- Wallace & Gromit are returning in a new adventure this Christmas
- Aardman has teased that an iconic villain from the earlier films is returning
- Wallace will also find trouble with one of his inventions – again
Cracking news – beloved plasticine duo Wallace & Gromit will be back in a new 70-minute film later this year – and will come up against a familiar foe.
The new feature, which will be out in time for Christmas, is titled Vengeance Most Fowl and sees the return of the evil penguin Feathers McGraw.
Back for revenge
McGraw was last seen in 1993 short film The Wrong Trousers. He seemed innocent enough when he rented a room at Wallace’s house but turned out to be a supervillain who wanted to steal a valuable diamond – and use Wallace’s techno trousers to do it. But the dynamic duo realised what he was up to and foiled his plan.
Since then, McGraw has been behind bars – but now he’s out and he wants vengeance on those who put him in prison.
But McGraw isn’t the only problem. Gromit is concerned that Wallace is becoming over-dependent on his inventions, and these seem to be realised when one of his creations, a ‘smart gnome’, seems to develop an evil mind of its own. Or is something – or somebody – behind it all. As events spiral, can the duo work out what is going on before disaster strikes?
Gnome Noir
Nick Park, the creator of Wallace & Gromit and director of Vengeance Most Fowl, explained more about the genesis of the plot. “I’d had the idea of a film about garden gnomes turning bad for more than a decade, but I could never work out what makes them bad,” he said. “It occurred to me that the single most asked question I get when I meet fans is, will… Feathers McGraw… ever return? We’ve had fun bringing him back in cameo capacities but now, three decades on, it felt like the right time. Then it hit me: what if Feathers was involved with these gnomes? We’re hoping that this film will appeal to fans of ‘Gnome Noir’ everywhere and that people will be gratified when they see what Feathers has been up to since The Wrong Trousers.”
In the new feature Ben Whitehead takes over as the voice actor for Wallace. Since the duo’s last outing, Peter Sallis, the veteran actor who had voiced Wallace from the start, has passed away. Whitehead has long worked with Aardman, lending his voice talents in films such as Early Man, as well as various Wallace & Gromit projects.
