Wallace & Gromit are back. And so is everyone’s favourite, deadly silent, feathered evil mastermind. Their creator Nick Park and Aardman creative director Merlin Crossingham spoke to Rosanna Spence ahead of Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl crash landing on our screens on Christmas Day – the first feature-length film about the cheese-loving inventor and his loyal pooch in 16 years…
Wallace & Gromit may technically reside in Wigan, Lancashire, but it’s safe to say that when it comes to their spiritual home, all roads lead to Bristol. We haven’t seen the pair – known worldwide for their ingenious (if a little clunky) inventions and resulting chaotic escapades – in a full-length feature film for 16 whole years, since the 2008 release of Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, which feels like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?
Not only has Wallace & Gromit taken over Cabot Circus with a special festive experience this year, the duo has also secured a place in many Bristolians’ ‘must-watch’ list on Christmas Day, when Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl premieres. The duo may have taken a break from our screens, but they’ve been busy…. It turns out that after a recent crime wave of stolen garden goods from across the region, Wallace and his pre-programmed smart gnome, Norbot, are the main suspects. While Wallace proclaims his innocence, it’s up to Gromit once again to battle sinister forces. But who could possibly be behind such evil actions?! Rightfully behind bars for all this time, Feathers McGraw (who viewers haven’t seen since 1993’s BAFTA and Academy Award-winning short The Wrong Trousers) is back with a vengeance.
Suspecting fowl play?
Wallace & Gromit’s creator Nick Park has said before that one of the questions fans have asked him in the past was regarding Feathers’ possible return to his universe. But why has his impact been remembered across four decades?
“I think we were caught a bit by surprise by how much he was loved,” says the new film’s director Merlin Crossingham, who joins Nick for our interview. “I guess he’s a mysterious character. He just came out of nowhere and was powerful when we first appeared in The Wrong Trousers. I must give a big shout out to Steve Box, who did most of his animation, as it really was a discovery of how subtle animation can be and yet be so riveting at the same time by doing so little. It was the power of nuance and a small, observational kind of humour.”
Nick agrees, adding: “Sometimes, just the right string sound of music played on his very deadpan face can make you, the audience, fill in the gaps. They imagine the cogs are turning in his head; inciting some plan.”
It’s surprising that both Vengeance Most Fowl’s villain and hero (good old Gromit) are completely silent. Nick explains that really strong villains never really have to do very much, with their henchmen taking the brunt of the action. And it’s this visual ‘inaction’ and silence that gives Feathers his clout. “Animators’ whole reason for being is making things move and bringing them to life,” says Merlin. “They had to find a balance, where you had life and power oozing out of your penguin, but by moving him as little as possible. And when you do move him, moving in just the right amount so you understand what he’s thinking. Quite often using music or using the camera, using cinematic techniques, is a big part of how feathers has his screen strength. And so as filmmakers we had to reacquaint ourselves with with that, and from the animation team, it was really a case of ‘less is more’.”
(credit: Aardman Animations/Richard Davies)
Fingers and thumbs
It’s long been known just how much work goes into an Aardman animation. And this latest project bloomed from an original 30-minute film (the format many other Wallace & Gromit ventures have taken). Nick and Merlin confirmed that Vengeance Most Fowl took 15 months of filming with a crew of over 200 people; each of the 35 animators’ target was to create three-and-a-half seconds of footage per week, aiming for around a minute altogether.
The production is very much based in Bristol, with a “football pitch-sized warehouse” in Aztec West, and the pair don’t hesitate to praise the talent of the entire team and the city’s reputation as a haven for visual media. “We’re lucky to have such a giant talent base to draw from in Bristol,” says Nick, to which Merlin adds: “We stand at the top of a very talented crew of people who all live and work in Bristol, and actually for us to be able to mine the talents that are in all our model makers, our art department, our lighting, camera operators and and all the support crews is quite brilliant.”
Many of these talented people leave their mark, quite literally, on the characters that appear on screen; seeing the faint fingerprints appear in the iconic clay models is a warm reminder of the physical skill and sharp eye that takes so long to capture. So have any of the team’s techniques changed since the last feature-length release? “The core technique is exactly as it ever was,” Merlin explains. “The stopmotion and the way we bring the character’s performance to the screen has not changed. We have puppets or models that are moved a little bit frame by frame.”
What has changed, he says, are the cameras. Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) was shot on 35mm film, while A Matter of Loaf and Death “was the first longer-form project that we did on high-end digital stills cameras with cine lenses attached.”
This is now the team’s go-to technology, with stills processed via digital pipeline that has streamlined the editing and post-production process; though Merlin admits “I do miss shooting on film, as it’s such a wonderful medium to work with… but there is an efficiency, speed and quality that’s different and better with digital.”
Nick goes on to say that even though there’s more digital assistance than before, the animation techniques are as traditional as ever. “The digital helps us paint a bigger canvas to enhance what we give the animation, but you know the authenticity, the clay and the fingerprints are always still there.”
“ We stand at the top of a very talented crew of people who all live and work in Bristol ”
Gnome sweet gnome
Nick’s had the idea of a gnome-based story knocking around for a good few years – and when the familiar garden dwellers’ fair faces can sometimes feel as unsettling as some of the conversations arising out of our dependence on smart tech, marrying the two in Vengeance Most Fowl feels darkly comedic, and ever so timely.
Nick laughs when asked what it is exactly he’s found so fascinating about gnomes, saying “Well, they don’t get a fair representation in movies. But they’ve always actually been a part of the Wallace & Gromit world. It was really just a small step for Wallace to invent a smart gnome, Norbot, who is ultra-speedy and efficient about everything – and to get comedy from that.”
This is all much to poor Gromit’s disdain though, as Nick says: “There’s conflict for Gromit because he loves his gardening. And there’s a discussion about what Gromit represents here – humans versus tech – and this lends itself very much to comedy and drama as it has a certain depth and relevance to it as well.”
Inside No. 9 and The League of Gentlemen star Reece Shearsmith voices Norbot, an inspired casting, as Merlin notes “he is so very comfortable dipping into the weird and the slightly dark. And so it’s wonderful to not be just out-and-out funny and silly, but also have an element of seriousness in there. And he finds that balance absolutely perfectly.” Nick adds that they wanted a gnome that fitted the clichéd kitsch character from fairy tales-type stories, “but who also had a northern gravel in his voice, and very much a Wallace invention.”
(credit: Aardman Animations)
Roll credits, please…
Joining Reece in the cast is Peter Kay, reprising his role from Curse of the Wererabbit as Chief Inspector – formerly PC – Mackintosh (Nick says “We’re lucky to have one of the greatest comics of our time on board; it’s a privilege and a thrill”) and Ben Whitehall taking on the mantle of Wallace from the late, great Peter Sallis (Nick and Merlin say that they’re incredibly proud of Ben, who had “big shoes to fill” but “so much of himself and a new energy to the character”).
Merlin also mentions Lauren Patel (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Lloyd of the Flies) who plays new character PC Mukherjee: “She just has such a unique, bright energy to her voice. And she’s really helped us find the character. That’s kind of more than you can ever ask for with a good voice artist.”
The new film also features cameos from Diane Morgan (Afterlife, Motherland), Adjoa Andoh (Bridgerton, Invictus), Muzz Khan (Brassic, Galavant) and Lenny Henry (Three Little Birds, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power). It is directed by Nick Park (creator of Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep) and Merlin Crossingham (creative director, Wallace & Gromit and Animation Director, Early Man) with the story written by Nick Park and Mark Burton (Madagascar, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Shaun the Sheep Movie). The screenplay is by Mark Burton and the film has been produced by Richard Beek. We absolutely cannot wait.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer this Christmas.
aardman.com; bbc.co.uk; netflix.com/gb
