Extras:
Deleted Scenes, The History of Wallace & Gromit, Behind The Scenes of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse
Of The Were Rabbit, A Day in the Life of Aardman, How to Build a Bunny, The Family Album, Previews,
DWK, The Making of the Were-Rabbit, Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions, The Amazing World of
Wallace & Gromit, Stage Fright, Cracking commentary
Directors:
Nick Park & Steve Box
(Chicken Run, Stage Fright, Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out, Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers, Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were Rabbit, TV: Creature Comforts)
Producers:
Claire Jennings, Peter Lord, Nick Park, Carla Shelley & David Sproxton
Screenplay:
Bob Baker, Steve Box & Mark Burton
Music:
Julian Nott
Cast:
Wallace: Peter Sallis
Victor Quartermaine: Ralph Fiennes
Lady Campanula Tottington: Helena Bonham Carter
PC Mackintosh: Peter Kay
Rev. Clement Hedges: Nicholas Smith
Mrs Mulch: Liz Smith
Mr Windfall: John Thomson
Miss Blight: Mark Gatiss
Miss Thripp: Geraldine McEwan
Gromit: Himself
Anyone purchasing this DVD will be well aware of Wallace & Gromit
and they'll be in for a terrific treat without a doubt.
As Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were Rabbit begins and strange noises go bump
in the night in a 1950s-style street, a policeman (PC Mackintosh - Peter Kay) walks the beat - a rare sight on any modern-day street
at that time of night when they'd more likely be back drinking tea in the station - that's if it was
actually a 24-hour one and not a part-timer with shorter opening hours than a post office, but I digress.
There's a crisis in the world that inhabits our favourite inventor and his canine companion - there's
just a few days to go before Tottington Hall's Giant Vegetable Competition, hosted by Lady Campanula
Tottington herself (Helena Bonham Carter) - the object of desire for this movie's sort-of baddie
Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes), but despite everyone's best efforts at security
rabbits are eating the prize-winning produce while their backs are turned and Wallace & Gromit are
called upon under the company name of Anti-Pesto to save the town's veg.
Wallace's great plan to solve this dilemma is to store all the offending creatures is with his latest
creation, the Bunvac 6000 (right), an oversized vacuum cleaner which also stores them inside until he can
take them home later to keep them under lock and key (has he spent too much time watching
Ghostbusters?
He then decides to use another invention on them, the Mind-manipulation-otronic, by blending that with
the Bunvac 6000 in a way that he can convince the rabbits that eating everyone's veg is a bad idea.
However, when they're mixed together the inadvertent result is the creation of a Were-Rabbit, which they
then have to put extra resources into catching it, starting with a model of a giant lady rabbit stuck
on top of their car and controlled by unsung hero Gromit.
The film also features the cheese "Stinking Bishop" which is only made by one company in the whole of the
UK, and even though they had a massive increase in orders following this film's release they have
no plans to increase production, which stands at 22 tons per year, because the extra revenue doesn't
interest the owner and he's quite happy doing things the way he does them, particularly since demand
would tale back to normal once the film had come and gone. And that said, this type of cheese only comes
up at the end of the movie so I'm surprised there was such a fuss made about it at the time of the cinema
release.
There are lots of sight-gags, such as the name of the fridge ('SMUG' instead of the brand-name 'SMEG'),
a jar of preserves on the kitchen table called "Middle Age Spread" just as Wallace gets stuck
getting out of bed - with Gromit keeping his eyes on the jar and book titles on Wallace's shelf such
as "Brie Encounter" and "East of Edam".
Make no mistake - Wallace & Gromit are loveable from the off in this, their feature-film debut.
It may have a couple of big names in there - a consolation to the Hollywood types who wanted someone
well-known to voice Wallace for the American market (the heathens!) - but it's the construction which
wins all. It's got fantastic writing and animation - both of which made this a sure-fire 10/10 hit, a
great King Kong spoof and a bit of innuendo - the kind that adults will appreciate but which will go
over the heads of kids watching here.
Picture-wise, the film is presented in the original ratio of 1.85:1 and is anamorphic. All the creations
are hand-made plasticine and while the end result was put into a computer, this was only to add some CGI
effects and not to animate W&G in the way most other animated films are made these days. The image is
crystal clear, is brimming with colour and has no defects whatsoever.
The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is perfectly fine throughout, with brilliant use of stereo rear
speakers in the shooting range at the Vegetable competition, as bullets shoot from right to left, but
this was the only real action sonic moment that made me sit up. That's not to say there are any problems,
since there aren't and what's there is perfectly fine, but there's nothing else that stands out so much.
It's a shame there was no DTS soundtrack though as one was certainly made for the cinema release and
would've sounded even better.
The picture is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and looks fantastic, but very occasionally there's
a slight stutter in the picture, but it's something that wouldn't be noticed by the vast majority of the
public. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is a treat throughout and complements the onscreen action as the zombies
groan out of every speaker.
There's stacks of extras on this 2-disc set, with all movie footage in 16:9 letterbox, except where stated:
Deleted Scenes (13:13):
There are 9 here, all available with additional commentary and in letterbox 16:9,
starting with an alternative opening and moving throughout the film including songs and
two alternate endings, both cartoon-drawn with Wallace voice by Nick Park.
The History of Wallace & Gromit (20:23):
Or "How Wallace & Gromit Went To Hollywood" as the title within calls it. We get to see how
the inventiveness (pun not intended) of the characters began and track their progress
through the three short films, also taking in the Creature Comforts shorts. Interview snippets
throughout are included, right up to the present day with the latest film and the fire that
destroyed the Bristol animation studio.
At just over 20 mins in length, though, it's a cardinal sin to only have one chapter throughout.
Behind The Scenes of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were Rabbit (13:02):
Another generic making-of with all the usual trimmings, this time made by the US market given
the voiceover.
A Day in the Life of Aardman (8:25 mins):
This and the remainder of disc 1's extras are presented in 16:9 anamorphic. It's largely a tour
round the huge studio seeing the sets and how the staff all work together.
How to Build a Bunny (3:31):
Harriet Thomas, the model-making team leader does what it says on the tin.
The Family Album:
A modest selection of images covering signs, storyboards, Wallace & Gromit's Photo Album
and Behind the Scenes.
Previews:
Aka trailers, all in varying ratios. These are DVD trailers for Madagascar, Shrek 2, Nanny McPhee
and Shark Tale (well, someone's got to buy it). There's also one for the Wallace & Gromit
Interactive DVD game.
DWK:
Aka "Dreamworks Kids" - or several little interactive games which are largely simple activities one
of which requires you to push a numbered button on the remote to catch the rabbit that's just popped up
from under the ground at the Mulches' house in one of 9 positions. However, I played this on an Xbox
and it just thought I was selecting another chapter. Perhaps it works fine on a standard DVD player
but it'll only keep undemanding youngsters amused for any reasonable length of time. There's also
additional DVD-ROM features for PC users.
The Making of the Were-Rabbit (9:45):
Now we move onto disc 2, it looks like you can never have enough making-of featurettes, this one
concentrating on the film's raison d'être.
Wallace & Gromit's Cracking Contraptions (23:49):
Ten short films which came out in 2002 and were available for download (the first one free, the rest
under subscription) or on a separate DVD. I'm sure these were also shown at random times over that Xmas
on BBC1 & 2, but as they weren't signposted in the Radio Times I only managed to catch one or two.
These include Wallace cheating at football with a Soccamatic,
badly trying to change the TV channel in The Tellyscope and avoids the kitchen when he creates
an Autochef.
He cures his sleeping problems with the Snoozatron, uses the Turbo Diner to do the washing-up
- sort-of - before preparing dinner, takes preventative security measures by creating The Bully Proof
Vest and does the crumb-cleaning up with The 525 Crackervac.
A Christmas Cardomatic is a more successful venture for Wallace... until the twist at the end,
The Snowmanotron does what's required to a degree but does nothing for Gromit's efforts and, finally,
Shopper 13 knocks online groceries into a cocked hat when a large Edam is called for.
The Amazing World of Wallace & Gromit (15:05 mins):
A featurette from 1999 as our two heroes have their picture taken for the cover of a magazine. A lot of it
is things we've seen before on this DVD but it's great to have it for completeness.
Stage Fright (11:06):
A short film from 1997 about a vaudevillian dog-juggling act, with voices by Tess Daulton and
Graham Fellows (aka John Shuttleworth).
Cracking commentary:
Featuring director/writer duo Nick Park & Steve Box.
So, some great extras above, running for about an hour and a half barring the commentary. I know some
DVDs run for hours and hours and hours, but it's better to keep it to this length and keep them relevant
rather than repeat the same kind of thing again and again and again, although there are some times where
the making-ofs overlap a bit.
However, it's a big no-no to see a couple of pre-opening menu trailers (Over the Hedge and
Flushed Away) because these belong in the main trailers section and should not be trying to
emulate the old behaviour of rental video tapes.
Basic subtitles are in English only, there's 16 chapters to the film, which is enough for something
lasting 75 minutes before the closing credits kick in and the menus feature brief bits of motion and
audio which blend in with the film's theme, also taking effect inbetween the menu sections.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Wallace's great plan to solve this dilemma is to store all the offending creatures is with his latest
creation, the Bunvac 6000 (right), an oversized vacuum cleaner which also stores them inside until he can
take them home later to keep them under lock and key (has he spent too much time watching
Ghostbusters?
There's stacks of extras on this 2-disc set, with all movie footage in 16:9 letterbox, except where stated:
This movie: 
Anyone purchasing this DVD will be well aware of Wallace & Gromit
and they'll be in for a terrific treat without a doubt.