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The Return of Wallace and Gromit

blamanj writes "Aardman Studios have release the first peek (Quicktime) at the new Wallace & Gromit film, Curse of the Wererabbit. Currently scheduled for an October release, the slightly-less-than dynamic duo will be putting their talents to work chasing a were-rabbit that threatens the town's vegetables. Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter supply lead vocals. Character creator Nick Park co-directs his story."

48 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Cor! by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Informative
    Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter supply lead vocals.

    I thought for a mo that they were taking over for the venerable Peter Sallis, the familiar voice of Wallace. I don't need shocks like that!

    your's truly will provide the voice of gromit

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  2. This is disgusting by Nine+Tenths+of+The+W · · Score: 5, Funny

    Currently scheduled for an October release, the slightly-less-than dynamic duo will be putting their talents to work chasing a were-rabbit that threatens the town's vegetables.

    Firstly, the term is "differently abled". Secondly, who the hell does Nick Park think he is, enforcing bigoted ablecentric paradigms that reinforce stereotypes of helplessness and dependency?

    --
    Slashdot: News for Nerds, Stuff that matters only to them
    1. Re:This is disgusting by winkydink · · Score: 2, Funny

      Shut up and eat your differently ableds. No dessert until you do.

      --

      "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  3. Re:Cinema? by Golias · · Score: 3, Funny

    Please don't forget we're all boycotting the evil media companies.

    Speak for yourself, loser. Personally, I try to go to films twice if the media company who makes it is evil, simply to off-set the impact of your boycott.

    Back on topic:

    Wallace and Grommit never did much for me, but "Chicken Run" was such a hilarious movie that I'm willing to give it another chance when the new film comes out.

    --

    Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

  4. Sean the Sheep by Zaranne · · Score: 3, Funny

    I just wanna see Sean...he was the coolest character! Course, since they're chasing a were-rabbit instead of a really mean old bulldog, I suppose I'll have to wait. *sigh*

    --
    So when is the Hawkeye movie coming out?
    1. Re:Sean the Sheep by doofusclam · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Oops...that's SHAUN the Sheep...

      Damn blondness...


      I've met Nick Park - he's from the same town as me (Preston, England) and when I was at the local college he came to talk to the students. He's the worlds most utterly boring talker, but was playing with plasticine while he talked and would occasionally throw a fully-formed Wallace or Gromit into the crowd. Anyways, my name is Sean, i'm from Preston, he named it after me dagnabbit!
    2. Re:Sean the Sheep by Zaranne · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, way cool, Sean! I have a book called "Feng Shaun" sitting on my desk, plus a stupid toy I got from Burger King a billion years ago.

      --
      So when is the Hawkeye movie coming out?
    3. Re:Sean the Sheep by michael+path · · Score: 2, Funny

      Shaun the Sheep was actually invited to participate in the recently released "World of Warcraft" live action demo.

      In demonstrating one of the games's more interesting features....well, the short of it is that he won't be involved in this or anything else in the future.

    4. Re:Sean the Sheep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're right, it's a joke you didn't get. Prefect is not a misspelling of Perfect. It's a car:

      http://www.motorbase.com/vehicle/by-id/1257/

      When he arrived on the planet some fifteen years ago, the minimal research he had done suggested to him that the name 'Ford Prefect' would be nicely inconspicuous.

      If you ever meet someone named Dodge Caravan, be very suspicious.

  5. Re:Cinema? by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    Please don't forget we're all boycotting the evil media companies.

    We'll make an exception. It'll make for A Grand Day Out, especially if I remember to have A Close Shave and don't wear The Wrong Trousers.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  6. Looks Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I watched the trailer earlier this morning and the movie looks very promising. The subject of the movie is sort of hidden within the trailer, but if you look at all the working titles from different countries it will probably give you a better idea of what the movie will be about.

  7. I think... by Mad_Rain · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think that Wallace and Grommet should be boycotted by the slashdot community for their negative stereotyping of penguins as evil criminal masterminds!

    (you do realize this is a joke, right?)

    --
    "What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
    1. Re:I think... by Lisandro · · Score: 2, Funny

      I guess you haven't seen the preview of "Madagascar" then... and if you haven't, you should :) Hillarious stuff, i'm eagerly waiting. For this and W&G!

      Penguins are evil!

    2. Re:I think... by jestered1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm confused. I'm only half-way into "The Wrong Trousers" and I thought the criminal was a chicken. How about a spoiler warning next time!

    3. Re:I think... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      (you do realize this is a joke, right?)

      If I weren't an AC I'd mod you overrated for that. Dear slashdotters, could you please stop spoiling each and every joke?

      I know, I know, by not doing so you run the risk of being modded troll or a flamebait, but that's part of the game. People will never learn it if they're being spoonfed all the time.

  8. So, they're chasing Bunnicula? by docbrown42 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    --
    Ed Wedig
    Graphic design services
    docbrown.net
    1. Re:So, they're chasing Bunnicula? by Monkelectric · · Score: 2, Funny

      Someone mod this guy to hell for bringing up a horrible childhood memory :)

      --

      Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley

    2. Re:So, they're chasing Bunnicula? by KillerDeathRobot · · Score: 4, Informative

      Bunnicula was a vampire rabbit, silly. They're after a were-rabbit.

      Bunnicula drained vegetable of their color, he didn't really eat them!

      --
      Thinkin' Lincoln - a web comic of presidential proportions
    3. Re:So, they're chasing Bunnicula? by Lemmeoutada+Collecti · · Score: 4, Funny

      As someone else pointed out, Bunnicula was a vampire rabbit. So, in the spirit of questionable movies (e.g. Dracula vs. Wolfman) I want to see Bunnicula vs. Wererabbit!

      The penguin will rule them all!

      --

      You can have it fast, accurate, or pretty. Pick any 2.
    4. Re:So, they're chasing Bunnicula? by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 2, Funny
      The penguin will rule them all!

      One Penguin to find them all, One Penguin to bring them,
      One Penguin to Rule them all, and in the darkness bite them.

      --
      If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
  9. Mmm... Helena.... by computerme · · Score: 4, Funny

    Helena Bonham Carter.

    I would watch her read a telephone book on film.

    Then buy the DVD too.

    Oh yeah. I eagerly await the new W & G flick too!!!

    1. Re:Mmm... Helena.... by advocate_one · · Score: 2, Interesting

      you've probably worn out your tape of her in that "Rik Mayall Presents" programme she featured in... so sad that was before DVD...

      --
      Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
    2. Re:Mmm... Helena.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yea, she's hot.

    3. Re:Mmm... Helena.... by advocate_one · · Score: 2, Informative

      "Dancing Queen" it were...

      --
      Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
  10. Trailer... by antdude · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to my old AQFL story and Dark Horizons, there was a WMV trailer on Screen Rant but the Web site seems to be down. You can look at Google's cached Web page. And here is the original Web site that hosted it (still works for now).

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  11. Trailer is also out by solowCX · · Score: 5, Informative
  12. Hardly "slightly-less-than dynamic" by Jtheletter · · Score: 5, Funny
    First off, Wallace and Gromit have come out on top in every adventure they've been in, from picnicking on the moon to battling an automatic-trouser-stealing penguin burglar.

    And secondly, they are made of clay. It doesn't get much more dynamic than that. :P

    --
    -- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
  13. Finally, good non-CG animation by VolciMaster · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The Wallace and Gromit series are fantastic, and I've been looking forward to a full-length movie ever since seeing The Wrong Trousers. Chicken Run was quite funny, but it was chickens, not our slightly dashing duo! If you've never seen good claymation, you should defintiely go rent/buy all of the W&G videos, and get a copy of Chicken Run also.

    W&G is such a nice break from the (albeit quite good) CG animation movies of the past few years. Claymation requires so much handwork and attention to detail, that there are very few people who can do it, let alone do it well. The folks at Pixar et al are great at what they do, and they put in a lot of detail... but the computer rendering is also responsible for a bunch of the look. Here you have straight-up, old-fashioned hard work, care, and love on the part of the animators.

    1. Re:Finally, good non-CG animation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hey, be fair.

      The visual presentation means a lot, but any truly great feature is made truly great by fantastic writing, characters and voices.

      Both Pixar and the W&G crew have these going for them.

    2. Re:Finally, good non-CG animation by retrosurf · · Score: 3, Informative

      Claymation is trademarked by Will Vinton, at
      www.vinton.com. Sadly, he seems to have abandoned
      the "clay" part of it, after being a pioneer in it.

    3. Re:Finally, good non-CG animation by SmokeHalo · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you've never seen good claymation, you should defintiely go rent/buy all of the W&G videos, and get a copy of Chicken Run also.

      For claymation, I highly recommend Celebrity Deathmatch , particularly the older episodes with the de facto king (or is it queen?) of CDM, Marilyn Manson.

      --
      I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent. - Q
    4. Re:Finally, good non-CG animation by funny-jack · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The folks at Pixar et al are great at what they do, and they put in a lot of detail... but the computer rendering is also responsible for a bunch of the look. Here you have straight-up, old-fashioned hard work, care, and love on the part of the animators.

      You sound like someone who hasn't watched the "behind the scenes" DVDs from the Lord of the Rings series (particularly ROTK). Holy crap, digital effects take a huge load of hard work, care, and love, too.

      --
      You probably shouldn't click this.
    5. Re:Finally, good non-CG animation by VolciMaster · · Score: 3, Interesting

      True, writing and characters are important, too. My main point was just that the W&G team has to spend a lot more time and effort in doing the stop-action clay filming than do the CG groups. They spend a lot of time, also (consider the Nemo toy in Boo's room in Monsters Inc), but it's time spent in a more technical fashion. The W&G group takes the stories and then personally animates everything about the scene. The CG outifts take stories, design the charcaters, and control points, and then let the computers animate everything. I agree that Pixar makes great movies, I've loved each of them, but they demand a very different level of care than the W&G films.

    6. Re:Finally, good non-CG animation by RatBastard · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There is nothing dreadful or boring about "Chicken Run", unless yoiu know nothing at all about WWII movies like "The Geat Escape" and "Stalag 17" (sp?). While not as slapstick funny as "Trousers" (which is not as good as "Grand Day Out", IMHO) it is still a very funny movie.

      --
      Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
  14. W&G first-timers by RobertB-DC · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In January, as part of the USA Film Festival's KidFilm (in Dallas), the "Animation Celebration" featured 10 Wallace & Gromit shorts, back-to-back-to-back. This was noted clearly in the program, but clearly many of the attendees didn't *read* the program -- probably the ones who came for the insipid Barbie Fairytopia movie.

    We saw a short introduction (featuring a typical Wallace & Gromit contraption cracking an egg), then the first episode came and went. Then the intro started again, and the murmurs started. The third round saw louder mutterings. By the fifth round, there was scattered applause and mild catcalls. At seven or eight, many of the kids could be heard saying "why are they showing that again?" By the time the tenth episode came on the screen, there was general laughter from the entire crowd. When an 11th episode failed to appear, in favor of a longer Nick Park feature (Dogs & Cats, or something like that), I believe there was applause.

    Several years ago, the early Simpsons shorts (from the Tracy Ullman show, before the series even started) were sprinkled throughout the Animation Celebration program. I still wonder if the organizers put the W&G shorts back-to-back just for artistic effect.

    --
    Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
    1. Re:W&G first-timers by Black+Art · · Score: 2, Informative

      That sounds like Wallace & Gromit: Cracking Contraptions. The shorts were shown in the US on Atom films in a low resolution format. If you lived in the UK you could get it on a very nice DVD which they refused to ship to the US. (You had to have a friend cross-ship it for you.)

      A great series of shorts. The theme got to be a bit much after the 5th or 6th time, however...

      There was also a Wallace and Gromit videogame for the PS2. That was available in the US. Fun, but the controls took a bit to get used to. Quite true to the series and saw the return of the evil penguin from "The Wrong Trousers".

      --
      "Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
  15. Ready for Their Close-Up by levitater · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wallace: Cheeeeeese!! Gromit: [Shrug with Upturned Eyebrow]

  16. Proper site... by Richard_at_work · · Score: 3, Informative

    is here: http://www.wallaceandgromit.co.uk/. I saw all of this a few weeks ago, due to someone from Aardman being on our New Media mailing list, he likes to try things out on us :)

  17. Contrary to common misconception.. by tinkerton · · Score: 2, Funny

    kids watch the Pacifier...

    real men watch W&G

  18. mnb Re:Mmm... Helena.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Lately all you need to do is direct a movie she is in and she will drop her current man and sleep with you.

    Kenneth Branagh 1994-1999 (after Frankenstein)
    Tim Burton 2001-current (after Planet of the Apes)

    She's been quite the homewrecker as of late.
    (wish she'd wreck mine!)

  19. W&G DVDs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm just hoping that the movie brings the original 3 movies out on DVD again. Right now you have to pay $50 on eBay for that release.
    Maybe it'll include the 10 shorts, that were developed in order for the animation team to get comfortable with the characters, as well.

    Have there been any rumblings about a DVD release?

  20. Hope you've got a good imagination.. by PopeAlien · · Score: 2, Funny

    ..I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you're going to be watching plasticine in this one..

    ..not that plasticine doesnt have its own special charms.

  21. *Cheeeeese* by eXoXe · · Score: 2, Funny

    Cheeeeeeeese Grommit, Cheeeeeeeeeese!

    --
    This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
  22. If it happened with SpongeBob by Whorebot · · Score: 2, Funny

    [tongueincheek]The Traditional Values Coalition has news that Wallace and Grommit are in league with the bestiality-agenda, trying to promote an immoral man-beast tolerance with all Americans.[/tongueincheek]

  23. Re:It's a bit weird by Trurl's+Machine · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Looking at Nick Park. That placid, cheerful face with the extremely plastic eyebrows. It's like he's spent so many hours manipulating his characters he's become one of them.

    He always was! I've read an interview with him, where he said that Grommit is his plasticine alter ego. "Grand Day Out" was Nick Park's reflection on a real event from his own childhood, when his father has built a homebrew caravan and took his family on a trip. His father was very proud of himself, but for young Nick, it was more of a traumatic experience - the caravan was largely built of cardboard and general junk and young Nick felt very insecure. He portrayed his father as a crazy inventor, who builds a junk space rocket and takes his dog on a trip - ignoring all the possible perils (all too obvious to the poor, scared dog).

    Just a side note: hobbyists often ignore how annoying their passion can be to their families. I wonder how many fellow slashdotters repeated the mistake of Mr Park senior. They said to their significant other (or their children): "Look! This is a computer I made using power supply from an old refrigerator, defunct playstation, keyboard from electric typewriter and screen from our old TV-set, all running a custom-compiled version of BSD! Ain't that cool?". And they fail to see a clear message in the eyes of their families: "why can't we just buy something normal like everyone else?".

  24. It's on Slashdot because... by ozbird · · Score: 2, Funny

    Credited cast:
    ...
    Peter Kay - PC McIntosh
    [rimshot]

    The question is, will it be Apple or McDonalds that sues over the choice of name?

  25. Also: Creature Comforts on Comedy Central by ExoticMandibles · · Score: 3, Interesting
    On the subject of Nick Park and Aardman Animations, surely you're familiar with his first short, 1989's Oscar-winning Creature Comforts. Well, in 2003 they made a series of thirteen ten-minute Creature Comfort shorts. I discovered this quite by accident the other night; I turned on the TV and there it was! Comedy Central is showing 'em at apparently random times, two shorts in a half-hour time slot.


    larry