We caught a bit of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit on TV a couple of weeks ago, so what better reason for revisiting it on DVD this weekend? I’ve also not seen it since it came out in the cinema, and back then I was a little under whelmed by it, so it needed revisiting (I seem to be doing that a bit lately, what with seeing Avenue Q again and re-reading The Eyre Affair).
I have to say that as much as I love Wallace & Gromit, and as technically perfect and astounding as the animation and direction in Were-Rabbit is, I still find the story and the humour a little lacking. Maybe the humour just works better in a half hour chunk, but that’s a dubious claim when Flushed Away turned out to be hilarious. There just aren’t as many laughs per minute as Wrong Trousers or A Close Shave. The story is good, but the bad dog character is too reminiscent of Preston in Shave, and the cute Hutch character (the rabbit who turns into Wallace) is underused and not as memorable as Shawn or Feathers McGraw. Despite good voice-work from Helena Bonham-Carter, Lady Tottington is not as endearing as Wendolene (voiced by Anne Reid).
After these grumbles you’d think I didn’t enjoy the film! I did though, it’s still miles better than a lot of animated movies, with genuine laugh out loud comedy (I particularly liked PC Mac – great name – and his Peter Kay voiced line about ‘arson, people arsin’ about’) and, as I’ve said once and worth repeating, the animation is flawless. And there’s nothing wrong with the plot, it’s a lot of fun, and it’s great spotting the riffs on films like American Werewolf in London, and all the little in-jokes on the signage around the much-expanded set. The end felt a bit like the movie Van Helsing, as Wallace was absent, replaced by his giant Were-Rabbit persona, as in the former movie Hugh Jackman is replaced by a speechless CGI monster. Always an odd move to cut down your lead character/actor’s screen time.
So, aside from the less-than-memorable characters, the low joke-rate and the missing Wallace… I really liked Curse of the Were-Rabbit! There’s so much to marvel at, and Gromit is a wonderful character, there’s so much charm and humour in his mute visage. Last Christmas’ A Matter of Loaf & Death brought the traditional half hour format back successfully, although The Wrong Trousers has yet to be bettered, as close as A Close Shave gets.
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