tracking device from the police station and tracks the gnomes to a zoo where Feathers is imprisoned. He discovers they have used their contraband to build a submarine for Feathers to escape in through the sewers. Feathers spots Gromit and has Norbot cut him from the tree he is hiding in. They fall into an enclosure and the impact resets Norbot.

Gromit goes to the museum, where the Blue Diamond is being put back on display, just as Mackintosh discovers it has been replaced with a turnip; Feathers hid the diamond in Wallace's house prior to his arrest. Wallace and Gromit are captured by the gnomes. Feathers recovers the diamond and locks the duo in the pantry.

Wallace and Gromit use a leaf blower to escape with Norbot. They pursue Feathers down a canal on narrowboats while Mackintosh and Mukherjee, who expresses doubts about Wallace's guilt, pursue on a bicycle. Wallace builds a machine that launches Wellington boots at the gnomes, resetting them. Gromit jumps aboard Feathers's narrowboat, but when Feathers sees that the police have blocked the canal, he steers off an aqueduct. With the boat teetering on the parapet of the aqueduct, Wallace convinces Gromit to surrender the bag containing the diamond to Feathers. Feathers jumps off the narrowboat, which falls over the edge, but Gromit is rescued by Norbot and the other gnomes. Feathers escapes to Yorkshire on a goods train, but finds that Gromit gave him a turnip instead of the diamond and used the same trick Feathers had pulled on him and Wallace years prior, much to his dismay. Wallace is exonerated, while Mackintosh praises Mukherjee for trusting her instincts and retires, passing his position to her. Wallace returns to inventing, admitting that machinery cannot replace the human touch, and Gromit gains a new respect for Norbot.

Voice cast

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

• Ben Whitehead as Wallace, an eccentric inventor and Gromit's owner. Vengeance Most Fowl was Whitehead's first full film performance as Wallace following Peter Sallis's retirement in 2010 and death in 2017. Whitehead has voiced Wallace in video games and commercials since 2008. • Peter Kay as Chief Inspector Albert Mackintosh, former police constable having been promoted to chief inspector. Kay reprises his role from Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. • Reece Shearsmith as Norbot, Wallace's latest invention designed to do jobs around the house, but whose personality setting is altered by Feathers McGraw • Lauren Patel as PC Mukherjee, Chief Inspector Albert Mackintosh's plucky young protégée • Diane Morgan as Onya Doorstep, a news reporter for Up North News

The Farmer from the Wallace & Gromit spin-off series Shaun the Sheep makes a cameo, voiced by John Sparkes. Adjoa Andoh and Lenny Henry have cameo roles as a judge and Mr. Convenience. TV presenter and radio DJ Roman Kemp also made a brief appearance as part of an angry mob.

Production

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

During production of A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008), Nick Park remarked on difficulties with working with DreamWorks Animation during the production of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), such as the constant production notes and demands to alter the material to appeal more to American children. This discouraged him from producing another feature film for years, with Peter Lord noting that Park preferred the "half hour format".

A new Wallace & Gromit film was announced in January 2022, with Park and Merlin Crossingham as directors, from a screenplay by Mark Burton, while Claire Jennings was announced to produce. Park conceived the film as another 30-minute short, which expanded into a feature film. Newclay Products, the factory that made Lewis Newplast, the modelling clay used by Aardman, shut down in March 2023; Aardman purchased enough remaining clay to cover the film. The Daily Telegraph reported that the studio may not be able to produce further films, but Aardman released a statement clarifying that it would find a new supplier.

The title was announced on 6 June 2024, alongside the reveal that Feathers McGraw, the villain of The Wrong Trousers (1993), would return. At that time, Richard Beek was announced to have replaced Claire Jennings as the producer, although Jennings would remain credited as a consulting producer.

Music

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

The score was composed by Lorne Balfe and series composer Julian Nott, with the themes composed by Nott. Balfe previously provided additional music for Nott's score in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). Gromit listens to Eric Coates' By the Sleepy Lagoon before being interrupted by Norbot. "Born Free" by Matt Monro is also briefly in the film, played by Feathers McGraw during the escape scene. McGraw at one point plays J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor on the organ mounted in his submarine, a reference to the piece's use in the 1954 movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, as played by Captain Nemo.

Release

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Vengeance Most Fowl premiered worldwide on the closing day of the AFI Fest on 27 October at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, with a limited theatrical release on 18 December 2024. It aired in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 25 December 2024, and was released outside of the UK on Netflix on 3 January 2025. To promote the film, the BBC also commissioned three Wallace & Gromit-themed idents for BBC One, which were aired through the Christmas season. Vengeance Most Fowl was viewed by 9.38 million BBC One viewers on Christmas Day. It was the second-most-watched broadcast in the UK since 2022, after the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, also broadcast that day. After 28 days of catch up viewing, that figure increased to 21.6 million, becoming the BBC's most-watched scripted show since 2002.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 139 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Comforting as cheese and crackers, with some gentle ribbing of modern technology sprinkled on top, Vengeance Most Fowl revives this lovable pair with all their charm intact." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 83 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Writing in The Guardian, Stuart Heritage called the film "a triumphant return" for a series "genetically incapable of being bad". He did, however, feel that the extended runtime made it "less densely packed with jokes and invention than we've become used to" and that its greater focus on dialogue was a detriment to Wallace and Gromit's international appeal. In the Irish Independent, Vicky Jessop praised Aardman as still being "head and shoulders ahead of everybody else when it comes to delivering the warm and fuzzies", though similarly felt the film presented fewer jokes and lacked innovation compared to previous Wallace & Gromit stories. Brian Tallerico, writing for RogerEbert.com, gave the film three and a half stars out of four, describing it as "beautifully structured, a perfect rhythm of plotting and humor".

Dan Norris, who was the Mayor of the West of England at the time of the film's release, criticised the BBC and Aardman for not including a "Made in Bristol" line in the film's closing credits as with other successful global hits such as the David Attenborough nature documentaries that are produced in the city.

Accolades

<table><thead><tr><th>Award</th><th>Date of ceremony</th><th>Category</th><th>Recipient(s)</th><th>Result</th><th>Ref.</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Hollywood Music in Media Awards</td><td>20 November 2024</td><td>Best Original Score – Animated Film</td><td>Lorne Balfe & Julian Nott</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Astra Film Awards</td><td>8 December 2024</td><td>Best Animated Feature</td><td>Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association</td><td>8 December 2024</td><td>Best Animated Feature</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>San Diego Film Critics Society</td><td>9 December 2024</td><td>Best Animated Film</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Chicago Film Critics Association Awards</td><td>11 December 2024</td><td>Best Animated Film</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Chicago Film Critics Association</td><td>12 December 2024</td><td>Best Animated Film</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>St. Louis Film Critics Association</td><td>15 December 2024</td><td>Best Animated Feature</td><td>Runner-up</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle</td><td>15 December 2024</td><td>Best Animated Feature</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>New York Film Critics Online</td><td>16 December 2024</td><td>Best Animation</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Seattle Film Critics Society</td><td>16 December 2024</td><td>Best Animated Film</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Capri Hollywood International Film Festival</td><td>2 January 2025</td><td>Best Animated Feature</td><td>Won</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Golden Globe Awards</td><td>5 January 2025</td><td>Best Animated Feature Film</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Austin Film Critics Association</td><td>6 January 2025</td><td>Best Animated Film</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Critics' Choice Movie Awards</td><td>7 February 2025</td><td>Best Animated Feature Film</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>American Cinema Editors Awards</td><td>14 March 2025</td><td>Best Edited Animated Feature Film (Theatrical or Non-Theatrical)</td><td>Dan Hembery</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Satellite Awards</td><td>26 January 2025</td><td>Best Motion Picture – Animated or Mixed Media</td><td>Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl</td><td>Won</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Alliance of Women Film Journalists</td><td>7 January 2025</td><td>Best Animated Film</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Annie Awards</td><td>8 February 2025</td><td>Best Animated Feature</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in an Animated Production</td><td>Howard Jones, Rich Spence, Deborah Jane Price, Jon Biggins, Kirstie Deane</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production</td><td>Carmen Bromfield Mason</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production</td><td>Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Outstanding Achievement for Editorial in an Animated Feature Production</td><td>Dan Hembery</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Outstanding Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production</td><td>Lorne Balfe, Julian Nott</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Outstanding Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production</td><td>Matt Perry, Darren Dubicki, Richard Edmunds, Matt Sanders, Gavin Lines</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Visual Effects Society Awards</td><td>11 February 2025</td><td>Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature</td><td>Jo Fenton, Alison Evans, Andy Symanowski, Emanuel Nevado (for "Gromit")</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature</td><td>Matt Perry, Dave Alex Riddett, Matt Sanders, Howard Jones (for "Aqueduct")</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>British Academy Film Awards</td><td>16 February 2025</td><td>Best Animated Film</td><td>Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham, Richard Beek</td><td>Won</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Best Children's & Family Film</td><td>Won</td></tr><tr><td>Outstanding British Film</td><td>Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham, Richard Beek, Mark Burton</td><td>Nominated</td></tr><tr><td>Cinema Audio Society Awards</td><td>22 February 2025</td><td>Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Motion Picture – Animated</td><td>Will Norie, Chris Burdon, Gilbert Lake, Simon Rhodes, Nick Roberts, Adrian Rhodes</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Academy Awards</td><td>2 March 2025</td><td>Best Animated Feature</td><td>Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham, and Richard Beek</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Comedy.co.uk Awards</td><td>—N/a</td><td>Best TV Comedy Drama</td><td>Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl</td><td>Nominated</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

Future

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Park said Vengeance Most Fowl would not be the final Wallace & Gromit film, and that "there's always ideas worth kicking about".