Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Bestows generous blessings on all that's good in Englishness, in moviedom, and, of course, in cheese.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

This is more than just the best animated comedy of the year--it's the best comedy of the year, period.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The giddiest and funniest animated film of the year.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Park's imagination is as fecund as the bunnies that bob up and down from their rabbit holes in every corner of the Tottington garden.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It has the feel of something slaved over lovingly in merry isolation, and it is virtually the only thing I've seen this year that conveys in the viewing the obvious enjoyment its makers had in whipping it up.

Slate David Edelstein

An absolutely magical fusion of deadpan Ealing comedy and Gothic horror.

Empire Chris Hewitt

The comedy is never indulged at the expense of the plot, which flies off in genuinely unexpected directions, culminating in a boundlessly inventive funfair chase sequence.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

What Park has done is resurrect not just the spirit but, as it were, the bodily science of early comedy. Like Chuck Jones, and, further back, like Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, Park is unafraid of the formulaic--—of bops on the head, of the unattainable beloved, of gadgetry gone awry--because he sees what beauty there can be in minor, elaborate variations on a basic theme.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

So devoid of the usual coarse Hollywood calculation that it plays like a breath of fresh air.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Maybe if PETA tried being funny instead of comparing eating meat to the Holocaust, they’d have a bigger following.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Gromit's every facial move -- every grimace, scowl, eye-roll and glance askance -- is sublime.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

So much modern animation is technically brilliant and yet comes off as cold and indifferent. But Wallace, Gromit, and the people and creatures in their world always look warm to the touch. Someone made, and moved, all those bunnies by hand. It's impossible NOT to believe in them.

Time Richard Corliss

The whole rollicking adventure zips along a mile a minute.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The animation is a marvel - all the more so because the most demanding sequences seem almost casually tossed off. The world of Wallace and Gromit is one of the few genuinely eccentric places left in the movies, a place where lumpy, doughy characters achieve a peculiar dignity in spite of their grotesque features and the ridiculousness of their circumstances.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Most of all, Wallace & Gromit retains the clever, one-of-a-kind sensibility that made its shorter predecessors so delightful. With every studio comedy looking for a formula for success, it's refreshing to find a heroically whimsical film that succeeds by following no formula known to dog or man.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's a ripping good yarn, to boot, breathlessly paced and seamlessly edited, but most important, resoundingly and surpassingly fun.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Wallace and Gromit are arguably the two most delightful characters in the history of animation.

USA Today Claudia Puig

This adorable exercise in whimsy should give "Corpse Bride" a good fight for best-animated-film Oscar.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

If animated dogs were eligible for acting awards, the Oscar would go to Gromit.

Miami Herald Peter Debruge

The magic of the movies is never more evident than with stop-motion animation, and nobody does it better than Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The feeling is like a warm homecoming.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Even more than "Chicken Run," Were-Rabbit is a tiny plasticine masterpiece.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The Warners-style slapstick and gentle Anglophilia charms children and adults alike, but what kills me are the fingerprint ridges that fade in and out of the characters' mugging faces, a reassuring reminder that handmade art can still captivate.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The illusion is seamless and the pleasure is boundless.

Variety Leslie Felperin

Park and co-helmer Steve Box stay faithful to the cozy core ingredients that made the clay duo's kudo-reaping shorts and Park's previous pic, "Chicken Run," so well loved. "Curse" delivers a wholesome morsel, happily not too cheesy, that families will nibble on as a treat.

Village Voice Ed Park

This latest and biggest installment is a whimsical success of a very high order: The pace never lags, the invention is incessant, and it makes you want to have a bite of cheese afterward.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The movie rolls merrily along with slapstick action and whimsical characters.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

The humor edges against absurdism, but stays self-aware and witty, with that mild-mannered optimism presiding.

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

The result is an experience rich in pleasure and surprise, one that easily stands up to multiple viewings.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Who could resist a movie in which a garden gnome holds the front line in high-tech home security?

ReelViews James Berardinelli

One of the better offerings to be found in a year that has seen a drop-off in the quality of animated films.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

You will laugh yourself silly.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

For 40 minutes or so it's really good, in fact, as lovely and daft as the stop-motion animated W&G shorts that preceded it.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

A gentle comic stew of monster movies, adding dashes of Bugs Bunny irreverence and British gentility.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The delightful G-rated film has a story line simple enough for pre-schoolers to follow and comic sensibility complex enough for adults to savor, with an emphasis on howlingly bad (by which I mean good) puns.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Very imaginative and can be enjoyed by audiences of all ages.

New York Magazine Ken Tucker

A pungent delight.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Eminently worth seeing, even if it leaves you wishing it were as consistently inventive as Aardman's first feature, "Chicken Run" (2000).