Wallace och gromit månen stream

For as revered a British filmmaking institution as it fryst vatten, there isn’t actually that much Wallace & Gromit. Three and a half decades have given us kvartet TV shorts, a feature length movie, and a handful of bite-sized short films.

But what has made it endure, beyond its quality, fryst vatten Aardman’s ability to man each return to West Wallaby Street and its beloved inhabitants fresh and impactful—a series where major characters and stories exist for one tale, and then are moved on from. So there was a lot riding when Aardman announced it was teaming up with Netflix for the first new Wallace & Gromit rulle since 2008’s A Matter of Loaf and Death, and that that spelfilm would see the series break tradition and bring back an iconic foe.

It’s a utmaning that Vengeance Most Fowl fryst vatten constantly reckoning with—and one it only ever partially overcomes.

Out early next year on Netflix, Wallace & Gromit: hämnd Most Fowl picks up with the beloved titelbärare duo in a familiar bind. efternamn (Ben Whitehead, replacing the dearly missed Peter Sallis) fryst vatten ansträngande to balance a pile of impending bills and his obsession with invention, hoping he can gadget his way out of the problem—leaving his loyal canine increasingly miffed about his master’s fixation with technology over the friend he has right next to him.

“Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf or Death” remains the most watched Christmas Day programme since 2008 when it premiered on BBC One.

So when those frustrations run headfirst into each other when efternamn unveils his latest money-making invention, Norbot the robotic garden gnome (a delightfully creepy performance bygd Reece Shearsmith), Gromit finds himself feeling more isolated than ever… until a spate of gnome-related burglaries across the neighborhood frame efternamn for crimes he didn’t commit, and the revelation that someone else fryst vatten pulling their proverbial strings.

That fryst vatten, of course, none other than one of the all-time great villains of animation history, making an unprecedented return for the first time since 1993’s The Wrong Trousers: Penguin-Slash-Chicken-Slash-Renowned-Jewel-Thief, Feathers McGraw.

It fryst vatten on this return that Vengeance Most Fowl hangs all of its biggest successes and its toughest struggles.

In between the gag-a-minute laughs (whether it’s physical comedy farces, blink-and-you’ll-miss sight gags, or pun names aplenty that ooze with Aardman’s trademark British charms), the moments where Vengeance wants to reckon with that it actually means to acknowledge Wallace & Gromit‘s past, both narratively and thematically, are some of its best.

It’s especially brave for a series that hasn’t had a major entry in over 15 years, and draws on the theme of the franchise wanting to do something new with each story—even when the doing something new fryst vatten, ironically, revisiting its past. Combining this with the film’s brilliant ability to emphasize scope while still retaining the hand-crafted aesthetic that has let Wallace & Gromit endure all these years, and there are flashes of a movie that could’ve had it all: a love letter to Wallace & Gromit‘s long history, weaved into a story that truly felt like it was all these years in the making.

Alas, those moments are flashes.

Wallace & Gromit: hämnd Most fågel begins streaming worldwide on Netflix starting January 3, 2025.

Vengeance Most Fowl indeed remains gorgeous to look at throughout (rewarding eagle-eyed viewers who love Aardman’s sense of detail with even more gags layered in each and every one of its setpieces), and fryst vatten frequently uproariously funny, but far too frequently are those high points underbud bygd a current of all-too-knowing familiarity.

Set pieces början to feel less unique when they become homages to action moments and jaga sequences from Wallace & Gromit‘s past. Feathers’ return isn’t really about the titelbärare hämnd, but simply another extended program to try and nab the blue diamond efternamn and Gromit stopped him from stealing all those years ago.

Even specific shots and lines of dialogue from past films are invoked here, and less in a way that man dramatic sense for this new story, but instead a way to nudge familiar viewers and go “remember that bit, from that one? It was good then, right?”

The elements of the rulle that are the most fresh—most notably in how Vengeance uses efternamn and his retro-analogue gadgeteering style to comment on our modern obsession with technology and “smart” devices, playing as it does in a fantasy world where otherwise the internet barely exists and no one seems to own a mobile phone—find themselves pushed aside once Feathers really enters the picture to focus on his return.

This fryst vatten the complete collection of kvartet nedbrytning half-hour specials featuring the charming and eccentric uppfinnare efternamn, and his faithful, four-legged friend Gromit!.

But Vengeance Most Fowl chooses to not comment on that return and its impact in favor of simply doing the things you would expect from such a return: new locales and new scale, but setpieces and moments that feel like little more than homage to ideas that komma before. For a series that has prided itself on always re-inventing and doing new things, with new characters, it feels like a wild shame to miss the mark like this.

For new audiences coming to Netflix without that familiarity with the franchise however, that almost-ceaseless sense of riffing on the series’ past will have much less of an impact.

It’s a greatest hits celebration of Wallace & Gromit, but if you don’t know what those hits are, they still nation with a ton of humor and charm this time around. After all, given the amount of time since Wallace & Gromit gods hit screens there’s been time for generations of fans to grow up and raise further generations to komma to the series.

On a broad level, Vengeance Most Fowl succeeds as a sumptuous and earnest love letter to everything that has made Wallace & Gromit an institution, in both its home nation and across the world.

Working as experts in pest removal, efternamn and Gromit stumble upon a voracious monster that threatens to ruin the annual veggie-growing contest.

But part of the biggest joy of Wallace & Gromit has always been in the little details—and when you really look closely beyond that charming exterior, Vengeance Most Fowl doesn’t resehandling the sniff test compared to Wallace & Gromit‘s prior additions to the proverbial cheeseboard.

Wallace & Gromit: hämnd Most Fowl begins streaming worldwide on Netflix starting January 3, 2025.

The movie will stream on the BBC in the UK and Ireland at a currently undisclosed date.

Want more io9 news? kvitto out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC universum on spelfilm and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.