Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 British stop-motion animated comedy film produced by Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. United International Pictures distributed the film in the United Kingdom, and it was the last DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by DreamWorks Pictures in the United States. It was directed by Nick Park and Steve Box as the second feature-length film by Aardman after Chicken Run (2000). The movie was released in Sydney, Australia on 4 September 2005, before being released in cinemas early in the United States of America on 7 October 2005, and in British cinemas in the United Kingdom a week later on 14 October 2005.

The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is part of the Wallace and Gromit series, created by Park. The film follows eccentric inventor Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis) and his intelligent mute dog Gromit in their latest venture as pest control agents, as they come to the rescue of a village plagued by rabbits before an annual vegetable competition.

The film features an expanded cast of characters relative to the previous Wallace and Gromit shorts, with a voice cast including Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes as well as British comedian Peter Kay and British character actress Liz Smith. It was a critical and commercial success, and won a number of film awards including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, making it the second film from DreamWorks Animation to win (after Shrek), as well as both the second non-American animated film and second non computer-animated film to have received this achievement (after Spirited Away).

Plot
Tottington Hall's annual giant vegetable competition is approaching with the coveted Golden Carrot as its prize. Wallace and Gromit provide a humane pest control business, "Anti-Pesto", protecting the townspeople's vegetables. One evening after capturing rabbits found in Lady Tottington's garden, Wallace devises a plan to turn them against vegetables by using his latest invention, the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic to brainwash them. Suddenly, the machine malfunctions and one rabbit gets stuck to Wallace's head causing their minds to fuse before Gromit cuts the power; however, the transfer appears to have worked, as the rabbit shows no interest in vegetables. They name the rabbit Hutch and place him in a cage.

That night, a giant rabbit devours many of the town's vegetables. Wallace suspects that Hutch may be the were-rabbit and locks him in a high-security cage. At a town meeting, the hunter Lord Victor Quartermaine offers to shoot the were-rabbit, but Lady Tottington persuades the townsfolk to continue with Anti-Pesto's services. Victor, who seeks to woo Lady Tottington, corners Wallace at night. Wallace transforms into the Were-Rabbit under the light of the full moon and bounds away. Gromit lures Wallace home to protect him. Victor obtains three "24-carrot" gold bullets from the town reverend to use against Wallace.

The next morning, Gromit convinces Wallace that he is indeed the Were-Rabbit, and that he must fix the Mind-o-Matic to undo the curse. Lady Tottington, who has come to like Wallace, visits and tells him about Victor's plan. As the moon rises, Wallace begins to transform and begs Gromit to hide him. Victor arrives and attempts to shoot Wallace with the golden bullets. Gromit creates a distraction to allow Wallace, as the Were-Rabbit, to escape; the hunter gives chase to the competition. Gromit begins working with Hutch, who has developed Wallace-like traits including his appetite for cheese, and plans to use his giant marrow as bait to lure Wallace to safety.

Wallace, as the were-rabbit, creates chaos at the fair. Victor grabs the Golden Carrot trophy to use as ammunition. Wallace carries Lady Tottington atop Tottington Hall, where she discovers Wallace's connection to the were-rabbit. Victor gives chase, revealing that he only wants to impress Lady Tottington for her money. When Gromit arrives, Victor's dog Philip engages him in a dogfight in aeroplanes taken from a fairground attraction. Gromit sends Philip's plane to the ground, then steers his plane into Victor's line of fire as Victor fires at Wallace. Wallace jumps, grabs Gromit and sacrifices himself to cushion their fall into a cheese tent.

Victor gloats about his victory, but Lady Tottington hits him with her giant carrot and he falls into the tent too. Gromit quickly disguises Victor as the were-rabbit and the mob of townspeople chase him away. Wallace transforms back to his human self and appears dead, but Gromit uses some Stinking Bishop cheese to bring him around. Lady Tottington awards Gromit the Golden Carrot and converts the grounds of Tottington Hall into a habitat for Hutch and the other rabbits.

Cast

 * Peter Sallis as Wallace, an eccentric and absent-minded inventor with a great fondness for cheese, who runs Anti-Pesto with his dog, Gromit.
 * Sallis also provides the voice of Hutch, a captive rabbit who gradually becomes Wallace-like after an attempted mind-alteration goes awry and who serves as the initial suspected Were-Rabbit. Sallis's voice was digitally accelerated to create that of Hutch's.
 * Gromit is Wallace's silent, brave and highly intelligent dog, who saves his master whenever something goes wrong.
 * Ralph Fiennes as Lord Victor Quartermaine, a cruel upper class bounder and a prideful hunter. He wears a toupee and despises Anti-Pesto. His surname is similar to Allan Quatermain, the British novelist H. Rider Haggard's big-game hunter character.
 * Philip is Victor's vicious but dimwitted hunting dog who resembles a Bull Terrier.
 * Helena Bonham Carter as Lady Campanula Tottington, a wealthy aristocratic spinster with a keen interest in vegetable horticulture and 'fluffy' animals. For 517 years, the Tottington family has hosted an annual vegetable competition on their estate. Lady Tottington asks Wallace to call her "Totty" (which is a British term for attractive women) 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.
 * Peter Kay as Police Constable Albert Mackintosh, the local village policeman who judges the Giant Vegetable Contest.
 * Nicholas Smith as Reverend Clement Hedges, the local vicar and the first resident to witness the Were-Rabbit.
 * Dicken Ashworth and Liz Smith as Mr. and Mrs. Mulch, vegetable contestants and clients of Wallace and Gromit's Anti-Pesto.
 * Edward Kelsey as Mr. Growbag, an elderly resident of Wallace and Gromit's neighbourhood and a founding member of the town's veg grower's council.
 * Geraldine McEwan as Miss Thripp, an Anti-Pesto customer. McEwan reprised her role in A Matter of Loaf and Death.

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 issues.

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 didn't like 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 the film as Wallace & Gromit in The Were-Rabbit.

Park told an interviewer that after separate test screenings with British and American children, the film was altered to "tone down some of the British accents and make them speak more clearly so the American audiences could understand it all better." Park was often sent notes from DreamWorks, which irritated 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 home town. The name was chosen by the art director and Mark Armé.

Release
The film had its worldwide premiere on 4 September 2005, in Sydney, Australia. It was theatrically released in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and the United States on 14 October 2005. The DVD edition of the film was released on 7 February 2006 (United States) and 20 February 2006 (United Kingdom).

Home media
In Region 2, the film was released in a two disc special including Cracking Contraptions, plus a number of other extras. In Region 1, the film was released on DVD in Widescreen and Fullscreen versions and VHS on 7 February 2006. Wal-Mart stores carried a special version with an additional DVD, "Gromit's Tail-Waggin' DVD" which included the test shorts made for this production.

A companion game, also titled Curse of the Were-Rabbit, had a coinciding release with the film. A novelisation, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: The Movie Novelization by Penny Worms (ISBN 0-8431-1667-6), was also produced.

It was the last DreamWorks Animation movie to be released on VHS. It was re released on DVD on 13 May 2014, as part of a triple film set, along with DreamWorks Animation's Chicken Run and Flushed Away.

Box office
Wallace & Gromit opened in 3,645 cinemas and had an opening weekend gross of $16 million, putting it at number one for that weekend. During its second weekend it came in at number two, just $200,000 behind The Fog. It remained number one worldwide for three weeks in a row. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit grossed $192.6 million at the box office, of which $56.1 million was from the United States. As of August 2024, it is the second-highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit holds an approval rating of 95% based on 180 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a subtly touching and wonderfully eccentric adventure featuring Wallace and Gromit." On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "universal acclaim." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Legacy
After the box office failure of Flushed Away resulted in a major write down for DreamWorks, it was reported on 3 October 2006 and confirmed on 30 January 2007 that DreamWorks had terminated their partnership with Aardman. In revealing the losses related to Flushed Away, DreamWorks also revealed they had taken a $29 million write down over Wallace & Gromit as well, and the film under performed expectations.

Following the split, Aardman retained complete ownership of the film, while DreamWorks Animation retained worldwide distribution rights in perpetuity, excluding some United Kingdom television rights and ancillary markets. Soon after the end of the agreement, Aardman announced that they would proceed with another Wallace & Gromit project, later revealed to be a return to their earlier short films with A Matter of Loaf and Death with the BBC.

During production of the short, Park remarked publicly on difficulties with working with DreamWorks during the production of Were-Rabbit, such as the constant production notes and demands to alter the material to appeal more to American children.