Beloved British animation duo Wallace and Gromit return to screens in their first feature-length film in 20 years in a typically wacky adventure that draws attention to the dangers of technology in the wrong hands.
The Greatest Revenge will air for the first time on the BBC on Christmas Day before being available on the Netflix platform from January 3 worldwide.
Inventor and director Nick Park returns to the theme of technology he explored in the 1993 Oscar-winning hit The Wrong Trousers, but updated to take into account the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI).
At the center of the narrative is the latest invention of the tea-and-cheese-loving Wallace: an "intelligent" robot gnome named Norbot who helps out around the house and garden, threatening to displace the ever-loyal Gromit, who prides himself on the mundane tasks of life.
"Wallace is completely delusional and obsessed, while Gromit represents the human touch," Park told AFP in an interview before the premiere.
"He loves gardening. It's not just about seeing the end result, it's about the act of doing that is enjoyable. I like the fact that we have technology. Sometimes we just have to ask ourselves: does it always enhance our lives and our relationships, or does it somehow diminish them?" he added.
Park has shown an allegiance to the idea of "making" throughout his forty-year career, and still insists on modeling real people to create Wallace and Gromit rather than resorting to computer renderings.
At his studio, Aardman Animations - creator of other hits including Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep - films are shot frame by frame, with clay models slowly moved and changed in a technique known as "stop motion" that dates back to the dawn of cinema.
At its fastest pace, the 200-member crew of Revenge of the Fewest Birds creates two minutes of film a week.
"It's all made by real human beings, and I hope that shines through on the screen," Park explained.
He insisted that the restrictions actually spur creativity and are a major part of the franchise's appeal.
"With CGI (computer-generated imagery), I guess you're tempted to use them to their fullest. You have everything at your disposal. Whereas I think if you don't have that, you tend to be more creative with what little you have," he said.
The film sees the return of villainous penguin Pero McGraw from "The Wrong Trousers", which won the Oscar for best animated short.
Perot McGraw is expressionless throughout, but his on-screen menace is always evident - often to comic effect - while the full range of emotions is expressed, as always, through Gromit's legendary eyebrows.
"Very small nuanced movements can say a lot," Park emphasized.
One small change to watch out for in the new film is Wallace's new voice after the death of English actor Peter Salis, who had played him since his debut in 1989.
Sallis has been replaced by Ben Whitehead, an English voice actor and voice actor who collaborated with Park in the last feature-length Wallace and Gromit film, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, released in 2005. | BGNES
