Clay Time: WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL

Behold the return of one of cinema’s greatest villains: Feathers McGraw. He’s a Penguin Most Wanted disguised as a rooster through the placement of a red rubber glove on his head. His last dastardly scheme was thwarted by the bumbling British inventor Wallace and his trusty, capable canine Gromit in Aardman’s claymation classic short The Wrong Trousers in 1993. He’s spent that last three decades imprisoned in a zoo, but at long last he shall have his revenge. It’s Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, a most pleasing return to the world of these characters—a quaint English droll wit in a cute, squishy model-village design. Nick Park’s perfect cartoon creations remain lovable leads: a tall, toothy, accident-prone dope and a silent, expressive little dog. They’re as classic as any cartoons of the last half century. They’re memorable in their looks—squishy, doughy, with incredible nuance in their eye rolls and blinks—screwy inventions, a love of cheese, tea, toasts, sweater vests, classic literature, and accidentally solving complicated problems with fortuitous Rube Goldberg plotting. Then there’s the soothing sounds of their accents in dialogue with puns that go down easy, and a design that’s squishy and tactile and loaded with sly visual gags.

It’s a treat to be in their presence again. Then add in the deviously silly villainy of their greatest foe. McGraw’s a mute match for the plucky Gromit, and here sets out to turn Wallace’s newest inventions against him. The man’s made a small army of Smart Gnomes, autonomous gardening robots. Convenient when taking the lawn tools to mow the grass and trim the hedges. Quite dangerous when they turn those tools on the townsfolk. It’s a fine feat of complications for a slight, lighter-than-air story, where the entire delight is in the feel and familiarity of the film. It has all of the whimsy and energy of their early classic shorts, and, while never quite matching the zany Buster Keaton-in-miniature zip of Trousers’ model-train action climax, manages to find enough robots and boats and boot-launchers to keep the adventure moving like clockwork. There’s nothing quite like an Aardman movie, with bright and colorful design that feels like it’d squish pleasingly under your touch, embodied in the fingerprints rippling across the clay and the figure’s motions with a light touch and a chunky solidity.  And then the charming characters plunge headlong into whimsical conflicts solved through pluck and luck. It’s irresistible.