This Time, It's The Right Trousers. And By Trousers We Mean Movie.

Churlish indeed are those few grumpuses who don't love Wallace & Gromit, the hysterical British inventor and his loyal dog, who this weekend appear in their first feature-length film, "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." They're clay characters created by Nick Park, the same brilliant animator who gave us 2000's " Chicken Run," only they're his original comedic duo, and Mel Gibson isn't involved. It's rare indeed for msm reviews to be as unanimous as these, but there doesn't seem to be a commensurate level of buzz among bloggers — especially when compared with another recent stop-motion movie — as you'll see by the graph below. Another comparison is useful, however: "Chicken Run" made more than $17 million on its opening weekend, suggesting American moviegoers love hilarious British stop-motion claymation comedies. (Indeed, more than they love American sci-fi flicks in which characters say things like "I plum reckon.") We're hesitant to put a dollar figure on it, what with the various national crises and all, but we are confident "Wallace & Gromit" will do relatively well for itself this weekend. Here is part of the reason for our hesitance. This graph demonstrates its buzz compared against its recent competitor:

width="500" height="300" alt="Corpse vs. Wallace" border="0" vpace="5">

Posted by Philip Ewing at October 7, 2005 10:19 AM

Category: Moving Pictures