13 Killer Stop Mo Flicks - Part 02: A Vegetarian Horror Film? 'Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit'

Inspired by the spooky season and conversations on LinkedIn with other film and animation professionals, I've been reflecting on feature-length stop motion films made in the 21st century that sit in the horror genre.? Some are fiercely independent, some are more mainstream - and all have been produced in the digital era when alternative technologies where widely available. Yet despite the numerous advances in production tech, stop motion animation - like the archetypal killer in a slasher flick - keeps rising back up to entertain us again and again.

Released in 2005, 'Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' is billed as a family/comedy romp from one of the UK's finest animation studios, Aardman Animations.? Directed by Steve Box and Nick Park, this is a story of dastardly deeds and seismic supernatural goings-on in an otherwise sleepy English rural town.? When a?mysterious, veg-ravaging "beast" begins attacking the town's sacred vegetable plots ahead of the annual Giant Vegetable Competition, beloved duo, Wallace and Gromit are called in to catch it and save the day.

Stop motion you say... Is it really horror?

Yes, I do think so... Obviously aligning 'children' and 'horror' in the same sub category is fraught with difficulty for marketers, but to ignore this obvious sub genre outside of that activity is equally problematic. Further, this film is not just a parody of the creature features of Hollywood's Golden Age, but also a fond homage to classic British horror, notably the output of Hammer Film Productions, whose films shaped the wider horror genre for over 40 years.

So I'm calling it - it's in the children's horror sub genre. And that's also vitally important in the overarching story of these articles, so...

OK, how was it financed?

Despite being pure Aardman in terms of its narrative treatment and visual aesthetic, the film was produced in collaboration with DreamWorks Animation. As noted above, studio execs can be unnerved by a stop motion family entertainment film with horror themes, but in addition to Aardman's demonstrable strength as a production studio, perhaps the willingness to invest in Were-Rabbit was bolstered by the success of the sleeper hit 'Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas' (original release 1993, with successive re-releases in 1994 & 2000) and a rival film in production, 'The Corpse Bride' (released the same year.)

What impact did it have?

According to IMDb, 'Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit' grossed $192,705,291 worldwide, topping the worldwide box office for three weeks.? It was also critically acclaimed, winning numerous prestigious awards in 2006, including a BAFTA for Outstanding British Film and an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film - all the more notable as it was the first time ever that a stop motion production had won an Oscar.

Also, I'm sure the film played no small part in further consolidating Wallace and Gromit as one of Aardman's leading IPs - which, of course, is cracking lad!

Sounds like a scream! Where can I watch?

'Wallace And Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' is available to watch in the UK on Amazon Prime, YouTube and Google Play.

"13 Killer Stop-Mo Flicks" is a series of short articles published in the run up to Halloween 2024 that look at 13 stop motion feature-length films made in the 21st century - how they were financed, what impact they had, and why I think, despite all odds, stop motion will keep coming back to thrill audiences.