'As long as there’s a good story idea, there will be more Wallace & Gromit,' says Preston's Nick Park
Technology becomes a “wedge” between Wallace and Gromit in the forthcoming film Vengeance Most Fowl, directors Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham have teased.
The TV movie premieres on Christmas Day and will see the return of villain Feathers McGraw, who was arrested and sent to a zoo in Aardman Animations’ 1993 Bafta and Oscar-winning short The Wrong Trousers.
The story involves Wallace’s latest creation, a “smart gnome” named Norbot which is designed to do any kind of gardening task or “gnome improvement” around the house, but fails to impress the inventor’s silent companion dog, Gromit.
Preston-born Nick Park, 66, said: “We really hit the ground running with this film.
“Wallace is still an inventor of course but in this film, Wallace’s inventions are really starting to get to Gromit and get in between their relationship.
“To add insult to injury, Wallace – with good intentions – invents a smart gnome, but everything goes wrong from there and the film explores how Gromit copes with this new favourite in the household.”
Crossingham added: “It also explores how technology, which is brilliant and we do celebrate it in the film, can sometimes become a wedge between Wallace and Gromit.
“Technology thematically is something that is so important to Wallace so it’s also about Gromit needing to accept Wallace for who he is and to eventually find a compromise for them both.”
Garden gnomes have long been part of the Wallace And Gromit films and Norbot is voiced in the new film by Inside No 9 actor Reece Shearsmith.
Speaking about the return of the evil penguin, Park said: “It was really to solve a big story problem we were having.
“The original story was about Wallace inventing these mechanical smart gnomes and how they go wrong and cause trouble, but there was always a problem around what was motivating them and where are they coming from.
“It was like a lightning strike really, as people have been asking for a long time about when we’ll be bringing Feathers McGraw back, and until now we just never really found the right place for him – but this just felt like the perfect opportunity.”
Speaking to The Times, he added: “Hopefully it won’t be 16 years till the next one.
“As long as there’s a good story idea, there will be more Wallace & Gromit.”
The film will premiere on BBC iPlayer and BBC One on Christmas Day at 6.10pm in the UK and will be available globally on Netflix on January 3.