In “Were-Rabbit” Wallace and Gromit run Anti-Pesto, a non-lethal pest control service that captures rabbits but does not harm them. After an exciting night saving the townsfolk’s vegetables, we return to Wallace’s house to find rabbits everywhere: in cages, in the fridge, in every nook and cranny, eating everything. We can imagine Wallace getting all fired up about pest control, even getting the job off the ground, without ever considering what he would do with the bunnies after he caught them. He can’t kill them—could you? In “Were-Rabbit,” the bright, stupid-eyed little bunnies are the most wretchedly adorable creatures you could possibly imagine. Things really get out of hand when Wallace uses his mind-swapping gadget to try to “rehabilitate” the rabbits, i.e., train them not to eat people’s vegetables. The experiment goes wrong—as we imagine a lot of Wallace’s experiments going wrong—releasing unto the unwitting populace the dreaded Were-Rabbit…
Rather than expanding on the characters of Wallace and Gromit—which would be a tactical error because they are as developed as they need to be—“Were-Rabbit” reaches feature-length by creating an entire town as eccentric and lovable as its two protagonists. “W&G” co-creator Nick Park was also behind the adorable “Chicken Run,” which sports a huge cast of chickens who are essentially middle-aged Cockney housewives. The standard array of English country folk—grubby old men, crotchety housewives, batty nobility, stodgy vicars, and an “alright, what’s all this then?” bobby named PC Mackintosh—are given exciting and exaggerated life in clay form.
The Were-Rabbit has picked an unfortunate time to strike, what with the 517th annual vegetable competition being only 3 days away. The panicky townsfolk go to measures usually reserved for Frankensteins and Draculas in order to protect their ridiculously over-sized melons and pumpkins. (At one point, a local vendor slaps a sign reading “Angry Mob Supplies” on his store.) All this culminates in the kind of slapsticky, physics-defying climax familiar to enthusiasts of the “W&G” short films, involving a gun that can fire a golden carrot, and a dogfight that’s accurate in both senses of the word.
Wallace woos the high-voiced Lady Tottington, who owns the big manor, looks vaguely like a carrot, and is drawn to Wallace’s humane approach to animals. Her voice is provided by Helena Bonham-Carter, who can be heard in three movies this summer (this one, “Corpse Bride,” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”) but only seen in one. Competing for her heart is the swaggering big-game hunter Victor Quatermain, perpetually swinging his gun, his gut, and his pompadour. He is voiced by Ralph Fiennes (“The Constant Gardener’s” constant gardener), whose heretofore unheard skills as a voice actor can only be called a revelation. Usually when we hear big names in cartoons we’re distracted, not because they’re famous, but because they’re not good at voice acting. The rich, pompous ass who thinks he can own a woman is one of the most hackneyed and uninteresting types in the movies, but Fiennes—as well as the animators—breathe no end of life and vigor into him.
The other pleasant surprise is the arm-waving, panicky vicar (“to stop the Were-Rabbit, you will need…a bullet!”), whose chief duty is to make dire predictions and intone things solemnly while his face is illuminated by lightning. His voice drove me mad with its familiarity. It took my genius wife to recognize that the anonymously-named Nicholas Smith had played the tidy bureaucrat Mr. Rumbold on the long-running BBC comedy “Are You Being Served?”
At about 80 minutes, “Were-Rabbit” is as long as it needs to be. It is so guileless, so innocent, so cheerful, so energetic, and not at all tedious, even as it follows the familiar path of the village monster movie. Just writing this review makes me want to see it again. Count on it to be nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, alongside “Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride” and some computer-generated nonsense, and expect it to win.
P.S. 10-14-05: A friend of mine reminds that Ralph Fiennes lent his vocal skills to "The Prince of Egypt" in the Yul Brynner role. A fine performance, though not as remarkable as his comic turn in "Were-Rabbit."
Finished Monday, October 10th, 2005
Copyright © 2005 Friday & Saturday Night
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