Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 stop-motion animated comedy horror film directed by Nick Park and Steve Box and written by Park, Box, Mark Burton and Bob Baker. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Features, it is the fourth instalment in the Wallace & Gromit series and the first to be feature-length. A parody of classic monster films, the film centres on inventor Wallace (Peter Sallis) and his dog, Gromit, in their latest venture as pest control agents. They come to the rescue of their town, which is plagued by rabbits, before the annual giant vegetable competition. However, the duo soon find themselves opposing a rabbit-like monster. The remaining cast includes Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter and Peter Kay.
Following the release of Aardman's first feature film Chicken Run in 2000, DreamWorks and Aardman announced their next co-productions, one of which was a feature-length Wallace & Gromit film. Production began in September 2003. During the making, Park was sent several notes by DreamWorks requesting for changes to the film to appeal more to contemporary American audiences. This included changing the initial subtitle, The Great Vegetable Plot, to The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Julian Nott, who composed the score for the prior Wallace & Gromit shorts, returned for the film.
The film premiered in Sydney, Australia, on 4 September 2005, before being released in theaters in the United States on 7 October 2005 and in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2005. While the film was considered a box-office disappointment in the US by DreamWorks Animation, it was more commercially successful internationally. It also received critical acclaim and won a number of awards, including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (making it the first stop-motion film to win an Academy Award) and BAFTA Award for Best British Film. A fifth installment and fourth short film, A Matter of Loaf and Death was released in 2008 and a sixth installment and second feature-length film, Vengeance Most Fowl, was released in 2024.
Plot With Tottington Hall's annual giant vegetable competition around the corner, Wallace and Gromit run Anti-Pesto, a humane pest control business aimed at protecting the townspeople's vegetables from rabbits. One day, the duo are hired to capture rabbits from the garden of the hall's owner Lady Campanula Tottington, which inspires Wallace to use his newest invention, the "Mind Manipulation-O-Matic", to try brainwashing rabbits into disliking vegetables and increasing his appetite for them in the process to help himself lose weight. He ends up fusing his brain with that of a rabbit. Gromit destroys the Mind-O-Matic, and the rabbit, now averse to vegetables, is named Hutch and placed in a cage.
That night, a "Were-Rabbit" wreaks havoc on the town's gardens. During a town meeting the next day, hunter Lord Victor Quartermaine volunteers to vanquish the creature, but Tottington persuades the townsfolk to give Anti-Pesto another chance. Following an unsuccessful effort to trap the Were-Rabbit by using a giant fake female rabbit, Wallace and Gromit find that Hutch has mutated, leading Wallace to conclude that Hutch is the creature. However, Gromit discovers a trail of rabbit tracks turning into human footprints, as well as a pile of half-eaten vegetables in Wallace's bedroom, which makes him realise that Wallace is the real culprit.
After celebrating his triumph with Tottington, Wallace is confronted by Victor, who vies for Tottington's affections and wealth. During the confrontation, the full moon appears and Wallace transforms into the Were-Rabbit. Victor, now seeing the perfect chance to eliminate his rival, acquires some golden bullets from eccentric town vicar Reverend Clement Hedges.
On the day of the vegetable competition, Wallace and Gromit discover that Hutch now possesses Wallace's human traits, including his love for cheese. Upon learning that the Were-Rabbit is still at large, Tottington reluctantly agrees to let Victor vanquish it. When Wallace transforms again, Victor arrives and attempts to shoot him, but Gromit intervenes. Victor detains Gromit in a cage, but he escapes with the help of Hutch and they quickly devise a plan to save Wallace.
At the competition, Victor seizes the competition's trophy to use as ammunition after exhausting his golden bullets. Gromit tries to lure Wallace away using the giant marrow he planned on entering in the competition, but Wallace gets distracted and the marrow ends up getting squashed when Hutch drives the Anti-Pesto van into a cheese tent. Gromit subdues Victor's dog, Philip, in a dogfight using aeroplanes from a fairground ride. As Victor aims at Wallace, Gromit uses his plane to deflect the trophy, but the damaged plane begins to fall and Wallace leaps to catch Gromit; they both land in the cheese tent. Gromit disguises Victor as the Were-Rabbit using the female rabbit costume and the townspeople chase him away.
Wallace morphs back to his human form, now free from the effects of his invention, and appears dead, but soon comes around thanks to his love for cheese. Gromit receives the trophy for his marrow and bravery and Tottington converts the grounds of Tottington Hall into a nature reserve for Hutch and his fellow rabbits.
Voice cast
Peter Sallis as Wallace, an eccentric, absent-minded and accident-prone yet good-natured inventor with a great fondness for cheese, who operates Anti-Pesto with his dog and best friend, Gromit. Sallis additionally portrayed Hutch, a kidnapped rabbit who gradually develops Wallace's mannerisms — his dialogue consists almost entirely of phrases and statements previously made by Wallace — after an attempted mind-alteration goes wrong and who is at first suspected to be the Were-Rabbit. Sallis' voice was digitally accelerated to create Hutch's. Helena Bonham Carter as Lady Campanula "Totty" Tottington, a wealthy aristocratic spinster with a keen interest in vegetable horticulture and 'fluffy' animals. For more than five centuries, the Tottington family has hosted an annual vegetable competition on their estate on the same night. Lady Tottington asks Wallace to call her "Totty" (which is a British term for an aristocratic and attractive woman) and develops a romantic interest in him. Her forename, Campanula, is the scientific name of a bellflower, and her surname is taken from the Lancashire village of Tottington. Ralph Fiennes as Lord Victor Quartermaine, a cruel upper class bounder and a prideful hunter who is courting Lady Tottington for her fortune. He wears a toupée and despises Wallace and Gromit. Philip is Victor's vicious but cowardly and dimwitted hunting dog who resembles a Bull Terrier. He is too cowardly to face the Were-Rabbit so he instead targets Gromit. Peter Kay as Police Constable Albert Mackintosh, the local village policeman who judges the Giant Vegetable Contest, though he would prefer it if the "troublemaking" competition did not happen. Nicholas Smith as Reverend Clement Hedges, the superstitious town vicar and the first resident to witness the Were-Rabbit. Liz Smith as Mrs. Mulch, wife to Mr. Mulch and neighbour of Wallace and Gromit who raise prize-winning pumpkins. Dicken Ashworth as Mr. Mulch, husband to Mrs. Mulch and neighbour of Wallace and Gromit who raise prize-winning pumpkins. Edward Kelsey as Mr. Growbag, an elderly resident of Wallace and Gromit's neighbourhood and a founding member of the town's vegetable growers' council. Mark Gatiss as Miss Blight, a resident of Wallace and Gromit's neighbourhood. Geraldine McEwan as Miss Thripp, an Anti-Pesto customer. McEwan reprises her role in A Matter of Loaf and Death. John Thomson as Mr. Windfall Vincent Ebrahim as Mr. Caliche Robert Horvath as Mr. Dibber Pete Atkin as Mr. Crock Noni Lewis as Mrs. Girdling Ben Whitehead as Mr. Leaching
Production
In March 2000, it was officially announced that Wallace and Gromit were to star in their own feature film. It would have been Aardman's next film after The Tortoise and the Hare, which was subsequently abandoned by the studio in July 2001, owing to script problems.
The directors, Nick Park and Steve Box, have often referred to the film as the world's "first vegetarian horror film". Peter Sallis (the voice of Wallace) is joined in the film by Ralph Fiennes (as Lord Victor Quartermaine), Helena Bonham Carter (as Lady Campanula Tottington), Peter Kay (as PC Mackintosh), Nicholas Smith (as Rev. Clement Hedges), and Liz Smith (as Mrs. Mulch). As established in the preceding short films, Gromit is a silent character, communicating purely via body language.
The film was originally going to be called Wallace & Gromit: The Great Vegetable Plot, but the title was changed, as the market research disliked it. The first reported release date for The Great Vegetable Plot was November 2004. Production officially began in September 2003, and the film was then set for release on 30 September 2005. In July 2003, Entertainment Weekly referred to the film as Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
Park said that after separate test screenings with British and American audiences, including children on both sides, he adjusted the characters' speech for American audiences. Park was often sent notes from DreamWorks, which stressed him. He recalled one note that Wallace's car should be trendier, which he disagreed with because he felt making things look old-fashioned made it look more ironic.
The vehicle Wallace drives in the film is an Austin A35 van. In collaboration with Aardman in the spring of 2005, a road going replica of the model was created by brothers Mark and David Armé, founders of the International Austin A30/A35 Register, for promotional purposes. In a 500-man-hour customisation, an original 1964 van received a full body restoration, before being dented and distressed to perfectly replicate the model van used in the film. The official colour of the van is Preston Green, named in honour of Nick Park's hometown. The name was chosen by the art director and Mark Armé.
Shortly after the film's release, the Aardman Animations' warehouse caught on fire which resulted thirty years of work on past projects being destroyed, along with the character models and sets made for the film being destroyed as well.
Distribution It was the final DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by DreamWorks Pictures, as the studio spun-off as an independent studio in 2004 until its acquisition by Comcast and NBCUniversal in 2016. In July 2014, the film's distribution rights were purchased by DreamWorks Animation from Paramount Pictures (owners of the pre-2005 DreamWorks Pictures catalogue) and transferred to 20th Century Fox before reverting to Universal Pictures in 2018, following the acquisition of DreamWorks Animation by Comcast and NBCUniversal in 2016. However, Aardman Animations still retains complete ownership of the film.
Release Shortly before the film's release a promotional tie-in of the film was made at Burger King in the UK and US. The film had its worldwide premiere on 4 September 2005, in Sydney, Australia. It was theatrically released in the United States on 7 October 2005, and in the United Kingdom the following week. The film was accompanied by the short film The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper, starring the penguins from the Madagascar franchise.
In April 2025, the film had a special 20th anniversary re-release in UK cinemas.
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