Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Rated PG • Netflix

I was a big fan of Wallace & Gromit growing up. There was something magical about the polite, understated humor and the dynamic between the titular wacky inventor and his dog. While most kids shows got laughs by being as loud and extreme as possible, Wallace and Gromit could go eat cheese on the moon and act like it was just a morning stroll through the park. All the while, Gromit just stared blankly at his master’s silly behavior. It often felt like sharing a joke between friends underneath a cozy blanket.

We haven’t had a new Wallace and Gromit since The Curse of the Were-Rabbit 20 years ago. (Reasonable since the filmmakers say they capture only one minute of stop-motion film “on a good week.”) Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl picks up where the classic short film The Wrong Trousers (1993) left off, with the evil Feathers McGraw locked in the zoo.

Wallace has invented a new robot garden gnome he calls “Norbot,” which he makes perform household tasks and rents out to his neighbors. With bills mounting, Wallace believes Norbot might be his ticket to success at last, but Gromit isn’t happy when Norbot takes over his garden and monopolizes Wallace’s affection. Things get worse when Feathers McGraw hacks into the Norbot to steal from Wallace’s neighbors and frames Wallace for the crime.

In many ways, the old Wallace and Gromit magic is still intact. Wallace is still cluelessly inventing things that go wrong. Gromit still puts up with it as best he can, ever the faithful Jeeves to Wallace’s bumbling Wooster. Feathers McGraw draws big laughs by contrasting stereotypical villain moments (like when he’s doing chin-ups at the gym or petting a white seal while sitting in an armchair) with his cute blank face. Gromit is the master of the understated reaction, and the film’s best jokes venture into the absurd without calling attention to it—e.g., calling the news reporter “Onya Doorstep” and having Gromit read from Paradise Lost by John Stilton.

The film’s treatment of the good and bad in tech is remarkably nuanced for a kids cartoon. In the beginning, Wallace has so automated his life through his inventions that he’s not even getting dressed or buttering his toast without them. Gromit is particularly hurt when Wallace creates an electronic hand to pat Gromit for him. And, thanks to Norbot’s eerie ability to anticipate the needs of those around him, there’s even a subtle critique of the ramifications of artificial intelligence.

Most Fowl doesn’t always lean into its strengths, though. In places, generic gags and action high jinks replace clever humor. Maybe it’s simply too difficult to adapt the franchise to fit a feature-length movie. The original cartoons last around 40 minutes. Both attempts to stretch the stories longer than an hour—this and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit—have similar problems. In each, Wallace and Gromit’s trademark dry humor struggles to keep pace with escalating stakes. Despite the litany of gags in Vengeance Most Fowl’s final boat chase, the silliness simply doesn’t keep pace with the action.

The series might work better in this format if its creators chose to expand on the right things. The Wrong Trousers took time to sit with Gromit’s feelings of rejection at being replaced, something this film doesn’t do. And it’s not that the genre isn’t suited to well-developed plot­lines. British children’s films like Paddington have shown that British “comfort core” entertainment of Wallace & Gromit’s type can work really well. Last year’s Aardman Animations film Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget did a better job of building the jokes around characters’ emotional arcs and themes to create a deeply memorable adventure.

If Vengeance Most Fowl had leaned more into what makes the franchise special, it could have become a memorable modern favorite. To its credit, the 90-minute film doesn’t veer off course from the originals into culture wars or inappropriate themes. Even better, this installment doesn’t have a hint of romance or much potty humor. An army of Norbots makes for slightly scary scenes, but families won’t have to abandon the franchise with a bad taste in their mouths after watching. It’s still a diverting film suitable for kids—and sometimes that’s all you’re looking for.