Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (film)

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 British-American stop-motion animated mystery horror comedy film produced by Aardman Animations[1][2] in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. United International Pictures distributed the film in the United Kingdom, and it was the last DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by DreamWorks Pictures in the United States.1 It was directed by Nick Park and Steve Box as the second feature-length film by Aardman after Chicken Run (2000). The movie was released in Sydney, Australia on 4 September 2005, before being released in cinemas early in the United States of America on 7 October 2005, and in British cinemas in the United Kingdom a week later on 14 October 2005.

Plot
Tottington Hall's annual giant vegetable competition is approaching with the coveted Golden Carrot as its prize. Cheese-loving inventor Wallace, and his faithful pet dog and assistant Gromit provide a humane pest control business, "Anti-Pesto", protecting the townspeople's vegetables. However, their success results in a lack of storage space for captured rabbits.

They are called upon by Lady Tottington to help deal with Tottington Hall's rabbit problems, capturing all the rabbits using their BunVac 6000 vacuum. That evening, Wallace devises a plan to turn them against vegetables by connecting the BunVac to his latest invention, the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic, in order to brainwash the rabbits. Unfortunately, Wallace accidentally turns the vacuum from 'suck' to 'blow' and one rabbit gets stuck to his head, initially causing their minds to fuse before Gromit cuts the power by smashing the device. However, the transfer appears to have worked, as the rabbit shows no interest in vegetables. They name the rabbit Hutch and place him in a small cage.

That night, a giant rabbit-like creature devours many of the town's vegetables. At a town meeting, the hunter Lord Victor Quartermaine, who is also courting Lady Tottington, offers to shoot the were-rabbit, but Lady Tottington persuades the townsfolk to continue with Anti-Pesto's services. That evening, they attempt to capture the were-rabbit using a female rabbit costume, but get separated, at which point Gromit spots the were-rabbit and gives chase in their van. However, the beast escapes underground. Gromit follows the tunnels dug by the creature, which leads him back to their house, where Wallace is attempting to deal with calls from angry townspeople. Wallace then suspects Hutch is the beast, and declares that this means they have also captured the beast. Wallace goes to Tottington Hall to give the news.

Gromit locks Hutch in a stronger cage, but after finding stacks of ravaged vegetables in Wallace's room, he realizes Wallace is the were-rabbit. He rushes to the Hall, and manages to distract Wallace away by setting off water showers in the greenhouse. While driving back home, they are cornered by Victor, who accuses Wallace of trying to steal Tottington from him. The moon rises, and Wallace transforms into the Were-Rabbit and bounds away. Now knowing the truth, Victor sees an opportunity to dispose of his rival, and obtains three "24-carrot" gold bullets from the town reverend in order to kill Wallace.

The next morning, Wallace has developed rabbit ears. Gromit convinces Wallace that he is indeed the Were-Rabbit by showing him how Hutch has developed Wallace-like traits including his voice and appetite for cheese. Meanwhile, Lady Tottington, still thinking the beast is in captivity, prepares for the competition. However, the townspeople prove this is not the case, and she reluctantly agrees to let Victor shoot the beast so the event can go ahead.

Wallace fails to fix the Mind-o-Matic, but the now-smart Hutch is able to start fixing it. However, Lady Tottington arrives at the door and Hutch initially goes to answer it, before Wallace manages to stop him and open the door himself, wearing a hat to hide his ears. She admits disappointment that he lied to her as she had been growing to like him. She tells him of Victor's plan, but the moon rises and Wallace begins to transform, forcing him to abruptly turn her away. While transforming, he begs Gromit to hide him. Victor arrives and attempts to shoot Wallace with the golden bullets, but Gromit uses the female rabbit costume as a distraction to allow Wallace, as the Were-Rabbit, to escape; the hunter gives chase to the competition but locks Gromit in a cage. Gromit escapes with the help of Hutch, and they follow Victor to the competition, where Gromit plans to use his giant marrow as bait to lure Wallace to safety.

At the competition, Victor warns the crowd the beast is still at large, before the were-rabbit emerges, creating chaos. Victor tries to shoot the beast before Gromit creates a diversion, causing Victor to accidentally waste his supply of gold bullets. He snatches the Golden Carrot trophy from Lady Tottington to use as ammunition. Seeing this, the were-rabbit carries Lady Tottington to safety atop Tottington Hall, where she realises Wallace is the beast. Victor gives chase, revealing to Tottington that he already knew the truth and only wants to marry her for her money. Gromit attempts to reach Wallace, but Victor's dog Philip engages him in a dogfight in aeroplanes taken from a fairground attraction. Gromit sends Philip's plane to the ground, then steers his plane into Victor's line of fire as Victor fires at Wallace. Wallace jumps, grabs Gromit and sacrifices himself to cushion their fall into a cheese tent.

Victor gloats about his victory, but Lady Tottington angrily hits him with her giant carrot in an act of retaliation, and he falls into the tent too. Gromit quickly disguises a dazed and half-unconscious Victor as the were-rabbit using the costume, and the mob of townspeople chase him away. Wallace transforms back to his human self and appears dead, but Gromit uses some Stinking Bishop cheese to not only revive him, but also end the curse and return his popularity to normal. Lady Tottington awards Gromit the Golden Carrot and converts the grounds of Tottington Hall into a sanctuary for Hutch and the other rabbits to live.

Voice cast

 * Peter Sallis as Wallace, an eccentric and absent-minded inventor with a great fondness for cheese, who runs Anti-Pesto with his dog, Gromit.
 * Sallis also provides the voice of Hutch, a captive rabbit who gradually becomes Wallace-like after an attempted mind-alteration goes awry and who serves as the initial suspected Were-Rabbit. Sallis's voice was digitally accelerated to create that of Hutch's.
 * Gromit is Wallace's silent, brave and highly intelligent dog, who saves his master whenever something goes wrong.
 * Ralph Fiennes as Lord Victor Quartermaine, a cruel upper class bounder and a prideful hunter who is courting Lady Tottington. He wears a toupee and despises Anti-Pesto.
 * Philip is Victor's vicious but dimwitted hunting dog who resembles a Bull Terrier.
 * Helena Bonham Carter as Lady Campanula Tottington, a wealthy aristocratic spinster with a keen interest in vegetable horticulture and 'fluffy' animals. For 517 years, the Tottington family has hosted an annual vegetable competition on their estate. Lady Tottington asks Wallace to call her "Totty" (which is a British term for attractive women) and develops a romantic interest in him. Her forename, Campanula, is the scientific name of a bellflower, and her surname is taken from the Lancashire village of Tottington.
 * Peter Kay as Police Constable Albert Mackintosh, the local village policeman who judges the Giant Vegetable Contest.
 * Nicholas Smith as Reverend Clement Hedges, the local vicar and the first resident to witness the Were-Rabbit.
 * Dicken Ashworth and Liz Smith as Mr. and Mrs. Mulch, vegetable contestants and clients of Wallace and Gromit's Anti-Pesto.
 * Edward Kelsey as Mr. Growbag, an elderly resident of Wallace and Gromit's neighbourhood and a founding member of the town's veg grower's council.
 * Geraldine McEwan as Miss Thripp, an Anti-Pesto customer. McEwan reprised her role in A Matter of Loaf and Death.

Production
In March 2000, it was officially announced that Wallace and Gromit were to star in their own feature film.[6] It would have been Aardman's next film after The Tortoise and the Hare, which was subsequently abandoned by the studio in July 2001, owing to script issues.[7][8]

The directors, Nick Park and Steve Box, have often referred to the film as the world's "first vegetarian horror film". Peter Sallis (the voice of Wallace) is joined in the film by Ralph Fiennes(as Lord Victor Quartermaine), Helena Bonham Carter (as Lady Campanula Tottington), Peter Kay (as PC Mackintosh), Nicholas Smith (as Rev. Clement Hedges), and Liz Smith (as Mrs. Mulch). As established in the preceding short films, Gromit is a silent character, communicating purely via body language.[citation needed]

The film was originally going to be called Wallace & Gromit: The Great Vegetable Plot, but the title was changed, as the market research didn't like it.[9] The first reported release date for The Great Vegetable Plot was November 2004.[10] Production officially began in September 2003, and the film was then set for release on 30 September 2005. In July 2003, Entertainment Weeklyreferred the film as Wallace & Gromit The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.[citation needed]

Park told an interviewer that after separate test screenings with British and American children, the film was altered to "tone down some of the British accents and make them speak more clearly so the American audiences could understand it all better."[11] Park was often sent notes from DreamWorks, which irritated him. He recalled one note that Wallace's car should be trendier, which he disagreed with because he felt making things look old-fashioned made it look more ironic.[12]

The vehicle Wallace drives in the film is an Austin A35 van. In collaboration with Aardman in the spring of 2005, a road going replica of the model was created by brothers Mark and David Armé, founders of the International Austin A30/A35 Register, for promotional purposes. In a 500-man-hour customisation, an original 1964 van received a full body restoration, before being dented and distressed to perfectly replicate the model van used in the film. The official colour of the van is Preston Green, named in honour of Nick Park's home town. The name was chosen by the art director and Mark Armé.[citation needed]

Release
The film had its worldwide premiere on 4 September 2005, in Sydney, Australia.[4] It was theatrically released in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and the United States on 14 October 2005. The DVD edition of the film was released on 7 February 2006 (United States) and 20 February 2006 (United Kingdom).

Home media
In Region 2, the film was released in a two disc special including Cracking Contraptions, plus a number of other extras. In Region 1, the film was released on DVD in Widescreen and Fullscreen versions and VHS on 7 February 2006. Wal-Mart stores carried a special version with an additional DVD, "Gromit's Tail-Waggin' DVD" which included the test shorts made for this production.

A companion game, also titled Curse of the Were-Rabbit, had a coinciding release with the film. A novelisation, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: The Movie Novelization by Penny Worms (ISBN 0-8431-1667-6), was also produced.

It was the last DreamWorks Animation film to be released on VHS. It was re released on DVD on 13 May 2014, as part of a triple film set, along with DreamWorks Animation's Chicken Run and Flushed Away.[13]

On 6 March 2019, a Blu-ray version was released in Japan and is expected to be released in the United States sometime soon.

Box office
Wallace & Gromit opened in 3,645 cinemas and had an opening weekend gross of $16 million, putting it at number one for that weekend.[14] During its second weekend it came in at number two, just $200,000 behind The Fog.[15] It remained number one worldwide for three weeks in a row.[16] The Curse of the Were-Rabbit grossed $192.6 million at the box office, of which $56.1 million was from the United States.[17] As of March 2019, it is the second-highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time behind Chicken Run.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit holds an approval rating of 95% based on 180 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a subtly touching and wonderfully eccentric adventure featuring Wallace and Gromit."[18] On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."[19] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[20]

Soundtrack
All music composed by Julian Nott and produced by Hans Zimmer, except as noted.

Legacy
After the box-office failure of Flushed Away resulted in a major write down for DreamWorks, it was reported on 3 October 2006[43]and confirmed on 30 January 2007[44] that DreamWorks had terminated their partnership with Aardman. In revealing the losses related to Flushed Away, DreamWorks also revealed they had taken a $29 million write down over Wallace & Gromit as well, and the film under performed expectations.[45]

Following the split, Aardman retained complete ownership of the film, while DreamWorks Animation retained worldwide distribution rights in perpetuity, excluding some United Kingdom television rights and ancillary markets.[46] Soon after the end of the agreement, Aardman announced that they would proceed with another Wallace & Gromit project, later revealed to be a return to their earlier short films with A Matter of Loaf and Death for BBC One.

During production of the short, Park remarked publicly on difficulties with working with DreamWorks during the production of Were-Rabbit, such as the constant production notes and demands to alter the material to appeal more to American children.[12][47]