LONDON – Artificial intelligence takes a new twist in Nick Park’s latest Wallace & Gromit film, which features a “smart gnome” who goes rogue and offers what the Oscar-winning film-maker said is a lighthearted look at the human use of technology.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, premiering on Netflix on Jan 3, is the second feature film about Wallace, an ever-optimistic inventor, and his loyal dog Gromit, following 2005’s The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit.
“We put our trust in tech the whole time. It seems we’re kind of addicted. Do we trust those who we think are behind all the tech?“ said English animator Park, 66, adding that the latest movie offers a “non-serious” look at the love affair with technology.
He said Gromit represents the human element. “He loves gardening. So, it does ask questions about why we need something to take away the joy of things we do,” he added.
Although things start off peacefully for the duo in their home in a northern English town, they soon go wrong.
“The straw that breaks the camel’s back for Gromit is when Wallace invents Norbert, his smart gnome,” said Merlin Crossingham, who co-directed the film with Park, whose lovable duo debuted in 1989 in his hit student short, A Grand Day Out.
“I have to pinch myself constantly over the years. How it’s just grown to this point,” Park said of the franchise, which as well as gaining recognition in the United States, has become synonymous with Christmas Day in Britain.
English film-makers, animators and co-creators of Wallace & Gromit Nick Park (left) and Merlin Crossingham.PHOTO: AFP
Park mixes modern themes with a simpler-looking time, which was inspired, he said, by movies made at the Ealing studios in post-war Britain, when life “seemed a bit cosy”.
Along with 2024 titles such as Moana 2 and The Wild Robot, the Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is up for best animation at January’s Golden Globes, the first of the big award shows.
“I think for any artist to be recognised in these ways, it’s an accolade in itself,” Park said. REUTERS
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl premieres on Netflix on Jan 3.
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