(SOUNDBITE OF LORNE BALFE'S "WALLACE AND GROMIT THEME")
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Wallace and Gromit are back with their second full-length movie, "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl." This time, Wallace, the inventor, is facing a pile of overdue bills.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WALLACE AND GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL")
BEN WHITEHEAD: (As Wallace) Inventing doesn't come cheap, does it? Maybe I'm just making too many gadgets.
RASCOE: Gadgets like a bed that catapults him down to his kitchen each morning, a machine that shoots jam onto toast, even a mechanical hand that pets his long suffering dog, Gromit.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WALLACE AND GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL")
WHITEHEAD: (As Wallace) Oh, don't worry, lad - we'll think of something.
RASCOE: That something turns out to be a robotic garden gnome equipped with artificial intelligence.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WALLACE AND GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL")
REECE SHEARSMITH: (As Norbot) Lawn-mowing.
RASCOE: It mows lawns, trims hedges and blows leaves and never gets tired.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WALLACE AND GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL")
REECE SHEARSMITH: (As Norbot) I'm a happy, nifty Norbot. I love to do a job.
RASCOE: What could go wrong? Well, if you know Wallace & Gromit movies, the answer is everything. Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham join us now. Thank you for being here.
NICK PARK: Oh, great to be here.
MERLIN CROSSINGHAM: Yeah, hi.
RASCOE: Hi. So, either one of you - Wallace is always coming up with new inventions. How did you come up with the idea of a robotic garden gnome for this movie?
PARK: Yeah, Nick here. It came up kind of years ago, really when we were making "Curse Of The Were-Rabbit." It was just like a - as usual, a small idea that we were having fun with, which was what if Wallace invented a robot gnome that could help Gromit in the garden with garden chores? And, you know, inevitably, things would go wrong, and it was great fun.
RASCOE: Well, yeah, 'cause you brought back Feathers McGraw, the evil penguin...
PARK: (Laughter).
RASCOE: ...For the first time in 30 years.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WALLACE AND GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL")
WHITEHEAD: (As Wallace) Good grief, it's you - again. But you're supposed to be locked up. Well, you won't get away with it, you know.
RASCOE: Audiences really like Feathers. Like, they have him on T-shirts. He's a great villain. Like, I must say, he commands the screen, doesn't say a word, but he commands the screen. Nick, did you ever think he'd be so beloved?
PARK: Well, no. I mean, I was amazed over the years just how much people really, as you say, loved him or loved to hate him.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
PARK: But yeah, over the years, it's become more apparent just how much he's kind of sunk in to the culture. People have often asked, will he return?
RASCOE: Merlin, is that why you brought him back, because he is so beloved?
CROSSINGHAM: It wasn't the reason, actually. He was the solution to, essentially, a story problem. The story sort of needed him, and he was right there looking at us, saying I can help you out.
RASCOE: (Laughter).
CROSSINGHAM: And so he did.
RASCOE: He was looking at you from that zoo, from that...
CROSSINGHAM: That's right.
(LAUGHTER)
PARK: Yeah.
RASCOE: The movie - obviously, it deals with this idea of technology. Artificial intelligence kind of plays a big role in the plot. And you show kind of good sides of technology and also the bad sides. What were you trying to do with that, or what were you trying to show with that?
PARK: Yeah, it was kind of early on. We worked with this great screenwriter, Mark Burton, that we've worked with many times before, and he immediately latched on to the - oh, this could be about AI but in a very "Wallace And Gromit" kind of stupid way. We've always tried not to be too black and white about it because we do employ technology, and, you know, we shoot on digital cameras these days as opposed to 35mm film cameras. And I guess, like, Gromit very much represents the human touch, and Wallace is - like society today, is in love with technology.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WALLACE AND GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL")
WHITEHEAD: (As Wallace) See how embracing technology makes our life better? I mean, thanks to that handy device, we haven't had to use the old teapot for years. Oh, yes, tech - that's the thing.
PARK: And it's just really about keeping a check on how much do we need tech? In fact, for the first time ever, we had Wallace actually learning something. We - it's usually a joke that Wallace learns absolutely nothing (laughter). He learns that - how valuable his friend is...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WALLACE AND GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL")
WHITEHEAD: (As Wallace) But there's some things a machine just can't do, eh, lad? Aw.
PARK: ...And that he's been obsessed with just thinking that tech can answer everything, not realizing it's actually coming between them.
RASCOE: Yeah. And, I mean, Gromit's the dog, but he kind of represents that humanity, right?
PARK: That's right, yeah. But it's like, we're using clay, and it's - you know, there's thumb prints in the claymation. It's very much about all the authenticity of us working in an authentic way, creating this art form.
RASCOE: How time consuming is it to make a stop-motion movie with figures made out of clay? How long did it take to make this movie?
CROSSINGHAM: It was an eye-wateringly long amount of time. So I think Nick and I have been working on it together for about just over four years, but that includes all the writing and the preproduction. But when we were actually filming, we had a crew of 260 people in the studio, of which - I think 35 of them were animators when we were at full speed. And each animator - their target was five seconds of animation a week. So if - as a crew, if we got one minute of finished footage done in a week, we were having a really blazing week...
RASCOE: Oh, wow.
CROSSINGHAM: ...We would have - that was a good week. It's not a quick process, but we think it's worthwhile.
RASCOE: You know, there was a concern during the production of the film that there might be a clay shortage and that there might not be any more "Wallace And Gromit" movies. And I have to say, my 7-year-old was watching this, and at the end of this movie, she screamed out, they have to do another one. So I hope that's not the case (laughter). Like, what's the truth about that?
CROSSINGHAM: So it's true there was a little bump in the supply line, but it wasn't quite as dramatic as it was possibly made out.
RASCOE: 'Cause the company that made the clay was maybe closing down.
CROSSINGHAM: That's right.
RASCOE: Yeah.
CROSSINGHAM: The chain of supply has been restored. And you know what? We were just so pleased and delighted that the world was worried that we weren't going to have enough clay to carry on making films. But don't worry, everything is sorted, and there will be more.
RASCOE: OK, yes, 'cause my daughter screamed it at the end. She was like, we have to find out what happens next.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: You know, one thing about watching a film like this, especially with claymation and the stop-motion, is that there's such a classic look to it. When you have a lot of concern in Hollywood and creatives that maybe you don't need human beings, you could just have AI do the scripts and make the art - and, obviously, something like claymation, there is so much of a human touch. You're talking about puppets. You're talking about hands-on. You're talking about fingerprints. Was that in the back of your mind when you were making "Vengeance Most Fowl"?
PARK: Well, we weren't that aware of it at the start, but now we've finished the film, we're kind of pleased that it does kind of help to alleviate some of the worries that are going around now about AI because we do very much believe in - as you say, with the clay and the fingerprints, it's very much about authenticity. And we have a great cast, and it's all real actors with real voices and all the puppets and the sets and everything built, and the animation is all handmade. We do employ a little bit of CGI and quite a lot of digital effects, as any movie would, for things we can't do with clay.
CROSSINGHAM: But it's one of those things when we started writing it, the whole AI discussion was around, but it wasn't as hot a topic as it is right now. And it's just a happy coincidence that the theme of our film looks at that. In creating the film - the creative elements, the voice, the imagery - we certainly didn't. And I don't think "Wallace And Gromit" would work using AI, certainly not in today's atmosphere, anyway.
RASCOE: That's Nick Park, creator and director of "Wallace And Gromit," and Merlin Crossingham, codirector. "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl" is out now and on Netflix. Thank you so much for joining us.
CROSSINGHAM: Oh, thank you.
PARK: Oh, thank you so much. It's so lovely to be here.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHILLY GONZALES' "PAPA GAVOTTE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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