A claymation man, garden gnome, and dog pose for the camera.

About:

Title: Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Released: 2025

Fix: Claymation, British Comedy, Loyal Pets, Gadgets, Nostalgia
Platform: Netflix

Netflix Summary: 

Top dog Gromit springs into action to save his master when Wallace’s high tech invention goes rogue and he’s framed for a series of suspicious crimes.

FYA Summary:

Many years ago, inventor Wallace and his dog Gromit (mostly Gromit) foiled a jewel heist by criminal penguin Feathers McGraw. Feathers never forgot or forgave; even from prison (or rather the zoo), he’s determined to unleash the titular vengeance. Wallace’s latest invention, a garden gnome robot named Norbot with creepy eyes and dodgy programming, may be just the tool the sticky-winged mastermind needs to finish what he started.

Familiar Voices:

Ben Whitehead as Wallace and Reece Shearsmith as Norbot

Wallace is a sweet, eccentric Northern Englishman, as oblivious in ordinary life as he is gifted with gadgets. 

And Wallace may have meant to make Norbot sound like a nice little old man, but that squeaky robot voice is uncanny even before his morality dial gets switched to “EVIL”.

Peter Kay as Chief Inspector Mackintosh and Lauren Patel as PC Mukherjee

Mackintosh believes in following his “copper’s gut” – never mind such newfangled methods as searching for evidence. As he’s counting the days until retirement, a crime wave across town becomes a serious inconvenience.

Young police officer Mukherjee is the only voice of reason when the whole town turns against Wallace and his inventions.

Couch-Sharing Capability: Your Best Pals

This has been the first movie in months that my whole family could agree to watch. Our tastes range from cozy (me) to thrillers (Dad) to “I’m so tired of seeing the same tropes repeat in fiction that I’d rather watch a wildlife documentary” (Mom). Still, we all loved it. So curl up with whoever means as much to you as Wallace and Gromit mean to each other.

Recommended Beverage: A Nice Cuppa Tea

Since Wallace built a tea machine that dispenses straight into mugs, their vintage teapot has been sitting neglected on the shelf. If you have anything like that, go ahead and dust it off; special things are meant to be used.

Use of Your Streaming Subscription: Top Dog

I’ve loved Aardman Productions’ stop-motion films since I was little. This one is up there with the best, maybe even the classics it references. (I didn’t spot most of those, but even I couldn’t miss the Bond villain allusion when Feathers pets a white baby seal as if it were a cat. (The seal even purrs!) It’s over-the-top ridiculous, but incredibly subtle at the same time. The devastation on Gromit’s face when Norbot destroys his flowerbeds while making the garden “neat and tidy”, for example, is clear to see even with just a few millimetres of clay moving.

Even with something as silly as a singing garden gnome, the way this movie talks about technology is more nuanced than many so-called serious stories I’ve watched or read. Instead of reducing the issue to “AI is evil”, Wallace learns to draw the line between inventions that enhance your life and those that cut you off from it. A remote-controlled arm has its uses around the house, for example; petting Gromit just isn’t one of them.

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Regina Peters works in the video game industry, but her favourite imaginary worlds are on paper. She lives in Montreal, Canada, with her family.