By Joshua Robison / The Jambar
The Netflix exclusive “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” directed by Nick Park, was released Jan. 3. It displayed yet another wild and absurd adventure of Wallace and Gromit and continued the story of the infamous antagonist, Feathers McGraw.
So far, the film has received a nomination for Best Animated Motion Picture at the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. The film has also received three nominations for Best Animated Film, Best Family & Children’s Film and Outstanding British Film from the British Academy of Film and Television Awards.
The movie already won Best Animated Film and Children’s and Family Film categories at the BAFTA Film Awards Feb. 17.
Despite the praise the film has received from critics, it struggled to keep audiences’ attention with an underwhelming plot, which is atypical for a Park film.
The greatest issue with “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” was its overstimulation of unnecessary side characters, misplaced use of visual effects and jokes as well as actions that were dull in comparison to previous films.
The film’s most prominent side characters were Inspector Mackintosh, P.C. Mukherjee and Wallace’s latest invention, the Norbots.
Wallace and Gromit’s dialogue exchange with the side characters felt redundant and rather annoying. There is not much to enjoy about the characters and the film would’ve benefited with less of them.
Computer-generated imagery made its debut in the stop-motion series and it did not have the intended effect. Although CGI was only used in one scene, it felt out of place and poorly constructed in comparison to how the rest of the film looked.
Lastly, the majority of the attempted humor in the film did not strike as such. This coincides with the characters that were given dialogue intended to be funny or witty, but was poorly executed.
Sure, this is a film where the target audience is children, but Park’s work has always been directed towards the youth. Park’s past films such as “A Grand Day Out” and “The Wrong Trousers” are universally humorous that all ages could enjoy and get a laugh out of.
All in all, “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” had several problems that kept it from being a great film. Its performance does not instigate a second watch.
Nonetheless, Park is an extraordinary filmmaker and a master of stop-motion animation. In terms of film quality, this feature is an example of Park’s capabilities in film.