While the adventure of Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is going to be heading to UK and Ireland audiences this Christmas, the rest of the world will have to wait for its arrival on the calendar of upcoming 2025 movies. As someone who’s seen the picture in advance, the wait is definitely worth it, especially since we’re on the eve of infamous franchise villain Feathers McGraw’s return
If you thought he was tough to handle in terms of being one of the most scene stealing villains, you’re absolutely right. However, as I got to speak to directors Merlin Crossingham and Nick Park during the early press day for the next Wallace & Gromit adventure, I was given a little more insight into this baddie’s acting process.
Feathers apparently one of, if not the most difficult thing for the Aardman Animation folks to animate. Kicking off the story of why that’s true is co-director Merlin Crossingham, who told CinemaBlend the following:
… he's so graphically simple, and a big part of him is his stillness. That's what makes him powerful really. And for animators that is really, really difficult. So we would always just be I'm not sure, fearful, but really we'd take our time and just make sure that we gave Feathers the respect he was due. And even within our immensely talented pool of animators, there's only a handful who could really, we could really sort of lean on to get Feathers working to his maximum. It's the simple closeups [that] really always caught us out.
As you’ve probably noticed throughout the picture’s ongoing marketing campaign, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’s returning menace is a penguin of no words. But his actions definitely speak loudly, as the legendary presence from 1993’s The Wrong Trousers has an assortment of gestures and expressions that make the most of his nearly featureless face.
So only the best animators would be up to the task to make a bad guy so terribly funny, he almost made me spit out my coffee in Vengeance Most Fowl’s trailer. But what was even more challenging was how to shoot such a character for a major motion picture that’ll be seen on all sorts of screens.
Not only will people be able to see the new Wallace & Gromit tale on TV and various devices friendly to a Netflix subscription holder, there’s also an awards qualifying run in limited theaters lined up as well. Co-director and Aardman legend Nick Park confirmed as much as he further explained to CinemaBlend how to work with this very smart penguin:
The cinematography has a great challenge of how to [shoot Feathers]. Not just once they've got closeup on him, but the animator, knowing that he's gonna be blown up on a screen, whatever size, they've gotta be extra talented. [There’s] little nuanced movements. You know, even a blink means a hell of a lot.
Everything above boils down to one word: “essence.” All of the effort put into each of Aardman Animation’s films is in service of best fitting the story and characters. Which is probably one of the upsides to the BBC’s request to keep Vengeance Most Fowl family friendly after a supposedly racy gag snuck into the picture.
If anything, Nick Park’s final say on the matter best sums up why Feathers McGraw is such a taciturn figure in the first place, as the man himself put it all down to the fact that “villains shouldn't put a lot of effort into anything.” You can be sure that the criminality of Feathers McGraw is as impressive as it is effective in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
For fans who are open to welcoming the lads and their associates into their living rooms, it’s not too much of a wait. December 25th will see the movie broadcast on the BBC, as well as available on BBC iPlayer, for viewers in the UK and Ireland.
The rest of the world will just have to wait for January 3, 2025, as that’s the date where Netflix debuts the title to all other territories. For more on the 2025 Netflix movie and TV schedule, all you need to do is take a look at our handy guide on the subject. No Feathers McGraw-style hacking is necessary!
