As we look forward to the upcoming 2025 movies in theaters and on streaming, I’m excited for the world to see Netflix’s Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Aardman Animation’s world of comedy that rides the line between punny humor adults will love and sight gags kids will go nuts over, the legendary franchise has always been an example of crowd pleasing fun that’s specifically broad.
That beautiful contraction does have its limits though, and directors Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham shared an instance where that line was firmly drawn by the powers that be. Which leaves us with a new mystery that I need to know more about.
How Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl Balanced Its British Humor For A Worldwide Audience
I guess this is the point where I’d turn my swivel chair around, and gesture like a proper villain; much like one of our favorite show stealing villains Feathers McGraw. I haven’t been able to admit it yet, but I haven’t just seen Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl in advance… I actually got to visit the set. So today’s latest trailer reveal wasn’t the only information I had to go on when entering into a recent chat with both Mr. Park and Mr. Crossingham.
With an early press day on behalf of this Netflix/BBC winter release, several of Aardman’s finest were on hand to discuss everything from the wonders of stop-motion animation to why Feathers McGraw is returning in the first place. A virtual press conference earlier in the day brought up the story of how there were some jokes that might not play properly to international audiences.
In the case of that particular subject, I asked Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham about whether they needed to fight for certain brit-com friendly jokes to be kept in Vengeance Most Fowl. Addressing this concern allowed the directors of the latest Wallace & Gromit picture to share the following anecdote with CinemaBlend. As Park put it:
Sometimes the dialogue is something that isn’t understandable ‘across the pond.’ And Chief Inspector Macintosh comes out with, it’s a regular phrase in the UK, it’s not rude, but he just says, ‘Flipping Nora!’ And we dunno where that comes from, but it’s just in the lexicon of British [expressions]. Yeah. And I dunno if people get that or not, but we were sort of questioned whether to take that out or not. But Netflix has been so respectful of the Wallace and Gromit brand, and how it works. They let us go with it.
Merlin Crossingham also weighed in on the same challenge that came with bringing the new Wallace & Gromit movie to life. As he shared:
We were talking about the bog chain one earlier, because a bog chain is like a toilet flusher. And we’re saying ‘Someone’s nicked me bog chain!’ That didn’t actually go because of the language. It went because the joke didn’t fit in the sequence anymore. Sometimes there’s other reasons why a joke like that would not end up in the sequence. But I mean, over the development of [Vengeance Most Fowl], so many sort of jokes come and go. It’s quite hard to actually remember specifics, but it’s always sort of in our consciousness.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’s first trailer showed the balance between quaint English humor and broad Hollywood action/adventure, and the new look we’ve just gotten continues to build that case. Seeing Feathers McGraw doing his best impression of Max Cady from Cape Fear is one of the crossroads where adults and children alike will be able to laugh hard at something that definitely translates across cultures.
At the same time, creating something that stands on its own two feet in the home court is difficult as well. Which leads to a moment that Nick Park and Merling Crossingham accidentally crossed the line with a gag, only to politely be asked to walk it back.
Why A Mysterious Wallace & Gromit Joke Was Cut For ‘Family Viewing’
“Family Viewing” is a phrase that might make some adults shudder, as censorship has ruined plenty of projects in the past. But Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a film that thrives in that sort of ecosystem, as the goal is always to have something everyone can comfortably watch together. So I was quite surprised, and very intrigued, to learn from Nick Park about the following tale involving the BBC having some specific concerns with the content:
The BBC actually questioned a couple of things, didn’t they? Only because of family viewing. There was one phrase, I won’t even repeat it, but we thought it was innocent and apparently [it] has other connotations that Mrs. Mulch [says] at the doorway, when Wallace opens the door on the angry crowd. But that went, and we don’t regret that.
Nick Park, CinemaBlend
I have absolutely no idea what the offending joke that was removed happens to be, and this is even after being able to admit that I was on the set of Vengeance Most Fowl this past July. So Mrs. Mulch’s supposedly naughty words will remain a mystery to be buried through the sands of time. However, thanks to the set visit in question, I can tell you about another fun gag you won’t hear in the next Wallace & Gromit movie, but for some entirely different reasons.
Another Slightly Wallace & Gromit Naughty Gag You Can See, But Not Hear
Traveling to Aardman Animations’ Bristol headquarters this summer was a dream come true for me, as I can remember watching “A Grand Day Out” when it aired on PBS in the ‘90s. As part of a handful of journalists personally invited by Netflix to check out the work being done on Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, I got to see a lot of the moving pieces that have been put together to form the comedy caper that is heading our way in the coming months.
And being present for that day introduced me and my fellow journalists to, among others, production designer Matt Perry. Our meeting couldn’t have been better, as when we walked into his section of the maze of individual sets in the warehouse, we were greeted by a submarine that looked like something out of the James Bond movies. Which makes Mr. Perry telling us about its cheeky name all the more fitting:
This is a massive nod to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and the Nautilus. We’re calling it the “Naughty Lass.” It’s no reference there, but internally we’re calling it that. … [Feathers] is going to be playing this organ on his chair, in an evil mastermind-y way. There’s an extraordinary amount of work gone into this.
Matt Perry, CinemaBlend
I’ll admit, that organ scene is one of the moments that made me want to spit coffee out of my mouth with laughter. And that was even after seeing this impressive miniature interior for myself, being prepared for the gag for months in advance.
Circling back to the subject of humor in Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Matt Perry continued to discuss the art department’s contribution to the laughter and adventure that went into this upcoming picture:
One of the little things our art department is doing is constantly trying to help the story, with all the little nods. And you’ve got the graphics in the background, all of these other little layers that we sort of add into the film. In this particular case, when Feathers sits on his garden chair, because everything that’s created this submarine has been nicked from all the gardens around town.
Matt Perry, CinemaBlend
Yes my friends, this is why we tried to warn you about Vengeance Most Fowl’s Norbot, and the newly debuted trailer shows even more reason why that apprehension has been earned. The tiny little menaces are under Feather’s control, and as you can see in the scene showing off the Naughty Lass, our foe is angling to setting a decades old score.
And in a moment of brilliant (almost) silent humor, Mr. McGraw is seen pushing over a bagpiping gnome as he boards his naval vessel of mischief. Which you can watch for yourself, thanks to the latest trailer for Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, shown below:
Chalk up another joke that kids and adults will probably be laughing over, whether you like that particular instrument or not. Whether it’s cheeky sight gags, or puns that give people names that resemble British television icons, the Aardman family knows how to tell a joke. They also know when to scale it back in the name of decency, and leave a good mystery in the process.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a quintessential Aardman laugh riot, and you’ll be able to see it soon enough! If you’re in the UK and Ireland, the film will be airing on the BBC on Christmas Day. As for the rest of us, this exciting new adventure will be available to stream on January 3, through whatever cracking contraption you use to access your Netflix subscription!