Something wicked this way hops . . .

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

(Go to the old forum and see the other reviews. This one's mine)

It bothers me that I can see the smoothing marks in Wallaces face. Those little lines from the comb or whatever they used, distract me.
I like Ralph Fiennes. He was great as an upper class twit. It's fun to compare animated Helena Bonham Carter in this to animated Helena Bonham Carter in Corpse Bride. She has such range as an animated creation.
All told, I think the shorts were a bit pithier. An hour and a half of Wallace and Grommitt might have filled me up like too much cheese.

[Haggis Killer]

That would probably be a thumb making those marks. No rakes. The characters are no bigger than about 12" tall, and the expressions are done by hand. So, fingers & thumbs.

I'll be curious to see how you like their next movie, "Flushed Away", that is being made in CG. They are creating the look and textural quality of the Aardman puppets in CG. With thumbprints, from all I've been lead to understand.

With the actual stop-mo clay figures, the thumbprints change from frame to frame as the animator makes adjustments. What will you think if the thumbprint is permanently imbedded, just to fool you into thinking it's a clay puppet?

I'll just have to wait a year or so to find out.

[Drunk Monk]

I don't really care for Wallace and Gromit. I'm not sure why. I usually like Brit humor. I think the shape of Wallace's head bothers mean, especially the width of his mouth.

That being said, I liked the movie, but it didn't get me until towards the end. That charming wit did make me smile at some points. The story was quite predictable almost all the way through, but the quick little witticisms made up for that.

Tara liked it, despite it's heavy reliance on written words for the jokes, writing she can barely read. I had to whisper answers to her questions a lot. Her favorite part was the dogfight when their planes stopped and the bad dog got his change purse out.

[The Queen]

...but I wonder if I would have enjoyed it as much had I not previously seen the shorter W*Gs -- "Grand Day Out" or the one with the killer penguin: I think that was A Close Shave... But of course my all time favorite Aardman is Creature Comforts (because I also need space. And meat.)

When WereRabbit comes out on cable or DVD I'll want to see the beginning again, to see if all of Helena Bonham Carter's outfits were veggies. I recognized that she was dressed as a carrot on the night of the veggie contest, and then as an ear of corn in the last scene, so now I'm wondering if she was dressed like veg throughout the entire film and I just didn't notice.

[Drunk Monk]

And the penguin short was a nice treat, although a little early for Xmas for me. They should run shorts like those before all movies - they do more to sell movies then most trailers.

BTW, while we're on the subject of stop motion, did Wil Vinton's Adventures of Mark Twain ever make it to DVD? That's got to be my all time favorite of the genre...

[Haggis Killer]

I think I have it on VHS or LD. Heck, maybe both. I've never seen a DVD of it, though. Likely as not, it'll be a long time before it's back. Will Vinton lost his studio to Phil Knight, the owner of Nike. It's been re-named Laika Studios, and they've hired Henry Sellick to direct their first short and feature. You can go to:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.laika.com/entertainment/index.html">http://www.laika.com/entertainment/index.html</a><!-- m -->

to get a sneak peek at Moongirl, their first venture.

And don't feel too bad for Will Vinton. Karma comeback.

[Drunk Monk]

dish about wil, why doncha? i won't feel bad for him if you say, but i do feel bad for us because i'd probably invest in mark twain for dvd. el dingo and i saw that movie dozens of times when we were working at MQ6. it's a fav that i haven't seen in years. i'm trying to remember who kid friendly it is. i seem to remember the mysterious stranger sequence being disturbing...

[cranefly]

My first post on this phoenixed site. Thanks to Greg for helping pull me aboard, and for not requiring me to change my name to rotten egg.

I saw Ebert and Roper's review of Wallace and Grommit. Ebert was appalled when Roper gave it the thumb's down. I was actually pleased by it. No, I don't entirely agree with Roper. It's well above Hollywood's norm, and I'd give it a thumbs up. However, 5 years in the making? Nick Park needs to get a life!

I do agree with Gene about Wallace. When he came down the chute and landed at the breakfast table, I felt slightly ill just looking at him. It's more than the wide mouth. It's the lack of a forehead. Something unsettling about that. And the big bloated rabbit was also disturbing. As for the whole movie, it did have its moments. I think Nick's forte is the vignette, the little scene. But the movie as a whole just didn't grab me (though Greg did a heck of a job on the sets!). The Wrong Trousers is probably my favorite, because it was short, tight, and clever every step of the way.

Chicken Run disappointed me as well (though again I'd give it a thumbs up). In that case, I just didn't like the Mel Gibson character. I've seen it so many times before. The macho posturing lie-out-his-ass dude who gets all the girls, until he's found out and shunned. But then he saves the day and all is forgiven, girls again fighting for his lap. I suppose it harkens back to watching the dating game when I was a teenager. The lady would ask 3 bachelors questions, and based on their answers she'd choose one for a date. Invariably one bachelor would be a loud-mouth. He'd just blather away, saying nothing, cutting into the other guys' time -- even insulting the others. And like clockwork the lady would choose the rude loudmouth idiot. Because, well, I suppose he sounded like he knew what he was doing. And oh, how I hoped all those ladies would end up miserable on those dates -- though I suppose every one of them married the dude and lived happily for-effing-ever after.

Ummm. No, I don't have issues. Really, I'm fine. I'm effing fine.

But Nick Park needs to rethink the long format. He dilutes the deftly-orchestrated daffiness when he goes long. I prefer his small gems.

--cranefly

[Drunk Monk]

Tara rather spontaneously burst into an impersonation of Wallace by saying Cheeese over and over. It was definitely recognizable, with that weird UK lilt. She hasn't done it since, thank god.

[Haggis Killer]

Ben does that, too. But he gets it from The Wrong Trousers and A Grand Day Out. He made us walk out of Were-rabbit about 10 minutes in. Too scary, even having read the book beforehand.

Oh well. I saw it with Yeti.

Here's the thing about Will V. He wasn't ever really the creative genius behind his work. He was a good front man. Kinda like Walt, but with less TV presence and not as much business savvy. He's pretty universally disliked by former employees.

[Drunk Monk]

Yeah, I was a bit worried about that with Tara and Were-rabbit, but once she saw the rabbbit, she thought it was hilarious. Lately she's been pretty judgemental about villains - we rented Splash recently and she didn't like it because the scientists were too mean to the mermaid. She also didn't like Baribe and the Magic Pegasus because of the villain. Originally she wasn't into seeing Chicken Little because she thought the aliens might be too scary, but since it's a G, I think I can still talk her into it. The only movie we actually had to walk out of so far was Spirited Away, but I think her sense of fear has grown a lot since then. We actually have to be more cautious now than before...

[Haggis Killer]

I've heard more than one parent of 4 & 5 year olds complain that the sci-fi part of the ending of Chicken Little was way too scary for their little ones. I haven't seen it yet, in spite of having been in the building during three free screenings at Pixar.

I need to see it, just to support hard working friends. But from all I hear, I don't know quite what to expect. It's got pretty scathing reviews over on rottentomatoes.com.

[Drunk Monk]

Hmm, now I gotta think about it again. It is a G tho, and I've taken Tara to PGs, like the Incredibles, which she liked by the way. It's so tricky now with kid's movies. I haven't read any reviews yet.

[Haggis Killer]

The nanny promised to take Ben to see Chicken Little tomorrow. When she told him, he wen "Yaaaay!" So, there you go. If he likes it, we might be able to talk him into seeing it again. If it scares him, we'll just have to stop by the theater, buy tickets and keep going. Gotta support friends, even if they work for The Empire.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Was it intentional that Chicken Little on the posters had his ass in the air next to the phrase "The end is near" or it just my dirty mind at work. Don't get me started on Michealangelo, the Sistine Chapel and the Moon.