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Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, 2005 |
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To the scores: Wallace and Gromit in the Case of the Were-RabbbitI'm admittedly a huge fan of Wallace and Gromit, and my score is definitely higher than it would be if this was the first W&G film I'd ever seen. With that caveat given, I can recommend this one, but not all that highly. It's cute, it's not painfully stretched out to fill the 90 minute run time, and all of the characters are well done. The sets are great, the claymation is believable and enjoyable, the voices are good, it's got a plot, lots of laughs, tremendously-groanable puns, and some good action set pieces. All that said, it's not as good as their previous shorts, since those are just jam-packed with action and wild fun. This film works better as an actual film, but that means there are long stretches of dialogue and exposition and character interaction. All of it very well done, to the point you forget you're watching clay figures move, and the characters have 10x more life in them than The Corpse Brides' boring stereotypes, but I wanted more excitement and action. The climactic chases in The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave blow away the action in Were-Rabbit, and this film would definitely have been improved by turning it into a short. It's not a short story, it's more like a novella, and at 50 or 60 minutes it would have been a masterpiece. At 90 minutes though, it needed just a bit more action and fun, with less repetitive vegetable worship and rabbit chasing. I recommend it to everyone, but not until you've seen the first three W&G shorts. If you've seen them, then buy a ticket to this one. If you haven't, get them on DVD and watch them a few times and wait for this one on DVD.
Wallace and Gromit:
The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
debuts this weekend, and while Malaya wasn't always a fan, she's grown
to be one, and is now as or more eager than I am to see this film. We're
going on Sunday, in theory, though we might end up saving it until our
MNF-delaying Monday night date. The subject matter strains under the weight of a full-length film, even one that runs only 84 minutes. Much of the running time feels padded out."Okay, we can disregard the third one, since if you don't know W&G by now, you're dead to me. Actually, I'm sort of encouraged by Movieboy there, since at least he says it's "chaotic." The first two though, strike at the very heart of my "it'll be padded and full of lulls" worry. Granted, if my biggest concern is that the movie will only be 50% brilliant, with some boredom, that's not a real big worry. After all, with most films, 50% brilliant would be about a 45% upgrade. Still, it's the initial expectations that largely determine the enjoyment 90% of the time I go to the theater, and while I'm trying not to get carried away and doom my fun by seeing a film that could never possibly live up to my hopes for it, it's hard not to be excited in advance. Honestly, these (very) few negative reviews are helping, since if everyone (rather than just 96% of everyone) absolutely raved about it, I'd go in expecting near-perfection, and would inevitably leave without attaining it. |
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