The return of Wallace and Gromit

Carrie and I are huge fans of Nick Park and Aardman Animation Studios... and I'm not ashamed to say that we've been counting the days until the release of the first feature-length Wallace and Gromit film, "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."

So you can imagine how delighted I was when Carrie e-mailed me a link to A.O. Scott's rave review of the new W&G movie, which includes this rather incredible statment:

[Gromit the Dog's] feature film debut, after appearances in three sublime half-hour shorts, is thus a solemn occasion (even if the movie itself is utterly silly). His face now enters the pantheon of stars whose charisma transcends speech - Keaton, Chaplin, Garbo - let them now make room for Gromit.

Welcome to the pantheon.
(Can a knighthood be far behind?)

The film has just opened in New York and Los Angeles, and goes into wide release October 25th.

I think I have plans for Sunday afternoon... ideally, this sort of film would be seen with a small, giggling child, but as I tend to turn into a small giggling child myself while watching Aardman films, this should present no major logistical problems.

A New Challenge for an Englishman and His Dog (A.O. Scott, New York Times, 5 October 2005)