Nick Park’s animated clay heroes — the muddling inventor Wallace and his faithful (and much smarter) dog, Gromit — have made a successful, satisfying leap to the big screen in their first feature-length film. Retained is the small-scale, cozy English-village-ness of the short-film series: Here, the trouble revolves around the upcoming fruit-and-veg festival and some meddling rabbits. Wallace and Gromit, at the behest of Lady Tottington (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter), are on the bunny patrol; so is the priggish Victor Quartermaine (voice of Ralph Fiennes). Such good vocal talent is appreciated, but Park’s genius for stop-motion animation lies in the wonderfully expressive face of the silent Gromit. Packed with sly visual jokes, puns and a cracking good airplane chase, Curse is everything a W&G fan could hope for. (AH) 

This article appears in Oct 6-12, 2005.

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