Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Cheese-loving eccentric Wallace and his cunning canine pal, Gromit, investigate a mystery in Nick Park's animated adventure, in which the lovable inventor and his intrepid pup run a business ridding the town of garden pests. Using only humane methods that turn their home into a halfway house for evicted vermin, the pair stumble upon a mystery involving a voracious vegetarian monster that threatens to ruin the annual veggie-growing contest.
Wallace & Gromit's only feature-length outing is a genuinely singular piece of work — Aardman's stop-motion claymation at its absolute peak, with visual gags layered into every frame that reward repeated viewing. The cinematography and production design are staggeringly inventive for the medium, achieving lighting, depth, and kinetic action sequences that rival live-action. Novelty is high because the film's comic voice — quintessentially British, warm, punny, and self-aware — is utterly unmistakable and inimitable. The plot is a breezy, well-structured monster-movie parody that doesn't overstay its welcome, though it leans heavily on genre convention for its scaffolding. Voice performances and character work are charming and precise. The ending resolves satisfyingly but follows a fairly predictable redemption arc without subverting expectations.