Let's Go Somewhere Where There's Cheese

If you dont know Wallace and Gromit, the brilliant creation of Aardman Studios, you should start with the original 3 short films produced in the '90's by these geniuses, The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave, and, uh, the other one. I'm pretty sure they're on DVD at Amazon. Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the new W&G feature film, is very good, though not as good as the original trilogy of short films (two of which won Oscars). Also, despite its apparently kid-friendly ad campaign, there's a lot here that kids will simply not get. W&G has always been a gentle satire of the British by the British that is probably more subtle than American youngsters will be prepared for. But Were-Rabbit still has many charms for all ages, with gentle chuckling humor and tremendous leaps forward in clay animation, almost a lost art. It is definitely an improvement from Aardman's Chicken Run, which appeared to suffer from too much studio involvement; Were-Rabbit seems pure Aardman if a bit diluted, but if this is successful enough to warrant a sequel, I would hope this would give the animators enough confidence with their great comedy team of cheery, dumb Wallace and brilliant, frustrated Gromit to stretch out a bit on the next one. All in all, a fine outing, with nice and blessedly unobtrusive voicings from Helena Bonham Carter (last month's Corpse Bride) and Ralph Fiennes (next month's Harry Potter).