Sunday, August 9, 2009

Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Directed by
Steve Box
Nick Park

Writing credits
Nick Park (characters)

Bob Baker writer
Steve Box writer
Mark Burton writer

Release Date:
7 October 2005 (USA)

Genre:
Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family

Cast :
* Lord Victor Quartermaine is a spoiled, vain, upper-class bounder who is fond of hunting; he is rarely seen without his rifle and his hunting dog Philip. He is the villain of the movie, wears a toupee, and hates Anti-Pesto. It soon becomes clear in the film that Victor's only interest in Lady Tottington is her vast fortune which he is eager to get his hands on. After Lady Tottington discovers that Victor knew that the were-rabbit was Wallace all along, he reveals that all he wants is her money. Victor is voiced by Ralph Fiennes.

* Lady Campanula "Totty" Tottington is a wealthy forty-something single noblewoman with a keen interest in both vegetable-growing and 'fluffy' animals. For 517 years, her family has hosted an annual vegetable competition. Lady Tottington asks Wallace to call her "Totty" and develops a romantic interest in him. She is voiced by Helena Bonham Carter.

* Philip is Victor's hunting dog. He and his master will do anything to stop the Were-Rabbit, although Philip is bright enough to know that the Were-Rabbit is beyond his hunting skills, and that Gromit, closer to his own size, is a better prospect as the target of premeditated violence. He also owns a lady's purse decorated with flowers.

* Police Constable Albert Mackintosh is the village bobby who judges the Giant Vegetable Contest, although, with the havoc it creates every year he would rather it didn't happen at all. His name is probably a play on PC and Macintosh, two common kinds of personal computer. He is played by British comedian Peter Kay.

* Reverend Hedges is the local vicar. He is the first person in the village to witness the Were-Rabbit, and describes the full horror of his encounter with the beast, but Victor refuses to believe him. However, when Victor discovers the true identity of the beast, he turns to the vicar for advice on how to kill it. Reverend Hedges appears to have a wide range of knowledge on the habits and the slayings of supernatural animals, and has a whole cupboard filled with the weapons to defeat them. He is voiced by Nicholas Smith. Although his name appears in the credits, it is never said inside the movie.

* Mr. and Mrs. Mulch are clients of Wallace and Gromit's Anti-Pesto. Mrs. Mulch has a fixation on her gigantic pumpkin. Voiced by Liz Smith, Mrs. Mulch is a more prominent character than her husband, who talks little.

* Mr. Growbag is an elderly resident of Wallace and Gromit's neighbourhood and a founding member of the town's veg grower's council. He constantly recalls memories of incidents from previous Vegetable Competitions - comparing them to what may happen to the forthcoming one. Two of the "disasters" he mentions are The Great Slug Riot of `32, "when there were slugs the size of pigs", and the Great Duck Plague of `53. He is voiced by Edward Kelsey.

* Hutch is originally just another captive rabbit. He receives special treatment, and his name, after an attempt to brainwash him and his fellows goes wrong. He was the first to be suspected of being the Were-Rabbit. Hutch is voiced by Peter Sallis, the same actor who voices Wallace, though with his voice sped up. Everything that Hutch says is a quotation from Wallace (though, surprisingly, some of the lines were originally spoken by Wallace after the incident with the Mind-Manipulation-O-Matic). Hutch wears clothes like Wallace's, including his slippers and tank top.

* Minor characters
* Mr. Leaching - Ben Whitehead
* Mr. Dibber - Robert Horvath
* Mrs. Girdling - Noni Lewis
* Miss. Thripp - Geraldine McEwan
* Mr. Caliche - Vincent Ebrahim
* Mr. Windfall - John Thomson
* Miss. Blight - Mark Gatiss
* Mr. Crock - Peter Atkin
* Additional voices - William Vanderpuye, Christopher Fairbank, James Mather

Original Sound Track :
• A Grand Day Out
• Anti-Pesto To The Rescue
• Bless You, Anti-Pesto
• Lady Tottington & Victor
• Fire Up The Bun-Vac
• Your Ladyship
• Brainwash & Go
• Harvest Offering
• Arson Around
• A Big Trap
• The Morning After
• Transformation
• Ravaged In The Night
• Fluffy Lover Boy
• Kiss My Arrrtichoke
• Dogfight
• Every Dog Has His Day
• All Things Fluffy
• Wallace & Gromit
( source : http://3mp3.ru/eng/album/56940/Wallace-and-Gromit-The-Curse-Of-The-Were-Rabbit-OST )

Plot :
Tottington Hall's annual Giant Vegetable Competition is approaching. The winner of the competition will win the Golden Carrot Award. All are eager to protect their vegetables from damage and thievery by rabbits until the contest, and Wallace and Gromit are cashing in by running a vegetable security and humane pest control business, "Anti-Pesto".

However, they are faced with two problems: the first is Wallace's growing weight and the second is inadequate space for the captured rabbits. Wallace comes up with an idea — use his Mind Manipulation-O-Matic machine to brainwash the rabbits, allowing them to run freely without harming everyone's gardens. While performing the operation, he kicks the switch and something goes terribly wrong, leaving them with a semi-intelligent rabbit who (in a slow metamorphosis) starts to behave like Wallace (down to his fondness for cheese) and whom Wallace names "Hutch". Soon the town is threatened by the "Were-Rabbit", a giant rabbit-like monster which eats vegetables of any size. During a chaotic yet hilarious town meeting, Anti-Pesto enters into a rivalry with Lord Victor Quartermaine to capture the Were-Rabbit and to win Lady Tottington's heart. After the first night of the Were-Rabbit, the townsfolk start to argue about what to do.

After a hectic night-time chase, Gromit discovers that the Were-Rabbit (whom he assumed was Hutch at first) is, in fact, Wallace, suffering from the effects of the accident with the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic having caused him and Hutch to each take on aspects of the other; Hutch even displays Wallace's knack for inventions and regularly repeats some of Wallace's old phrases. Victor corners Wallace during the night, jealous of Lady Tottington's growing fondness for him because of his humane practice of pest control (whereas Victor thinks it's more effective to shoot and kill them). But then Wallace falls into the path of moonlight and transforms. Victor, having identified the Were-Rabbit, goes to Reverend Clement Hedges and gains access to "24-carrot" gold bullets - supposedly, the only things capable of killing a Were-Rabbit.

During the final showdown, Victor and his dog Philip capture Gromit, who subsequently escapes and decides to make the ultimate sacrifice by using the marrow he had been growing for the competition as bait for Wallace who, in his rabbit form, has burst in upon the vegetable contest, causing panic. Victor tries to shoot what is apparently the monster, but Gromit is one step ahead of him, using a rabbit costume he and Wallace had created prior to the discovery of the Were-Rabbit's true nature as a trap. Unfortunately, the marrow cannot keep Wallace's attention as Victor tries to take the golden carrot award from a distressed Lady Tottington (The only vaguely bullet-like object left to him after he exhausted the gold bullets provided by the vicar). Wallace ascends to the rooftops, holding a screaming Lady Tottington in his hand. Discovering his identity, she promises to protect him, only to be interrupted by Victor. Meanwhile, in a mid-air dogfight in toy aeroplanes, Philip chases after Gromit. Gromit forces his foe out of the air in a fiery crash and explosion - but Philip manages to hold on to Gromit's plane and the two grapple with each other. The fight rages on and in the end, Gromit releases Philip, ironically, through the bomb doors and into a bouncy castle.

Atop Tottington Hall, Gromit's toy biplane circles Wallace, who clings onto the flagpole at the top of the building for dear life. Victor, wielding the Golden Carrot trophy inside a blunderbuss he finds at an antiques table at the fair, tries one last time to shoot Wallace, but Wallace is saved by Gromit, who grabs onto a rope from a flagpole and swings his plane into the path of the improvised bullet. The enraged Victor throws down the blunderbuss and stamps on it screaming out "Potty poo!" Unfortunately, since it is a toy plane not intended for flying, when Gromit accidentally lets go of the rope, the plane begins to descend rapidly. Wallace jumps from the flagpole and catches the plane, thereby breaking Gromit's fall into the cheese tent below. Victor gloats, but is knocked unconscious by Lady Tottington, using a giant carrot. He falls into the tent too, where Wallace lies unconscious and seemingly dying of his injuries. To protect Wallace from the angry mob outside, Gromit dresses Victor up as the monster (using a marionette he used earlier as a lure for the Were-Rabbit), and throws him out of the tent. Philip, believing Victor to be the beast, bites his master, and the angry mob chases Victor away.

Gromit and Tottington tend to Wallace who, seconds later, breathes his last and morphs back into his human form. Gromit, the rabbits, and Lady Tottington are saddened by their loss, but Gromit is able to revive Wallace with a slice of Stinking Bishop cheese. Gromit, for his bravery and his "brave and splendid marrow", is awarded the (now somewhat battered) competition trophy, and Lady Tottington turns Tottington Hall into a wildlife refuge where all the rabbits, including Hutch, can live in peace.

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