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Dom Robinson reviews
Universal Pictures Video
This movie: 
Short films:
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 8302612
- Running time: 81 minutes
- Year: 2005
- Pressing: 2006
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 16 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 2*DVD 9
- Price: £22.99
- Extras: Deleted Scenes, The History of Wallace & Gromit, Behind The Scenes of Wallace & Gromit: The CurseOf The Were Rabbit, A Day in the Life of Aardman, How to Build a Bunny, The Family Album, Previews,DWK, The Making of the Were-Rabbit, Wallace & Gromit’s Cracking Contraptions, The Amazing World ofWallace & Gromit, Stage Fright, Cracking commentary
Directors:
- Nick Park & Steve Box
(Chicken Run, Stage Fright, Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out, Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers, Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were Rabbit, TV: Creature Comforts)
Producers:
- Claire Jennings, Peter Lord, Nick Park, Carla Shelley & David Sproxton
Screenplay:
- Bob Baker, Steve Box & Mark Burton
Music:
- Julian Nott
Cast:
- Wallace: Peter Sallis
Victor Quartermaine: Ralph Fiennes
Lady Campanula Tottington: Helena Bonham Carter
PC Mackintosh: Peter Kay
Rev. Clement Hedges: Nicholas Smith
Mrs Mulch: Liz Smith
Mr Windfall: John Thomson
Miss Blight: Mark Gatiss
Miss Thripp: Geraldine McEwan
Gromit: Himself
Anyone purchasing this DVD will be well aware of Wallace & Gromitand they’ll be in for a terrific treat without a doubt.
As Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were Rabbit begins and strange noises go bumpin the night in a 1950s-style street, a policeman (PC Mackintosh – Peter Kay) walks the beat – a rare sight on any modern-day streetat that time of night when they’d more likely be back drinking tea in the station – that’s if it wasactually a 24-hour one and not a part-timer with shorter opening hours than a post office, but I digress.
There’s a crisis in the world that inhabits our favourite inventor and his canine companion – there’sjust a few days to go before Tottington Hall’s Giant Vegetable Competition, hosted by Lady CampanulaTottington herself (Helena Bonham Carter) – the object of desire for this movie’s sort-of baddieVictor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes), but despite everyone’s best efforts at securityrabbits are eating the prize-winning produce while their backs are turned and Wallace & Gromit arecalled upon under the company name of Anti-Pesto to save the town’s veg.
Wallace’s great plan to solve this dilemma is to store all the offending creatures is with his latestcreation, the Bunvac 6000 (right), an oversized vacuum cleaner which also stores them inside until he cantake them home later to keep them under lock and key (has he spent too much time watchingGhostbusters?
He then decides to use another invention on them, the Mind-manipulation-otronic, by blending that withthe Bunvac 6000 in a way that he can convince the rabbits that eating everyone’s veg is a bad idea.However, when they’re mixed together the inadvertent result is the creation of a Were-Rabbit, which theythen have to put extra resources into catching it, starting with a model of a giant lady rabbit stuckon top of their car and controlled by unsung hero Gromit.
The film also features the cheese “Stinking Bishop” which is only made by one company in the whole of theUK, and even though they had a massive increase in orders following this film’s release they haveno plans to increase production, which stands at 22 tons per year, because the extra revenue doesn’tinterest the owner and he’s quite happy doing things the way he does them, particularly since demandwould tale back to normal once the film had come and gone. And that said, this type of cheese only comesup at the end of the movie so I’m surprised there was such a fuss made about it at the time of the cinemarelease.
There are lots of sight-gags, such as the name of the fridge (‘SMUG’ instead of the brand-name ‘SMEG’),a jar of preserves on the kitchen table called “Middle Age Spread” just as Wallace gets stuckgetting out of bed – with Gromit keeping his eyes on the jar and book titles on Wallace’s shelf suchas “Brie Encounter” and “East of Edam”.
Make no mistake – Wallace & Gromit are loveable from the off in this, their feature-film debut.It may have a couple of big names in there – a consolation to the Hollywood types who wanted someonewell-known to voice Wallace for the American market (the heathens!) – but it’s the construction whichwins all. It’s got fantastic writing and animation – both of which made this a sure-fire 10/10 hit, agreat King Kong spoof and a bit of innuendo – the kind that adults will appreciate but which will goover the heads of kids watching here.
Picture-wise, the film is presented in the original ratio of 1.85:1 and is anamorphic. All the creationsare hand-made plasticine and while the end result was put into a computer, this was only to add some CGIeffects and not to animate W&G in the way most other animated films are made these days. The image iscrystal clear, is brimming with colour and has no defects whatsoever.
The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is perfectly fine throughout, with brilliant use of stereo rearspeakers in the shooting range at the Vegetable competition, as bullets shoot from right to left, butthis was the only real action sonic moment that made me sit up. That’s not to say there are any problems,since there aren’t and what’s there is perfectly fine, but there’s nothing else that stands out so much.It’s a shame there was no DTS soundtrack though as one was certainly made for the cinema release andwould’ve sounded even better.
The picture is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and looks fantastic, but very occasionally there’sa slight stutter in the picture, but it’s something that wouldn’t be noticed by the vast majority of thepublic. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is a treat throughout and complements the onscreen action as the zombiesgroan out of every speaker.
There’s stacks of extras on this 2-disc set, with all movie footage in 16:9 letterbox, except where stated:
- Deleted Scenes (13:13):There are 9 here, all available with additional commentary and in letterbox 16:9,starting with an alternative opening and moving throughout the film including songs andtwo alternate endings, both cartoon-drawn with Wallace voice by Nick Park.
- The History of Wallace & Gromit (20:23):Or “How Wallace & Gromit Went To Hollywood” as the title within calls it. We get to see howthe inventiveness (pun not intended) of the characters began and track their progressthrough the three short films, also taking in the Creature Comforts shorts. Interview snippetsthroughout are included, right up to the present day with the latest film and the fire thatdestroyed the Bristol animation studio.
At just over 20 mins in length, though, it’s a cardinal sin to only have one chapter throughout.
- Behind The Scenes of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were Rabbit (13:02):Another generic making-of with all the usual trimmings, this time made by the US market giventhe voiceover.
- A Day in the Life of Aardman (8:25 mins):This and the remainder of disc 1’s extras are presented in 16:9 anamorphic. It’s largely a tourround the huge studio seeing the sets and how the staff all work together.
- How to Build a Bunny (3:31):Harriet Thomas, the model-making team leader does what it says on the tin.
- The Family Album:A modest selection of images covering signs, storyboards, Wallace & Gromit’s Photo Albumand Behind the Scenes.
- Previews:Aka trailers, all in varying ratios. These are DVD trailers for Madagascar, Shrek 2, Nanny McPheeand Shark Tale (well, someone’s got to buy it). There’s also one for the Wallace & GromitInteractive DVD game.
- DWK:Aka “Dreamworks Kids” – or several little interactive games which are largely simple activities oneof which requires you to push a numbered button on the remote to catch the rabbit that’s just popped upfrom under the ground at the Mulches’ house in one of 9 positions. However, I played this on an Xboxand it just thought I was selecting another chapter. Perhaps it works fine on a standard DVD playerbut it’ll only keep undemanding youngsters amused for any reasonable length of time. There’s alsoadditional DVD-ROM features for PC users.
- The Making of the Were-Rabbit (9:45):Now we move onto disc 2, it looks like you can never have enough making-of featurettes, this oneconcentrating on the film’s raison d’être.
- Wallace & Gromit’s Cracking Contraptions (23:49):Ten short films which came out in 2002 and were available for download (the first one free, the restunder subscription) or on a separate DVD. I’m sure these were also shown at random times over that Xmason BBC1 & 2, but as they weren’t signposted in the Radio Times I only managed to catch one or two.These include Wallace cheating at football with a Soccamatic,badly trying to change the TV channel in The Tellyscope and avoids the kitchen when he createsan Autochef.
He cures his sleeping problems with the Snoozatron, uses the Turbo Diner to do the washing-up- sort-of – before preparing dinner, takes preventative security measures by creating The Bully ProofVest and does the crumb-cleaning up with The 525 Crackervac.
A Christmas Cardomatic is a more successful venture for Wallace… until the twist at the end,The Snowmanotron does what’s required to a degree but does nothing for Gromit’s efforts and, finally,Shopper 13 knocks online groceries into a cocked hat when a large Edam is called for.
- The Amazing World of Wallace & Gromit (15:05 mins):A featurette from 1999 as our two heroes have their picture taken for the cover of a magazine. A lot of itis things we’ve seen before on this DVD but it’s great to have it for completeness.
- Stage Fright (11:06):A short film from 1997 about a vaudevillian dog-juggling act, with voices by Tess Daulton andGraham Fellows (aka John Shuttleworth).
- Cracking commentary:Featuring director/writer duo Nick Park & Steve Box.
So, some great extras above, running for about an hour and a half barring the commentary. I know someDVDs run for hours and hours and hours, but it’s better to keep it to this length and keep them relevantrather than repeat the same kind of thing again and again and again, although there are some times wherethe making-ofs overlap a bit.
However, it’s a big no-no to see a couple of pre-opening menu trailers (Over the Hedge andFlushed Away) because these belong in the main trailers section and should not be trying toemulate the old behaviour of rental video tapes.
Basic subtitles are in English only, there’s 16 chapters to the film, which is enough for somethinglasting 75 minutes before the closing credits kick in and the menus feature brief bits of motion andaudio which blend in with the film’s theme, also taking effect inbetween the menu sections.
PICTURE QUALITY
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.