Visited the set of Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Wallace and Gromit have been to the moon, caught a jewel thief in a high-speed train chase, escaped from a sheep prison, escaped a werewolf curse, and stopped a cereal killer. But now, with their latest adventure feature, they will face the most unexpected threat of all time: a sequel.

Or is it? Wallace and Gromit: Most Birds’ Revenge, as the title suggests, sees the return of Feathers McGraw, the criminal penguin from The wrong pants who used the eponymous steam-punk pantaloons to steal a prized diamond from the local museum, captured by Gromit and placed in the City Zoo. He’s back and ready to wreak havoc once again (the original title was Vengeance More Birdbut it was cut because the original was considered too absurd). Completing the villain, there is also a supporting character from Were-Rabbit and the motorcycle with sidecar A close shave plays a fundamental role.

After Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget brought back Mrs. Tweedy, it looks like Aardman is catching up with the show and revisiting its biggest antagonists. But as with anything from the Bristol titans of stop-motion animation, nothing is that simple. According to Nick Park, the story ended on the familiar wide-eyed face in a roundabout way:

“The basic idea was ‘what if Wallace invented a smartphone to help Gromit in the garden?’ I had been working on this for quite a while and then I realized we needed a little more darkness in the story – it was how to achieve that with this gnome. And it was like a bolt of lightning: Feathers, he could be behind this.”

Or, as co-director Merlin Crossingham said, “it was as if the story demanded it. It wasn’t premeditated.”

That thinking – creative freedom in an inherently time-consuming production approach – permeated ScreenRant’s visit to Aardman’s production studio over the summer to talk to the team about returning to the world of Wallace and Gromit films for a full-scale adventure after 16 years. Here’s what we learned…

How Wallace and Gromit: Most Birds’ Revenge came to be

An unexpected Wallace and Gromit film

So what is Vengeance More Bird?

It’s not a traditional Wallace and Gromit adventure without any precedent. The four shorts – list – aired on the BBC in the UK and lasted around 30 minutes each, while The Curse of the Were-Rabbit It was a theatrical feature film. The new film was originally conceived as a short in line with the others, but the scope has grown enormously.

It is also part of the current agreement between Aardman and Netflix, which has already yielded Chicken Race 2two Shawn the Sheep films and a charming short Robin Robin. After the film premieres on BBC One on Christmas Day in the UK, the film will be released on Netflix everywhere else in the world in early 2025. But as a concept, it came organically from Nick Park, after years of infiltration and rumors surrounding Aardman headquarters.

The return of the McGraw feathers

So onto the movie. THE the main plot focuses on Wallace as he becomes increasingly dependent on technology. This develops a gnome robot called Norbot. Typically, something goes wrong, crimes are committed, incorrect accusations are made, and through a series of dominoes, the bad chicken returns.

Feathers McGraw is the films’ most iconic character outside of the main duo and Shawn the Sheep, with cheeky cameos in Were-Rabbit and Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nuggetamong others, and many questions asked to the directors about their possible (and, now, eventual) return.

The penalties of Vengeance More Bird is one that is meticulously recognizable. The animation style was expanded while, as Park says, “keeping it in this constant line of not being too expressive.” His pinhead eyes were carefully selected from hundreds of black pins and each photo lit to give him what Crossingham describes as the “sparkle in his eyes” that transforms a simple puppet into a personification of malice.

Most Fowl Revenge Cast. Old and new

Wallace-Ben Whitehead

Wallace, originally voiced by Peter Sallis, who died in 2017, was taken over by Ben Whitehead. Whitehead, who served as Sallis’ effective replacement for nearly a decade in several spinoff projects, comes to prominence in Vengeance More Bird and, based on the footage ScreenRant has seen, it leaves a strange mark on the film.

Co-director Merlin Crossingham discussed the transition following Sallis’ death:

“For us, it’s nothing new. We have worked with Ben for a long time. It was a gentle handing over of the baton. It’s been a lovely way for him to get to know the character and for us to make it feel perfect.”

Chief Inspector Mackintosh – Peter Kay

The returning cast, surprisingly, is Peter Kay as Chief Inspector Mackintosh. Originally appearing as a local PC on Wallace and Gromit in The Rabbi’s Curset, Mackintosh has received a promotion and deals with the wave of robberies emerging across the city (alongside Lauren Patel’s Mukher Jee). By Nick Park, “There was always the idea of ​​having a police character. It was assumed that we wouldn’t be able to make Mack because Dreamworks owns part of the Were-Rabbit property.Once the character was unlocked, getting Kay was a matter of a “really dark letter” from the director to the comedian.

Norbot-Reese Shearsmith

Rounding out the main cast is Reece Shearsmith as the voice of Norbot. Another comedy icon from northern Britain (a gnome with a northern accent tickled Nick Park), it’s almost notable that Shearsmith, whose The League of Gentlemen and Inside No. 9 distorted British sensibilities in line with Wallace and Gromit (albeit with a much darker bent), has never crossed paths with Aardman before. In fact, it was these qualities that left Crossingham most impressed.

“He has a really fascinating blend in the voice he created. It’s a balance between innocence and a touch of darkness. And that comes from his own style of comedy. He really understands where you can go with a character. This ability to be dubious in one voice is really interesting.”

To stop! Technology on the move

The new technology that powers Wallace and Gromit

That’s it suitable for a story that comically confronts the dangers of technology that Vengeance More Bird presents the most advanced clay techniques. Although the company has avoided all-CGI features since 2011 Arthur NatalTraditional claymation has advanced by leaps and bounds from the process that led to A big day off It took 6 years to make, leading to an animation production that barely exceeded 12 months (for a film almost three times the length).

Gone are the days of plasticine models. Now, Characters are first sculpted in clay, then scanned and recreated in silicon “made to look like plasticine” (complete with finger stain imperfections) that is grafted onto a steel armature. Puppet master Frank Harper described them as a “model kit.” Mouths, eyes and other key areas need to be controlled by the artist, but the 180 dolls (30 for each of the two main characters and 700 hands for Norbot alone) made for the production follow this control logic.

The sets are lit using computer-controlled LED systems that can run in real time or synchronized with the animation. The models are on gimbals designed to provide them with movements that would be impossible with frame-by-frame models.

CG even appears, although the perceptibility varies. A scene where Gromit gets milk spilled on him by one of Wallace’s overzealous inventions crosses the line of reality, with CG milk spilling and clay on his face. The bubbles in Wallace’s bathtub, however, were real.

To create a scene showing a full army of Norbots, an entirely new stop-motion method had to be created to avoid resorting to digital models or obtuse animator timing. According to Crossingham:

“We didn’t have enough dolls. 5 wide by 12 deep, that’s a lot of Norbots. And then we were able to have us animate a line and then that line would be attached to the motion controls. We wanted everyone to march in sync. We animate the first row, it takes a frame on a composite blue screen, and then motion control moves it back to the second row, takes a frame, moves it back, takes a frame. And then in comparison, they are layered. And we had to do that because they were passing through the light, we couldn’t just do one and repeat.”

Don’t be fooled. Despite all the technological advances in the methodology that have existed for more than 50 years, this is still hard work, every aspect of every structure deliberated by multiple departments. That’s it “the best animation team we’ve ever had”According to Park, with film alumni returning to The wrong pants for those who grew up watching it. And the same challenges repeat themselves: lead animator Carmen Bromfield Mason said the film’s biggest challenge was keeping CI Mackintosh’s huge dome frowning; a surprisingly high betting balance:

“He moves his eyebrows and it’s very difficult to get the right shading. And it’s Peter Kay so when he talks, everything is [moving] all the time.”

Above all, everyone involved at Aardman was keen to point out that everything you see in Vengeance More Bird it is tactile. It’s real, it’s there, even if computer enhancements are needed. There’s no denying it Wallace and Gromit in its modern iterations (Were-Rabbit onwards) has a different feel to the original 1990s shorts, a result of greater scope and tools. However, the same care and respect remains throughout the entire process. Crossingham admits that there are changes in style, but what remains important is that “The world feels familiar and there is the same feeling in all of them. There are evolutions, subtleties. Our teams are more fulfilled. We ask more of them, they give us more.”

And, regarding the much talked about plasticine shortage that gained worldwide attention and prompted fans to send their own clay to the studio to keep production going, the modeling team had this to say:

“There was a lot of confusion. The supplier we had was retiring. We were looking for another supplier and this was disproportionate.”