How Aardman made Wallace & Gromit’s ‘Silent Villain’ work

Stop animation is a prospect challenging enough for any studio, even Aardman, that is a pioneer in the format for decades at this point. But what happens when you decide to bring back a villain who’s known for not being able to say a word, barely able to move part of his face, and mostly getting by by standing around and blinking?

“That was really one of the most challenging aspects of the whole movie,” Nick Park said recently On the contrary regarding the decision to bring back Feathers McGrawthe villain of Wallace and Gromitthe second appearance on television, The wrong pantsdecades later for Revenge. Most birdsnow streaming worldwide on Netflix. “At least Gromit has a forehead he can lift. He can understand thoughts more clearly. It’s all down to the simplicity of Feathers’ movement, the deliberate and small movements. Look here, blink. Minimalism, indeed.

As Park explained, Wallace and Gromit is no stranger to silent characters, given that the duo’s titular other half is a dog who can’t talk. But Gromit is still surprisingly articulated: his ears can move, his eyes are similar to any other human character, he can move different parts of his face, and he has full arms, legs and even a neck to move his body with and to express his emotions clearly to the audience. Feathers, on the other hand, is a small stylized penguin (sometimes disguised as a rooster). His eyes are small beads, his whole body is shaped like a bottle. If Feathers wants to use body language, he has his fins that are limited in their own way, and then he has to move his whole body at once. And yet in both Wrong pants and Revenge. Most birdshe remains completely charming, sometimes creepy, and still completely relatable to the audience.

Although more than three decades have passed between his screen appearances, Park’s (and now his Revenge. Most birds co-director, Merlin Crossingham), used to make Feathers “feel” like any other character in Wallace and Gromit have remained the same. “We use camera movement, sound,” Crossingham explained. “He’s a very cinematic character because we rely, as filmmakers, on all those tricks to make him the hero/villain that you see and love to hate.”

The more things change, the more some things stay the same. But for Wallace and Gromitand Aardman more generally, it speaks to the eternity of the craft involved in this kind of traditional hand-drawn animation. “Back when The game of toys first came out in the ’90s, a studio like us, we’re like, ‘Oh boy, how long do we have left?'” Park concluded. “But we kept going. As long as you’re telling good stories, compelling stories with compelling characters, that’s just the technique.” All these years later, Feathers remains as compelling as it ever was—and still up to those same cinematic tricks.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl now streaming on Netflix.

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