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Every Aardman Animations Movie, Ranked
Twenty years after their last feature film, Wallace and Gromit have a new whimsical adventure on Netflix.
Though there’s some Anglophile-friendly material (the climax hinges on people waiting until halftime at the World Cup to use the bathroom) and there are shades of Lord’s initial pitch for a gender-reversed African Queen, it’s difficult to view Flushed Away as anything but a compromised Aardman film, a cheap attempt to contain their style so it’ll fit into the standard kid’s-movie box. Led by the plucky and determined Ginger (Julia Sawalha), the chickens repeatedly try to get past the farm’s high fence to no avail, but when a cocky rooster (Mel Gibson) suddenly flies into their midst, they see him as their last chance to finally break free before the whole lot is turned into pot pies. Along with Aardman’s typically sharp writing, courtesy of Karey Kirkpatrick, and a game voice cast (the contrast between Sawalha’s British poise and Gibson’s self-obsessed charm is particularly inspired), Lord and Park also brought a more sophisticated filmmaking approach to the material, including an expansive depth of field and tighter editing schema.
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