Claymation at its grandest

Now that the technology to quickly make animated movies has caught up with the intense desire to make them, each year there seem to be more and more animated theatrical releases. The more you have of something though, the more likely a dud will squeak through. \nWhen considering the animated film selection of 2005, there were some horrible misses -- "Chicken Little," "Madagascar" and "Robots" come to mind immediately -- and there were some stellar successes. Among those I would count as the year's truly great animated outings would be Tim Burton's lovely macabre "Corpse Bride" and "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," which is new to DVD.\nPerhaps what is so charming about "Wallace & Gromit," aside from the wonderfully funny characters, is the labor of love put into the series. Directors Nick Park, the characters' creator, and Steve Box have produced a beautiful stop-motion film -- a technique that depends very little on computer technology and instead relies on moving clay figures minimally per frame to create the animation. It succeeds wildly because the look of the film is as captivating as the story.\nPark created the characters back in the late 1980s, and since then they have starred in a series of short animated features. Dim-witted Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis) is a crazy inventor whose morning routine involves flying down through chutes and trap doors in his house until he lands at the breakfast table. Gromit is Wallace's silent and brilliant dog, whose humanoid facial features are infinitely entertaining. Together they operate Anti-Pesto, a humane pest-control service that largely catches rabbits.\n"The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" is the first full-length animated film featuring Wallace and Gromit. A giant mysterious creature is terrorizing their small English town and ruining entries for the town's annual giant vegetable competition hosted by Lady Tottington (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter). As the town's resident pest-control workers, Wallace and Gromit are called upon to investigate a series of vegetable vandalisms. While in pursuit of the culprit, Wallace contends with Victor (voiced by Ralph Fiennes), a gun-toting let's-shoot-the-rabbits sort of a guy, for the affection of Lady Tottington.\nAnything else about the plot would be giving away too much, and watching the film unravel was simply too enjoyable for me to ruin for you. The important thing to distinguish is that, although "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" is ostensibly a children's movie, it just really isn't. Of course it's G-rated and completely suitable for children, but it's full of sly and bawdy British humor intended for adults. The DVD is also full of more adult-oriented features, such as an informative making-of-featurette, a short film and some funny deleted scenes.\nPark has won three Academy Awards over the last 15 years for his shorter length animated films, two of which were Wallace and Gromit episodes, and this year "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" is nominated for best full-length animated feature film. "Corpse Bride" should give it some stiff competition from Academy voters, but ultimately Park really deserves to pick up his fourth Oscar for this sweet and entertaining movie.