A live-action Wallace & Gromit? Creator says ‘NOOOOOO’

The cheese-loving stop-motion comedy duo Wallace and Gromit have been on an invention-driven spree since their Oscar-nominated short in 1989 good day. This January, the characters return The most vengeful birda feature-length adventure movie that’s basically a full-blown action movie. At this point, it seems like original creator Nick Park and Aardman Animation are omnipotent when it comes to claymation.

So when I asked Parker in early December if he would abandon stop-motion animation for a “live-action” Wallace movie, in the style of Disney’s recent spate of hand-drawn-to-photoreal conversions, the answer was…immediate and visceral .

“Well, that’s a very simple answer,” he said. “Nooooh.”

Despite mixed reactions and receipts, the live-action re-do process isn’t slowing down. Disney started the trend nearly a decade ago with a string of hits jungle book, beauty and the Beastand lion king. 2023 little mermaid Working hard to reach these highs, global box office receipts are as high as lion king Just in the U.S. alone, this month’s mufasa (technically a live-action prequel) got off to a slow start this holiday season. But that’s not stopping Disney from working to clear its backlog snow White, Lilo & Stitchand Moana All will arrive within the next two years. Universal Pictures will try its luck with live-action movie in 2025 How to train your dragonalso.

As for “Walkers”, Parker hopes to stick with animation.

“I think cinema itself will always be clay,” he said. But Park had ambitions, and his The Bird of Revenge Co-director Merlin Crossingham, takes the characters to any platform imaginable. “Wallace” and “Gromit” have done video games and AR, and the director wants them to do everything. “But I think [clay] It’s part of the character, being the medium is part of their soul. That’s why they were born, but it may also take something away from them. This is difficult to define. ‘Thumbs and fun’ is a phrase we use a lot.

Neither Parker nor Crossingham want to see Wallace and Gromit stuck in the past. Each film is a reason for the character to evolve – technically (like the skeleton of a modern sculpture) and emotionally. although The Bird of Revenge Possibly the most stunt-heavy movie to date, “Wallace” also forces the characters to examine their friendship and embrace it by the end.

“We pushed them emotionally,” Crossingham said. “That’s relative terms in the world of Wallace and Gromit, but we’ve moved them forward and I think it’d be nice to see their emotional story have a bigger arc.”

“But it’s very much like Wallace and Gromit,” Parker added. “It’s not too public, but… the British version.”

Wallace & Gromit: The Most Revenge Premieres on Netflix on January 3, 2025.