Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

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Wallace & Gromit, the much-loved, clay-animated duo from the Oscar-winning shorts, deliver high-spirited fun for the entire family in one of the year's most critically-acclaimed films, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit premiering on DVD 20th February 2006 from DreamWorks Home Entertainment.

Featured on over 50 top ten lists and praised with multiple critics awards and industry honours including 16 Annie Award nominations by the International Animation Film Society, this acclaimed comedy adventure marks the first feature film outing for the endearing cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his ever-faithful dog Gromit.

This hare-raising tale features the two enterprising chums riding to the rescue with their new humane pest-control outfit, Anti-Pesto, and a host of wildly imaginative inventions to protect the town's Giant Vegetable Competition from a mysterious vegetable-chomping marauder.

The DVD release invites fans of all ages into the madcap world of the inventive entrepreneur and his lovable canine companion with a commentary by the film's two directors, Wallace & Gromit creator and two-time Academy Award® winner Nick Park (Chicken Run, The Adventures of Wallace & Gromit) and Steve Box. Also featuring Box's award-winning short film "Stage Fright," the Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit bonus programming also provides viewers with a first-hand look at the unique artistry of stop-motion animation with behind-the-scenes footage, a tour of Aardman studios, plus fun-filled games and activities, and more.

The Small World Of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit

In any animated film, the characters' performances belong as much-or more-to the animators as to the actors providing the voices. That is especially true in the world of stop-motion animation, where the animators spend countless hours bringing inanimate puppets to life, bit by infinitesimal bit.

It is almost impossible to fathom the countless hours of meticulous work and the level of concentration required to make a film in the Aardman style of animation. If you think of it in numeric terms alone: there are 24 frames per second of film time, so depending on the action in a sequence, it is possible to have 24 separate poses to shoot per character for every second in a scene, each pose involving the tiniest increment of movement for body, head, arms, legs, hands, fingers, eyes, ears, mouth, and so on. In addition, the Plasticine used is malleable, so there is constant resculpting involved.

Multiply all of that by every character in every scene, factoring in the movements of any props that are on camera, and you begin to understand the task that is literally "at hand." Perhaps the greatest testament to the patience and tenacity of the animation team is that on days when as many as 30 sets were in simultaneous operation, the optimum goal was to accomplish a mere 10 seconds of completed film.