I Watch Films: Vengeance Most Fowl

 

Vengeance Most Fowl

Wallace, an inventor, invents Norbot, a garden gnome that does gardening. He takes it out for hire. The gnome annoys his dog Gromit, who enjoys gardening; when it is noisily recharging overnight he takes it down to the basement and plugs it into Wallace’s computer to charge.

Unfortunately Feathers McGraw, penguin criminal mastermind, hears about Norbot on the TV and uses the computer of the zoo where he’s locked up to hack into Wallace’s computer. He reprograms Norbot so he builds an army of gnomes, and also makes them evil. When Wallace takes the gnomes out to do gardening they cause chaos and steal things.

The police, Chief Inspector Macintosh who is approaching his retirement, and new recruit Constable Mukherjee confiscate all of Wallace’s inventions, but can’t find the stolen goods. Gromit gets back the gnome tracker and follows them to discover that Feathers McGraw has used the stolen objects to build a submarine, which he uses to escape into the sewers. In the confusion Gromit and Norbot fall from a tree, and the impact resets Norbot to make him good again.

Feathers McGraw is after the diamond from The Wrong Trousers again, which has been locked in the vault since the events of that film. Chief Inspector Macintosh brings it out, only to discover it’s been replaced by a turnip – no one looked in the bag before it was locked away. The stage is set for a final confrontation between McGraw and the evil gnomes, and Gromit, Wallace, Norbot and the police.

The Wallace and Gromit animated stop-motion Claymation films have always been charming, funny and clever. They combine absurd action with genuine feeling, especially Gromit whose mute expressions make so much of the way it works. As a family-friendly film, it is extremely enjoyable, one the highlights of last Christmas, according to both me and my 11-year old co-watcher.

Watch This: Evil penguin tries to take revenge on ridiculous animated duo
Don’t Watch This: Absolutely ridiculous from top to bottom
This Is The Last Film I Watched In 2024: And this is my last review from that year, finally drawing a line under it