October 10, 2005

Not even Wensleydale?

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (IMDB:8.1|Rot:95%*)

If you haven't already gone to see W & G: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, what are you waiting for? It's got everything you expect from a Nick Park film: delightful claymation, whimsical inventions, kindness to animals, and a surfeit of cheese.

According to this brief blurb from Sci Fi Wire, Gromit was initially supposed to be a cat(!):

"He was going to be a cat at first, and then when I was molding him, I found out it was simply easier to make a dog," said Park, who created the Academy Award-winning stop-motion-animated duo of a cheese-loving Englishman and his brilliant dog. "They became a couple, like an elderly husband and wife, and Gromit is the long-suffering wife, always rolling his eyes."

*Cream of the Crop: 97%

Posted by rv at October 10, 2005 01:42 PM to movie
Comments

Let me state for the record that W&G wouldn't be nearly as interesting to me if Gromit was a cat. A cat wouldn't roll its eyes at Wallace, it would kill him and eat his entrails. Only a dog would stick with Wallace through it all.

Posted by: poz at October 11, 2005 10:35 PM

I agree completely; I told Chris much the same thing. Cats aren't long-suffering. A cat would just leave.

Posted by: rv at October 12, 2005 07:35 AM

But don't they come back...the very next day?

Posted by: Jay at October 12, 2005 08:35 AM

Just saw W & G yesterday. I loved every wacky minute of it. Especially the cheese-loving Hutch/Wallace bunny. The Penguin Christmas short was an added joy.

Posted by: Rikki Lee at October 12, 2005 09:05 AM

Hutch in his sweater vest was adorable, but Lady Campanula Tottington's gowns (and hats!) were the best. The carrot one slays me. The omnipresent Helena Bonham Carter did a great job with her.

p.s. I just like saying Lady Campanula Tottington.

Posted by: rv at October 12, 2005 10:11 AM

I don't know if Jay was referencing the folk song or the film, but The Cat Came Back is one of the best animated shorts of all time. I saw that at an animation festival in Boston (with Frodo, as I recall)— tremendously funny.

Posted by: rv at October 12, 2005 11:18 AM

That short is very good. I've seen it twice, once at a festival and once via Netflix as part of The World's Greatest Animation (I think were both the same line-up). My favorite was Balance.
Apparently, Netflix no longer has it. :(

Posted by: Jay at October 12, 2005 05:32 PM