muninnhuginn | Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit

Credits, lovely: familiar theme tune, lots of gags in the photos on the wall, then the looming shadow and the horror-movie titles. Some of the passing jokes, like the van's number plate, "Bright Eyes" playing on the car radio, were amusing. The references to other movies were, it has to be said, predictable, boringly so. We have a large monster being pursued, so it has to end up on top of a large building with circling planes; we have a transformation from man to beast so it has to echo Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; and so on.

What I did like were Lady Tottington's outfits: the sweet corn ensemble, the carrot confection, the petals around her neck. And the fields of rabbits, resembling nothing so much as Antony Gormley's rooms of clay figures (on Gormley's site here).

I think what's most objectionable is the lack of decent roles for women (yes, I know it's animation, but that could open up possibilities not close them down to the standard set of devices). The only significant female role, unless you count the female bunny suit, is the love interest: evidently Mr Wallace likes to have a different leading lady in each of his outings and he's gone upmarket here. Otherwise we're stuck with Thora Hird type caricatures.

Bring back Morph is wot I say. Even in his current melted state he'd be more fun.