Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

The world of Wallace & Gromit is, of course, most notable for its two title characters, but a formidable flightless foe has emerged as the cheese-loving inventor and his loyal dog’s de facto antagonist over the last three decades. The criminal mastermind in question debuted in 1993’s The Wrong Trousers and appeared to have his reign of terror ended for good upon being imprisoned in the city zoo at the conclusion of that short film. Decades of peace and quiet have come to an end, alas, as the pernicious penguin has somehow returned in Vengeance Most Fowl.

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The film, available worldwide on Netflix today, is only the second Wallace & Gromit feature after 2005’s Curse of the Were-Rabbit. It joins four shorts and numerous spinoffs as another endlessly charming addition to the ever-joyful franchise, one with the rare distinction of literally never missing. Series creator Nick Park returns to the director’s chair alongside Merlin Crossingham, with the two proving as effective — though, one assumes, less prone to hijinks along the way — as the eponymous duo themselves.

Wallace’s latest ill-advised invention is Norbot, a cybernetic garden gnome that manicures the color and soul out of poor Gromit’s flower garden but ends up being an unexpected hit among the duo’s yardwork-averse neighbors all the same. This leaves Wallace, whose bills are perpetually past due, with only one option: mass produce Norbot and watch the money pour in. Gromit, a traditionalist more keenly aware of the smart gnome’s potential flaws, can only look on in silent consternation as Feathers breaks out of the joint and turns the army of Norbots into his minions.

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This is, of course, their central dynamic: Gromit is the real brains of the operation, but because he’s a dog (and not the talking kind) he’s only ever able to subtly save the day in ways that we notice but Wallace does not. It’s never less than funny, and at times it’s downright heroic.

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Then there’s Feathers, who brings to mind Cape Fear’s Max Cady (played by Robert Mitchum in the 1962 original and Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake) in his hardened criminality. He, too, is silent, and all the more intimidating for it. The penguin does pull-ups on the exposed pipes of his cell before escaping from confinement via a handmade contraption that would make Wallace blush, carrying out each task with menacing sangfroid. Our heroes would be just as endearing without him, but they wouldn’t be in peril. Feathers raises the stakes of this lighthearted world and makes it worth fighting for.

It's never less than funny, and at times it's downright heroic.

As ever, puns and wordplay abound. Wallace names his new venture Gnome Improvements, Gromit reads a copy of Virginia Woof’s A Room of One’s Own before bed, and a prison guard mockingly refers to Feathers as “jailbird,” to name just a few. It’s impossible not to at least smile at each of these, and some are genuinely laugh-out-loud funny.

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Vengeance Most Fowl was announced in early 2022, less than a year before the generative-AI wave crashed to shore in the form of ChatGPT. Leave it to Wallace & Gromit to be so casually prescient about an issue that will surely be debated for years to come — including in the world of film, where artificial intelligence is already making the same kind of mess as Norbot in the name of soulless efficiency. The very existence of Vengeance Most Fowl, which was handcrafted in stop motion with plasticine modeling clay that isn’t easy to come by, is an ode to DIY creativity at a time when algorithms are taking precedence over artistry. It’s the rare endeavor that practices what it preaches without ever being preachy.