'Wallace and Grommit' delights

As a child, I considered the "Wallace and Gromit" series to simply be an excellent British cartoon. After all, what's not to love about a clueless British inventor and his far more intelligent canine companion? Proving that the premise has timeless appeal, I still find these characters and their latest film, "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," entertainting and another great example of how wonderful non-computer-animated cartoons can be.

The animation industry has changed dramatically over the past few years. As Pixar's computer animated films made millions around the world, traditional animation fell by the wayside. Though some argue that this is an inevitable animation revolution, there's a creative component missing. Maybe it's because the films can be made in a few months by a guy with a fancy computer, but I am no longer as impressed with these new animation flicks. "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" is spectacular not because of the plot or witty dialogue alone, there's also an art in the grueling claymation process itself that begs respect.

In claymation, clay figures are created and shot one frame at a time; a second of footage is 24 of these frames. So a film like "Wallace and Gromit" is made up of about 122,400 still pictures— a rather painstaking process.

In the film the two stars, Wallace and Gromit, are faced with a giant problem. As the town's chief pest controllers, they are responsible for keeping the place rabbit-free for the annual Giant Vegetable Competition. Wallace, never one to go about things the old fashioned way, invents a machine which brainwashes rabbits into into hating vegetables. Not surprisingly, the machine is a total failure that creates a lobotomized-looking rabbit (one of the more hilarious images in the film). After this experiment, a mysterious Were-Rabbit begins terrorizing the town.

As a horror parody, Gromit becomes the Igor to Wallace's mad scientist role. The formula is turned slightly on its head since Wallace is not bent on doing anything exactly evil, rather he wants to find a way to fix the rabbit problem more humanely. While Gromit, like Igor, does follow his master's commands, he completely lacks the hunchback's glee and is always mildly uncomfortable listening to Wallace.

Just as well realized as the stars, are the town's citizens who at a drop of a hat are ready to go into "angry mob" mode. Most notably among the citizens is the vicar who seems like the pious God-fearing type, but is revealed to be just as eager as anyone to win the competition. He prays to God to make his vegetables grow bigger and stronger than everyone else's, and then he promptly christens the vegetables with holy water.

My only qualm with the film is the presence of scatological elements (i.e. fart jokes) in the humor, which unfortunately fall flat and reduce the intelligence of the production. If I desperately wanted to hear a joke on flatulence, I could have just as easily rented "Shrek."

Overall, I recommend "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" to anyone looking for an alternative to the mindless Halloween horror flicks season. Actually, anyone who enjoys movies even a little should see this film, for this work of art isn't only the best cartoon of the year, but it's also one of the year's best films.