Wallace & Gromit Directors on How "Vengeance Most Fowl" Became their First True Sequel
Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham on the creation of the new Wallace & Gromit movie.
As Wallace & Gromit celebrate their 35th anniversary this year, the beloved stop-motion animated duo are back in their second feature film, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, which will be released in limited release in theaters this week before debuting on Netflix on January 3. I spoke to Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park and his co-director on Vengeance Most Fowl, Merlin Crossingham, about the film and how it’s changing things up a bit for the long-running franchise.
Wallace & Gromit made their introduction in Park’s 1989 Academy Award-nominated animated short, A Grand Day Out. Since then, they’ve starred in three more acclaimed shorts and a hit feature film (2004’s Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl), along with many other appearances in advertisements and more - not to mention spawning the Shaun the Sheep spinoff along the way. The series has also garnered three Oscars so far, one for Curse of the Were-Rabbit as Best Animated Feature, plus for the shorts The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave.
Vengeance Most Fowl though sees Wallace & Gromit moving into uncharted territory - a legitimate sequel! Whereas their previous adventures were all very self-contained, the new movie directly picks up from past events, as the nefarious Feathers McGraw returns seeking revenge. Feathers was the oh-so evil penguin introduced in 1993’s The Wrong Trousers, which is a favorite among many Wallace & Gromit fans.
Park and Crossingham — who’s been a key part of the Wallace & Gromit team for more than 20 years now — spoke to me about the decision to bring back Feathers McGraw and how they give so much life to a character with so little visible emotion. We also chatted about the challenges of stop-motion animation, including creating Wallace’s many inventions, and why the fact that it’s impossible to make Wallace & Gromit quickly helps to keep the characters feeling special when they do return.
Said Park, about the love fans continue to have for Wallace & Gromit, “I have to pinch myself to think it's happening. You know, A Grand Day Out was the film I made at college. It's a college film that Aardman [animation studio] helped me to finish and and to think that people are reacting... It's had time to absorb into culture, and it's incredible to just feel people's excitement.”
You can check out the full interview below:
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl will have a limited theatrical release in the US on December 18 before debuting on BBC One in the UK on December 25 and then outside the UK on Netflix beginning January 3, 2025.