Netflix happily continues its collaboration with the English studios Aardman, producers of Chicken Run 2. Wallace & Gromit: A slap in the face from revenge by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham is a treat available on the platform on January 3. The typically British humor which governs the adventures of the clumsy inventor and his dog resigned to repairing his master’s stupidities is as irresistible as ever.
“We are not Wallace and Gromit!” », exclaimed with one voice Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham at the Annecy Festival who signed the film together. The first, aged 66, created Wallace and Gromit in 1989. The second joined the Aardamn studios in 1996. Both are taking up the torch with a terrible new invention from Wallace: an advanced garden gnome who could replace Gromit as he quickly learns to carry out daily tasks!
An enemy from the past
“We obviously think about the dangers that technology and in particular AI can represent,” says Nick Park. But there is nothing backward-looking about our position. We are just saying that, like all inventions, it must be controlled so that we only benefit from it. Wallace has always been the symbol of this notion: he is imaginative but needs Gromit to channel him. The Palm of Vengeancea far-fetched story, is not retrograde. It celebrates human ingenuity and sincere friendship by once again confronting the duo with an enemy from the past. Their complicity will be put to the test in adversity.
“Wallace and Gromit are an old couple of roommates,” insists Merlin Crossingham. Their comic dynamic works on their complementarity as well as on the tenderness that the spectator feels for them. Gromit supports Wallace which makes him very endearing”
Build solid
The scientist did not invent the powder but he is never short of ideas. This is confirmed when Wallace gives Gromit, a mute and expressive dog, a robot that is activated by voice. “The absurd side of our films is based on their relationship but also on English archetypes like the setting of the heroes’ villa and their taste for tea,” laughs Nick Park. The fact that they are puppets and that everything is built in stone makes them even more alive.” We admire the interior of the duo as much as the exterior, doing justice to the English countryside during wild pursuits.
At war against crime
These maniacal “old boys” continue to fight crime with great zeal (Wallace) and resourcefulness (Gromit). “Machines will never be able to replace human intelligence,” insists Nick Park. I know what I’m talking about: I’m an animator. Do you see a robot bringing Wallace and Gromit to life? It’s not tomorrow the day before. » Indeed, it is hard to imagine how a computer – however efficient it may be – could take the place of man (and his dog) to make people imagine the joyful delirium of The Palm of Vengeance.
