The Screenplay Cries Fowl in "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl"

Wallace & Gromit are one of cinema's most likable duos. Beyond zany, colorful adventures, Gromit is the kind of dog we would all like to have—one who sticks by his owner's side, even when that owner is aloof and obtuse about how one-sided the relationship can sometimes be. Though mostly providing entertainment in a series of short films (most of which have won Academy Awards), they did star in at least one movie that showed the pair were genuine movie stars in their own right. Now (courtesy of Netflix), the duo is starring in their second feature, “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.” Beyond being a highly anticipated follow-up to their previous film, it also serves as a sequel to one of their best shorts.

The short in question was “The Wrong Trousers,” and it featured their most dangerous foe in all their adventures: a penguin with a chicken complex named Feathers McGraw. McGraw wanted to steal a rare blue diamond, but the duo foiled his plans and sent him to the zoo. Now, years later, McGraw is planning to steal the diamond again. This time he also wants revenge on the two who sent him to the zoo and plans to frame them by hacking into Wallace's new invention: a gnome designed to help Gromit take care of the garden. Turns out the robot can do quite a few things, and Wallace may finally be able to make money by renting his invention out.

However, for reasons that I can only explain away as a “Wallace moment,” Wallace programmed the robot so that there is an “evil” setting in the gnome, and it is this programming oversight that Feathers McGraw exploits (and tech companies wonder why people are concerned about the advancement of AI). All of this is what you would typically expect from a Wallace & Gromit storyline. The issue (at least as far as I see it) is that this isn't just another special: it is a movie that requires double the viewer's time. For something being billed as a movie, the story seems too thin to warrant the runtime. You know a film is in trouble when the script needs to throw in the career ambitions of a policewoman who has no connection to the main characters for most of the film just to stretch out the screenplay.

If this had been an hour-long TV special with roughly 20% of the fat trimmed, it likely would have been much more entertaining. Instead, it felt like my time wasn't being respected very much. To be fair, I saw “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” in a movie theater—a place where many of you likely won't. In England, the movie premiered on the BBC television network, and Netflix is doing the most basic theatrical release for Oscar consideration in the States. Still, the fact that the project feels so small compared to many of their other adventures while being more than double in length seems counterintuitive. When the adventure was done, it felt like very little had been accomplished, and the fact that it even leaves itself open for potential sequels was more frustrating than anything. Crikey, Gromit, this was disappointing.