Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Ahead of its wider Netflix release on the 3rd of January, us Brits were treated to Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl's television premiere, giving us a Christmas present better than anything we could hope to find under the tree. The best inventing duo in England are back with their second feature, and Aardman has revitalised a character that first appeared in a short from more than 30 years ago for this new movie.

You don't need to be too clued in on Wallace & Gromit lore to understand the motivations of villain Feathers McGraw, as there's a nice flashback before the opening of the movie explaining very briefly who this penguin in disguise was and how he ended up in "prison" which turns out just to be a rundown-looking zoo. Mostly, this is an entirely new story that features Feathers, rather than a direct sequel to The Wrong Trousers, which saw his debut. Still, for pre-existing fans, you'll recognise the old haunts Vengeance Most Fowl returns to.

Wallace's inventions are once more proving to be incredibly useful, but also rather clunky. His latest creation, Norbot, could easily have been worked in as the film's main villain, as his appearance and storyline once again seem like Wallace's creations have gone awry. But, with the sinister shadow of Feathers looming over the course of the film's first and second acts, Aardman turns up the action a notch. We're not talking Mission: Impossible stunts here, but there's a lot of excitement, with plenty of brilliantly animated action scenes that blend comedy in just as well as Aardman has done over the last fifty plus years.

As you grow older, stop-motion like Wallace & Gromit becomes less about the wonder of the characters and their adventures, and more about the wonder of how it is made. How long it takes to craft even a short film proves Aardman is a rare case in modern filmmaking, where effort and patience triumphs over the quick buck. There's not a sequence quite like the railroad chase in The Wrong Trousers in this movie, but rather than have one moment you remember for the foreseeable future, Vengeance Most Fowl as an entire film is something I'll not soon forget. The whole film is littered in animation greatness that makes me wish I could have seen it in cinemas, rather than in the living room.

The jokes are - as they usually are with Aardman - very strong, and British comedy legend Peter Kay does a good amount of the heavy lifting with the jokes in the dialogue, alongside Wallace actor Ben Whitehead. But, as always, the silent jokes are the ones that land best, with Feathers and Gromit being the stars they were expected to be. That little penguin - without a single line in the movie - is a captivating character, rich in comedy potential, but instead of overusing him akin to something like the Minions, his best bits are saved right for when they're going to have the most impact. Rather than just throwing gunk at a wall and hoping it sticks, Vengeance Most Fowl has an aura of confidence about it, as if it knows before you've even read the title card you're going to enjoy this movie.

It's not just about the jokes, though, and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl does have its emotional peaks here and there. Perhaps it leans a bit too much on the old crutch of Wallace being a bumbling idiot, leading to Gromit becoming sad and having horrible things happen to him in his quest to stop his master from ending up in jail or worse, but that's an easily forgivable sin by the end of the movie, where you're just so glad you came along for the ride. There are a fair amount of plot surprises in this movie, too. Not in huge twists, but just when I thought it was going down a predictable, obvious route with something like the Norbots, Aardman flips the script slightly, paying off bigger story moments with unexpected solutions that are as set up as well as the obvious.

All in all, watching Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is like tucking yourself into a warm blanket on a cold winter's eve. It's a beautiful, comfortable movie that's only real weakness is in its shortness. But, when you see the quality that Aardman puts into each frame, you can cut them a little slack for an 80-minute runtime. Even decades after they found out the moon was made of cheese, Wallace & Gromit prove they've got so much gas left in the tank, and in 2024 we can add another classic to their list of grand adventures.