Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham on the ‘film noir’ influences of the ‘cinematic’ movie ‘Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’

“We’re waiting for the idea usually, the idea that really has legs and that has great potential and humor and comedy and drama,” shares Nick Park about how he decides when it is the right time to revisit the world of “Wallace and Gromit.” The creator, writer, and director has previously done five “Wallace and Gromit” short films, one feature, and other project, and returns now with the new feature “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.” While he has been “kicking around” the idea for this film for a while, the original notion was “lacking” until he came up with a “sinister motive” for the story and decided to bring back villain Feathers McGraw from the Oscar-winning short “The Wrong Trousers” from 1993. Watch the complete video interview above,

Park came up with the story of “Vengeance Most Fowl,” and he co-directs the feature with Merlin Crossingham, who himself has spent decades working on “Wallace and Gromit” projects. “What a feature film allows you to do is to dig deeper into all the places where in a smaller project you could only skim,” reflects the director. He says that in the new film, he and Park “pushed” the relationship between the title inventor and his beloved dog “a little more than we ever have before.” He calls “Vengeance Most Fowl” “bigger,” “more expansive,” and “a bit more cinematic.”

In the new movie, Wallace invents a new robotic gnome called Norbot to help Gromit with his gardening; however, their nemesis Feathers McGraw interferes with Wallace’s latest invention because he is dead-set on avenging his arrest for the theft of the blue diamond that took place in “The Wrong Trousers.” The film boasts the trademark style of Aardman Animations, a company where in the words of Crossingham, everyone has “always relished being pushed” to see just how ambitious and cutting edge they can be, even though “the core technique is exactly the same as it ever was.”

WATCH ‘Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ thrills at AFI Fest premiere

Park and Crossingham drew inspiration for “Vengeance Most Fowl” from “film noir,” especially the darker elements of the story related to Feathers McGraw. Crossingham cites “Rebecca” in particular, noting how the character Mrs. Danvers “glides out of the shadows and how she gaslights.” It also informed how they used “lighting as a character.” He and Park cite other movies including “Cape Fear” and “Village of the Damned” as inspirations, the latter for how the hoard of Norbots in the film go “walking the streets” just like the kids in the film “are possessed by an alien force and they stop and turn in very deliberate ways.” They also mention “little nods” to “Aliens” and “The Italian Job.”

As Wallace and Gromit attempt to unravel Feathers’ plot, the film includes many delightful action sequences, including car chases and even a boat chase in a canal. The painstaking process of creating these sequences begins with sketches and storyboards, says Park. Beyond using these tools to figure our “camera angles,” he says it helps them find the pacing of “who’s winning… You set up an expectation and you undercut it.” “It’s a beast,” adds Crossingham. He reveals that he and Park divided up the directorial work on acts one and two, and the climatic act three “was itself divided into almost alternate sequences.” The effort required a lot of “choreographing” between the co-directors because “animation is so time consuming.”

Park won three of his four Academy Awards for “Wallace and Gromit” films, two in the animated short category for “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave” and one for animated feature film for “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.” Looking back on those Oscar ceremonies, he recalls that once you win, “Suddenly, you’re in the middle of Hollywood meeting every famous person you’ve ever seen or heard of.” The “funniest” story he has to share of the Oscars occurred at his first ceremony in 1991, when he was nominated for his first “Wallace and Gromit” short, “A Grand Day Out,” as well as the short “Creature Comforts,” and he won for the latter. He remembers, “My biggest problem was I was afraid if I did win, I would thank the wrong set of people,” adding with a chuckle, “It’s a nice problem to have.” “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” streams on Netflix on January 3.

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