ANI-MOVIES, *Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

After 31 years, Feathers McGraw finally returns in this second full-length Wallace And Gromit stop-motion animated movie. Acting as the sixth film in the franchise, Vengeance Most Fowl has Nick Park's eccentric inventor and his faithful canine companion in their latest escapade. Since the last movie was 16 years ago, longtime fans of Aardman Animations were given a serious treat since first watching the cartoon duo's debut in 1989. The art of claymation is still alive and kicking in the newest chapter of the international hit.

Wallace owes a bunch of money to collectors for all his crackpot creations, so the fully automated robot gnome he made called Norbot to help Gromit in their garden gets the attention of the neighbors to hire Norbot out for lawn maintenance. The criminal penguin Feathers McGraw is still imprisioned in the nearby zoo, but manages to hack into Norbot's system to create an entire army of mechanical gnomes that he secretly plans to use for his jailbreak and get back the diamond he first stole in The Wrong Trousers. Wallace gets the blame for all of the burglaries that have hit the small English town, so he and Gromit get into an even greater chase sequence to stop Feathers and his army of clockworks along with his submarine which of course has an organ in it like the Nautilus.

Vengeance Most Foul is a complete return to form from this long overdue sequel. Not since The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit has Aardman had a feature film as up to specs as this one. The gags are corny but so welcome, the animation is fluid and Nick Park is free to do this without production notes from DreamWorks, and the voice acting is cracking with Ben Whitehead being a fine replacement for Peter Sallis as the original Wallace. You will be surprised at how splendidly Aardman bounced back after their Chicken Run follow up didn't fly as high as they wanted to. This is something for the entire family to enjoy for generations to come and a new standard classic.