Vengeance Most Fowl can’t beat the wrong pants chase scene – and it doesn’t need to

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a rare turn for the venerable British animated series in that, unlike past entries that have largely involved introducing new supporting characters and entirely separate stories, it’s the first to really engage with Wallace and Gromitthe textual past. Beyond the reintroduction of Wrong pants” Feathers McGraw, the film is, sometimes to its detriment, in a resonant conversation with what came before – which means that when it comes to its climactic chase sequence, you can’t help but draw what could have been an enviable comparison between the new film and what came before.

Especially since what came before is arguably one of the greatest chase sequences ever committed to screens, small or otherwise. The wrong pants‘ final chase – in which Wallace and Gromit chase Feathers and the diamond, the nefarious penguin/chicken/criminal mastermind has stolen on a model train system that the main duo built around their house to transport mail and other things around – is a master class in economic action. and comedy that is still loved more than 30 years after its first broadcast. The score, the cinematography, the sense of speed, the willingness to accept the absurdity of it all because both the characters and the film are all well committed to the bit, the technical marvel of animation of all this with stop motion model techniques: it is simply perfect, and timeless in its large, but intimate, sense of scale and its mastery of the craft.

So when Vengeance Most Fowllike all goods Wallace and Gromit Stories do, they end with a chase – and it’s a chase between Wallace, Gromit and Feathers McGraw – you’re already setting yourself up for a losing prospect. Maybe it doesn’t matter what directors Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham have up their sleeves covered in clay for Revenge it was never able to match what came before. Too similar, and like some elements of the film already, it becomes more of an echo of past glories rather than something that stands on its own. Too different – maybe, even afraid bigtoo enamored with spectacle and the idea of ​​quantity over quality – and ventures into the prospect of always appearing as second fiddle to a masterful chase sequence, no matter how good it is.

It’s for the best then Vengeance Most Fowlthe climax has its cake and eats it too. The film builds to a final chase as Feathers – having transformed Wallace’s latest invention, an army of clever garden gnomes “Norbot”.against him and arrested both the master, the dog, and the original Norbot – he escapes with the legendary Blue Diamond he had tried to steal all those years ago, setting off a final action setpiece that sees Wallace, Gromit and Norbot pursue first. by car (well, from an office desk chair following a car), and then by canal boat. Already, there are amusing parallels The wrong pants here: the two pursuits begin similarly, even with similar conversations as Wallace and Feathers confront each other. There’s the contrast between an absurdly high-speed train chase and painfully slow canal boats. where Wrong pants taste in the glory of his hunt, Vengeance Most Fowl luxuriates (the full sequence is about eight minutes to the final faceoff, compared to Wrong pantsclocks in less than three minutes). The former is a largely dialogue-free scene (leaning on Julian Nott’s sublime soundtrack to set that breezy pace), save for Wallace’s occasional interjections, while the latter is far chattier and more playful.

And yes, it is is it bigger. There are setpieces within the setpiece, jokes within jokes. Vengeance Most Fowlthe pursuit has the space and breadth to originate and fall at its own pace, it has the chance to breathe compared to Wrong pants‘flashy step in turn. But in that larger purpose, Vengeance Most FowlThe chase sequence of the addition adds something beyond that “bigger is better” growth: a genuine emotional heart that Wrong pants‘Chase just doesn’t have time to ruminate. U Wrong pants the chase is pure action: Wallace and Gromit have to stop Feathers, so they give chase and arrest him. Vengeance Most FowlThe film’s chase sets it up for a climatic resolution to the emotional dissonance that has grown between the duo in the rest of the film, as Wallace’s fixation on invention has left Gromit feeling distant from his best friend.

He does so, in part, through gags—Gromit acquiesces to Wallace’s love of invention so he can Macgyver up a makeshift boot-ballista that he uses to disable Feathers’ Norbot army midway, and police officers following the two parties are temporarily put on guard by Feathers who quickly change into a practical habit of a nun as a disguise (“she’s just an innocent nun, out for a pleasure cruise”, he says Peter Kay’s Mackintosh PCa perfect line of dialogue). But it also becomes a moment where Wallace and Gromit realize how much they still really care about each other, and how far each of them are willing to go to make sure the other is safe, even more than to stop Feathers from framing them both. All of this pays off in the final moments, when Wallace is willing to let go of the blame for Feathers’ crimes if it means saving Gromit from impending doom, but that moment of emotional catharsis is sustained throughout the chase sequence before.

It is this additional layer that makes it Vengeance Most Fowlclick the climax, and sit next to it Wrong pants‘ all-timer one at a time. For a film that sometimes fights in its desire to mirror and be in conversation with Wallace and GromitThe past, is a moment that makes a clear case for the strength that finds to build on the greatness that came before.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is now streaming on Netflix.

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