Stop motion is hard. It is brutal, tedious, and honestly, a bit insane. When Nick Park and Steve Box decided to bring their beloved plasticine duo to the big screen in Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, they weren't just making a movie; they were staging a technical rebellion against the rising tide of CGI. Released in 2005, this film remains a masterclass in how to scale up a "small" idea without losing the soul of the thumbprints on the clay.
It won an Oscar. It beat Howl's Moving Castle and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. People forget how big of a deal that was at the time.
Most fans know Wallace as the cheese-obsessed inventor and Gromit as the long-suffering, silent canine genius. But The Curse of the Were-Rabbit pushed them into a parody of Hammer Horror films that somehow felt cozy and terrifying all at once. It’s a veggie-centric thriller. Basically, the stakes are just giant prize-winning carrots, yet the tension is real.
The Giant Rabbit in the Room: Why This Movie Worked
The plot is deceptively simple. The annual Giant Vegetable Competition is approaching in the duo’s quintessential English village. Wallace and Gromit have started "Anti-Pesto," a humane pest-control business. They catch rabbits using the "Bun-Vac 6000." Things go sideways when Wallace tries to brainwash the rabbits into hating veggies using his Mind Manipulation-O-Matic. Instead, he creates a massive, fluff-covered monster.
What people usually get wrong is thinking this was just a kids' movie. It’s a love letter to the 1930s and 40s cinema. You have Lord Victor Quartermaine, voiced by a deliciously arrogant Ralph Fiennes, who represents the old-school, bloodthirsty hunter. Then you have Lady Tottington, voiced by Helena Bonham Carter, who is the eccentric, progressive heart of the story.
The humor is layered. There’s the slapstick for the kids—rabbits getting sucked through tubes—and then there’s the dry, British wit for the adults. Take the moment where the local priest, Reverend Hedges, explains the monster’s weaknesses. It’s pure gothic melodrama played for laughs.
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The Aardman Magic and the Fire of 2005
Production was a nightmare. Aardman Animations, the studio behind the film, famously suffered a devastating warehouse fire in October 2005, just as the movie was hitting theaters. While the Were-Rabbit sets were mostly safe because they were being used or touring, the fire destroyed the history of the studio, including the original sets for Chicken Run and A Grand Day Out. It adds a layer of bittersweet history to the film. You’re looking at a craft that is physically fragile.
Every second of footage required 24 individual frames. If a character moved an inch, an animator had to manually adjust the clay. You can literally see the fingerprints of the creators in certain shots if you look closely enough. That’s not a mistake. It’s a "feature" of stop-motion that makes it feel human.
Technical Feats That No One Mentions
The "Were-Rabbit" itself was a massive challenge. Making something look "fluffy" in stop motion is a recipe for a headache because if an animator touches the fur, it creates "boiling"—a weird flickering effect where the fur looks like it’s vibrating. The team had to develop specific techniques to handle the fur of the beast while keeping the movement fluid.
- The Mind Manipulation-O-Matic sequence involved complex lighting that usually requires digital effects, but they did much of it practically.
- Water is notoriously difficult in stop motion; they used various resins and glass to mimic the look of liquids.
- The sheer scale of the vegetable patches meant building hundreds of individual, hand-painted "giant" vegetables.
Honestly, the "Dogfight" scene at the end is probably the best action sequence in any animated film of the 2000s. It’s a biplane chase involving coin-operated rides. It’s fast, it’s funny, and the timing is frame-perfect.
The Voice Behind the Cheese
Peter Sallis is Wallace. He had been voicing the character since the 1980s. By the time they did The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Sallis was in his 80s. There’s a warmth in his delivery that is impossible to replicate. When he says "Cracking toast, Gromit," it feels like home. Sadly, Sallis passed away in 2017, making this film his only feature-length outing as the character. It stands as his crowning achievement in the role.
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Ben Whitehead eventually took over the mantle, but the DNA of the character is 100% Sallis. The way Wallace’s mouth moves—that wide, toothy grin—was actually designed to match the way Sallis spoke.
Why We Still Care Two Decades Later
In an era where every major animated film looks like it was rendered on the same three computers, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit feels tactile. You want to reach out and touch the grass. You want to eat the cheese (even if it’s just clay).
It also deals with themes that aren't usually in "kids' movies." It’s about the ethics of pest control, the class divide between the "landed gentry" and the villagers, and the consequences of trying to fix nature with technology. Wallace is the quintessential "modern man" who thinks a gadget can solve everything, while Gromit is the silent observer who knows better.
The film doesn't preach. It just shows you a dog piloting a plane while a giant rabbit eats a prize marrow. It’s absurdism at its finest.
Misconceptions About the Production
Some folks think DreamWorks (who co-produced it) forced Aardman to "Americanize" the film. There was some friction. DreamWorks reportedly wanted Lady Tottington to have a more "Hollywood" look, but Nick Park stood his ground. He wanted that chunky, round-nosed, quintessentially British aesthetic. The result is a film that feels universal precisely because it is so specific to its setting in Northern England.
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Also, despite the "big" feel of the movie, the crew was relatively small compared to a Pixar production. It was a boutique operation. They were producing about 3 seconds of usable film per week. Think about that. Three seconds. That requires a level of patience that doesn't exist in most of the film industry today.
Looking Forward: The Legacy of the Rabbit
If you haven't watched it recently, do it. It holds up better than almost any CGI film from 2005. The textures are real because they were real. The "Curse" isn't just a plot point; it's a metaphor for Wallace's own bumbling nature. He’s always his own worst enemy, and Gromit is always the unsung hero.
With a new Wallace and Gromit film finally on the horizon for 2024/2025 (Vengeance Most Fowl), looking back at the Were-Rabbit is essential. It’s the bridge between the short films and the global stage. It proved that you can take a 30-minute concept and make it sustain 85 minutes of high-octane comedy without losing the charm.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Collectors
- Check the 4K Restorations: If you're still watching this on an old DVD, stop. The Blu-ray and subsequent digital 4K transfers reveal textures in the clay and details in the background (like the pun-heavy labels on the bookshelves) that were invisible on standard definition.
- Study the "Making Of": For any aspiring animator, the behind-the-scenes footage for this film is a textbook. It shows how they used "replacement mouths" and "armatures" (metal skeletons) to keep the characters consistent.
- Visit the Exhibits: Aardman often tours their sets. Seeing the actual Lady Tottington garden in person is a reminder of the scale—everything is much smaller than it looks on screen, which makes the detail even more impressive.
- Support Physical Media: Given the fire in 2005 and the precarious nature of streaming licenses, owning a physical copy of Aardman's work is the only way to ensure these hand-crafted masterpieces don't disappear into a digital "vault."
The film is a reminder that the best stories don't need the most pixels; they just need a little bit of heart and a lot of plasticine.