Fans have been left disappointed after Wallace and Gromit missed out on an Oscar during the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday (2 March).
Vengeance Most Fowl was the franchise’s first film to be released in ten years. The stop-motion animated comedy stars Wallace, a cheese-loving inventor, and Gromit, his loyal beagle.
The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film, but lost out to Flow, a fantasy adventure starring a cat and featuring no dialogue.
The claymation duo donned a fancy outfit for the ceremony, with Gromit wearing a sparkly red bow tie and Wallace sporting a sparkly green suit in the same shade and style as his recognisable sweater vest.
However, the team have won Oscars in the past. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit won in the same category in 2006, while The Wrong Trousers picked up a trophy for Best Short Film in 1994.
But fans were left furious.
“Wallace and Gromit was robbed,” one person hit out on X/Twitter.
“The absolute f**king disrespect that Wallace and Gromit didn’t win Best Animated Feature,” said another supporter.
“Wallace and Gromit were more deserving,” explained another. “More effort goes into stop-go animation and it was funny.”
In a four-star review, The Independent’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey, wrote: “Vengeance Most Fowl is proof the traditional can still thrive – not only in how a film looks, but even in the barrage of puns (one magazine reads: “Gardens of the Galaxy”) and corny dad jokes.
“There are some timely updates, including a pitch-perfect gag about online Captcha verification tests. But I’m not sure any other studio could get away quite so cleanly with dropping a Shawshank Redemption prison gag in the year 2024. That’s how you know Aardman has earned a privileged place in British culture.”
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The Academy Award winning films originally starred Peter Sallis, who first agreed to do the role in exchange for a £50 donation to a children’s charity. Once the franchise took off, he became the regular lead in the popular films, also acting as the eccentric creator in adverts and video games on occasion. Sallis died in 2017, aged 96.
Creator Nick Park said that it had been difficult to work on it without its veteran star, Sallis. He was replaced by Ben Whitehead, 47, who worked with Sallis on The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
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