Attack Of The Gnomes

Review – Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (BBC One, 6.10 PM, 25 December 2024)



As with The Morecambe and Wise Show in the 1970s and Only Fools and Horses in the 1980s–1990s, you could argue that Christmas Day isn’t complete without a Wallace and Gromit adventure. Yet it’s been 16 years since the stop-motion duo’s last film (A Matter of Loaf and Death), although it feels like they’ve never been away.

Vengeance Most Fowl sees cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his faithful dog Gromit facing a familiar foe – the rooster-impersonating penguin Feathers McGraw (last seen in 1993’s The Wrong Trousers and surely one of TV’s most iconic villains). After being imprisoned in a zoo for stealing a precious diamond, McGraw seeks revenge on our heroes by reprogramming Wallace’s “smart gnome”, Norbot, his latest invention and business venture. With a clueless chief inspector (voiced by Peter Kay) pointing the finger at Wallace, it’s up to Gromit to save the day again.

With financial backing from Netflix, this was the most cinematic W&G adventure since the feature-length The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, offering an expanded cast of townspeople, explosive cliffhangers and even a Heigh-Ho-style musical number from the Norbots. An illustrious list of comic actors lent their vocal talent (alongside Kay, there’s Reece Shearsmith, Diane Morgan and Lenny Henry), while Ben Whitehead did an impeccable job of replacing the late Peter Sallis as the voice of Wallace.

Despite its big-budget polish, Vengeance Most Fowl featured a familiar mix of Heath Robinson-style inventions (most notably, a welly-flinging device that literally reboots the Norbots), film parodies (from James Bond to Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One), wry northern references (including a cheeky Yorkshire/Lancashire joke in the denouement) and cheesy (in both senses of the word – Gromit is seen reading the book Paradise Lost by John Stilton) puns. The exploration of smart gadgets and AI gave the film a contemporary edge while retaining W&G's pulley-and-lever charm.

If there are nitpicks to be made, it did feel like this was less original than previous adventures. Although it was great to see Feathers McGraw again, a new villain wouldn’t have been unwelcome, and the idea of robots going rogue was reminiscent of Preston the cyber-dog in A Close Shave. Also, what happened to Fluffles, Gromit’s love interest, from A Matter of Loaf and Death?

Overall, Vengeance Most Fowl was a cracking adventure, and it was a delight to see W&G on the festive gogglebox once again. Creator Nick Park and Aardman Animations deserve a pat on the back (although preferably not one from Wallace’s Pat-O-Matic).

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