To think that we’re getting a brand new Wallace & Gromit picture on the 2024 movie schedule still seems like a miracle to me. And with the return of The Wrong Trousers baddie Feathers McGraw promised in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, danger is in the air once again for Aardman Animation’s iconic inventor and his canine best friend.
I’m more than a little worried about Norbot, the new contraption they’ve created, as we’ve got some new details on this film thanks to Netflix. The studio has released not only a cool new clip, but also some further plot details on what Vengeance Most Fowl has in store for Wallace and Gromit.
As you can read in the description below, revenge is apparently programmable:
In this next installment, Gromit’s concern that Wallace is becoming too dependent on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a “smart” gnome, Norbot, that seems to develop a mind of its own. When it emerges that a vengeful figure from the past might be masterminding things, it falls to Gromit to battle sinister forces and save his master… or Wallace may never be able to invent again!
Is it just me, or is the new Wallace & Gromit adventure, their first film since 2005's Curse of the Were-Rabbit, starting to sound like a James Bond movie? I mean, that “vengeful figure” has to be Feathers McGraw: criminal mastermind, master of thievery, and penguin that sometimes masquerades as a rooster to hide his crimes. With a little over 30 years in the clink after 1993’s The Wrong Trousers, that’s plenty of time for someone to plot out their revenge.
Alas, since this frosty fiend isn't implicated by name in the text above, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. Perhaps directors Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham, as well as screenwriter Mark Burton, have decided that those decades in the cooler have put Feathers' more dastardly impulses on ice. Plus, could this Norbot, voiced by English comedian Reece Shearsmith, really be that much trouble?
Well before we get any deeper on that front, I’m going to let you be the judge of that very question. And I say that because in addition to this information, Netflix has revealed a clip of Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’s mechanised assistant; which you can watch below:
Folks, I think I’m with Gromit on this one. And I don't think anyone's going to question my reasons why too deeply. Especially after looking that Norbot in its beady little eyes, and beholding that uneasily wide smile. Maybe I've watched one too many of the best sci-fi movies involving robots; or perhaps my hype for Terminator Zero has me looking at technology a bit funny. Either way, I don't trust that Norbot; and i don't think you should either.
To send us out on a happier, less sinister note, Aardman has revealed the latest business hustle in the Wallace & Gromit world. The Academy Award-winning studio quickly teased today's reveal with a cryptic bit of footage shared to social media, and you can check out the latest company our stop-motion besties are going to be operating when we next see them:
Nostalgia and Aardman go together like Wensleydale cheese and Jacob's Cream Crackers. That much was proven through Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget's critical reaction, so when it comes to Vengeance Most Fowl as an actual film, I couldn't feel safer. Which probably means that any minute now, the real danger of Wallace & Gromit's next feature length film will present itself, only upping the ante to this long awaited legacy-quel. Now that's a danger I look forward to facing!
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl still doesn’t have a release date, only the promise that it’ll be available this Winter. So keep those Netflix subscriptions active, as we don’t know what the next update to the schedule of 2024 Netflix Movie and TV show release dates will bring. And if you want to dig into some further Aardman nostalgia, check out our vintage Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit review.
