Stop-motion animation is challenging enough for any studio, even Aardman, who has been pioneering this point for decades. But what happens when you decide to bring back a criminal who is famous for not being able to say a single word, who can’t move any part of his face, and passes by in a blink of an eye?
“That was one of the most challenging aspects, of the whole movie,” Nick Park recently told Inverse of the decision to bring back Feathers McGraw, the villain. Wallace & Gromitsecond TV outing, The Wrong Pantsdecades later Revenge Most Birdswhich we now stream worldwide on Netflix. “At least Gromit has a face he can go up to.” He is able to understand thoughts clearly. It’s all about the simplicity of the way the Feathers move, the deliberate and minimal movements. To look here, to blink. Minimalism, actually. “
As Park explains, Wallace & Gromit is no stranger to silent characters, as the titular second half of the duo is a dog who cannot speak. But Gromit still talks amazingly: his ears can move, his eyes are like any other human character, he can move different parts of his face, and he has full hands, feet, and even a neck to move his body and express. his emotions clearly to the audience. Feathers, on the other hand, is a stylized little penguin (sometimes disguised as a rooster). His eyes are small beads, his whole body is shaped like a bottle. If Feathers wants to use body language, he has his wings, restrained in their ways, and moves his whole body at once. However, in both The Wrong Pants again Revenge Most Birdshe’s always completely likable, has occasional bad moments, and is still completely relatable to the audience.
Despite more than three decades between his screen appearances, Park’s (and now his Revenge Most Birds director, Merlin Crossingham) used to make Feathers “feel” like any other actor Wallace & Gromit they have remained the same. “We use camera movement, sound,” Crossingham explained. “He’s a very cinematic character because we rely, as filmmakers, on all those tricks to make him the hero/villain you see and love to hate.”
The more things change, the more things stay the same. But because Wallace & Gromitand Aardman in general, speaks to the timelessness of the art involved in this form of traditional hand animation. “Back when toy Story started coming out in the 1990s, a studio like us, thinking, ‘Well, boy, how much time do we have left?'” Park concluded. “But we continued. As long as you tell good stories, compelling stories with compelling characters, that’s really the way to go.” All these years later, Feathers remains as compelling as ever—and still is down to those same cinematic tricks.
Wallace & Gromit: Revenge of the Many Birds now streaming on Netflix.
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