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For more than a decade, fans of Wallace & Gromit have been waiting for new content, and finally, the drought is over with the release of “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.” Directed by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham, this new film brings back the beloved Claymation duo in an exciting adventure.
### What’s “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” about?
Feathers McGraw, the penguin criminal mastermind from previous adventures, is back with a vengeance. With Wallace busy inventing new gadgets, including the troublesome Norbot, Gromit must step up to save the day when Feathers hacks Norbot for his evil plans.
### Wallace and Gromit are charming as ever in “Vengeance Most Fowl.”
While this new film may not reach the heights of past successes, the charm and humor of Wallace and Gromit shine through. With a mix of puns, madcap adventures, and a strong message about the dangers of technology replacing human connection, “Vengeance Most Fowl” is a delightful romp for fans old and new.
The Impact of AI on Creativity
Norbot takes these themes to further extremes. When we first see Gromit’s garden, it’s a colorful wonderland brimming with personality. By the time Norbot is done with it, though, it’s become devoid of any personality, its variety of flowers and textures sanded down to smooth lawns and cubed topiaries. Watching it, it’s hard not to think of so-called “AI art,” which plunders the work of other artists and lacks any soul of its own. Vengeance Most Fowl is the first Wallace & Gromit film to come out after the rise of AI, and it’s clear from the garden scene alone it already has a lot of thoughts on the subject.
The Value of Handcrafted Animation
The reason Wallace sics Norbot on Gromit’s garden in the first place is because he thinks Gromit finds the manual labor of tending to his plants tedious. But for Gromit, whom we glimpse in small, peaceful moments of gardening, the process is the point. And it’s hard to think of a filmmaking form where this emphasis on process resonates more than Claymation itself, Wallace & Gromit‘s bread and butter.
Claymation and stop-motion are painstaking, time-consuming journeys, but as Vengeance Most Fowl proves, their rewards are huge. Handcrafted sets and characters breathe new life and texture into the film, while Wallace’s elaborate Rube Goldberg-esque inventions are boundlessly creative testaments to the time that goes into Claymation. When you’re watching Vengeance Most Fowl, or any stop-motion animated movie, you’re keenly aware that you’re watching the culmination of years’ worth of effort, just the same as when you look at Gromit’s prized garden for the first time. That appreciation of effort and process is something no speedy Norbot or other AI could give you, and Vengeance Most Fowl rightfully wants you to know that.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl hits Netflix Jan. 3.
