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Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl sees Feathers McGraw is back – saying as little as ever – even cricking his neck while in jail, alongside spoof Cape Fear music while he does pull-ups like Robert De Niro in the 1991 remake.
Well, I say jail, but the cell is within the city zoo, but there’s no chance of escaping such a joint… for most creatures, anyway.
Brilliant inventions for 2024 include Wallace’s bath’s water chute, which goes round 3 times, and OUTSIDE the building! Completely unnecessary and expensive, but cool! However, the story centres around his latest invention, Norbot (Reece Shearsmith), a smart-gnome, which can complete all the oddjob and gardening tasks in a trice and without complaint.
Before the film gets into a plot, I like his Wallace suggests Gromit gives Norbot instructions because it’s “voice-activated”, resulting in the canine looking all, “Excuse me?” – since he’s forever silent, and Wallace continues, “Bit shy, are we?”
Plus, there’s a number of great sight gags, such as how the boat featured is The Accrington Queen, rather than Humphrey Bogart’s The African Queen, and the Captcha method on Wallace’s computer asks: “Select all squares containing cheese”, even throwing in a square containing the moon! Is that cheese?!
Sadly, Peter Sallis is no longer with us, but Ben Whitehead does a brilliant job voicing the role of the titular inventor. Still, the best moments are when there’s zero dialogue, and most of those come between Gromit and Feathers.
However, with Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, it does feel like we’ve been down this stop-motion path enough times already, and just isn’t fresh anymore. At almost 80 minutes, it rambles along far too long. About 45 minutes would’ve been fine, and maybe we could’ve had two shorter films over time instead of one overlong one.
Plus, why do we have to suffer the awful joke-thief Peter Kay? Plus, his new assistant, PC Mukherjee (Lauren Patel), comes across as being so-cast because diversity.
Despite previously progressing to 1.85:1 for 2005’s The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, stupidly, for Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Nick Park opts for an aspect ratio of 2.00:1, which is completely unnecessary. We’re actually losing picture that way! Good job neither Odeon nor Cineworld showed it, as they can never present that ratio properly, so you’re left with a film being marooned in the middle of the screen, same as the recent Moana 2.
There is NO mid- or post-credits scene.
Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is on BBC iPlayer now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
It will also be on Netflix from January 3rd, which quite frankly, will be an easier place to watch it in 4K, since BBC don’t make their browser content in 4K.
You can also buy the Wallace & Gromit: The Collection (the four shorter films) on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 79 minutes
Release date: December 18th 2024
Studio: Aardman Animations
Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1
Score: 6.5/10
Directors: Merlin Crossingham, Nick Park
Screenplay: Mark Burton
Producers: Richard Beek, Claire Jennings
Music: Lorne Balfe
Voice Cast:
Wallace: Ben Whitehead
Chief Inspector Mackintosh: Peter Kay
PC Mukherjee: Lauren Patel
Norbot: Reece Shearsmith
Onya Doorstep: Diane Morgan
Judge: Adjoa Andoh
Anton Deck: Muzz Khan
Mr. Convenience: Lenny Henry
Fluffles: Melissa Collier
Additional voices: Victoria Elliott, John Sparkes, Jon Glover, Bethan Mary-James, Maya Sondhi, Tom Doggart, Richard Beek, Merlin Crossingham, David Holt, Lizzie Waterworth, Adrian Rhodes, Roman Kemp
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.