Every ‘Wallace And Gromit’ pun checked by legal because people are so “litigious” now, says director
Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham, the directors of Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, have revealed that every pun has to be checked with their legal department because of the rise of “litigious” parties in society.
The pair were behind the new Aardman Animations film, the latest in the deal between the studio and Netflix following 2023’s Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget. The movie debuted on BBC One on Christmas Day in the UK and then January 3 on Netflix internationally. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at this year’s Golden Globes.
As with past instalments, this story relies on what the directors call “shameless ‘punnage’ the whole time”. These are mainly gentle wordplay gags, such as a newsreader called Anton Dec (a play on presenting team Ant & Dec), or one of the boats in the finale being called The Accrington Queen (a reference to the Hollywood classic The African Queen).
Despite the family friendly nature of the jokes, the filmmakers revealed every one had to be run past their legal advisers to avoid any trouble. Crossingham told Cartoon Brew: “Back in the day, no one ever checked those things from the legal department. Now everything we have to check. The laws of parody have changed in entertainment, and the litigious side of our society has moved on a peg”.
The success of their latest adventure, which saw the return of previous nemesis Feathers McGraw, has led to appearances in other media. Recently, Wallace and Gromit were confirmed for the latest expansion of video game PowerWash Simulator.
Vengeance Most Fowl was the first feature-length story to star the new voice of Wallace, Ben Whitehead, after predecessor Peter Sallis died in 2017. The film was a massive hit with UK audiences, becoming the second most watched show on Christmas Day after Gavin & Stacy: The Finale.
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Victoria Luxford
NME
