Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1530710
o c t o b e r • n o v e m b e r • d e c e m b e r 2 0 2 2 c g w 7 N etflix's Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a new stop-motion animated feature from Aardman that's set for release here in the States on January 3rd. The project was di- rected by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham, and is the latest installment to feature the well-meaning inventor and his loyal canine companion. Gromit is concerned that Wallace has become too dependent on his own inventions. This proves true when Wallace creates a "smart" gnome—known as a Norbot—that develops a mind of its own when corrupted by a vengeful figure from the past—jewel thief Feathers McGraw. Gromit now has to battle sinister forces and save his mas- ter. Will Becher served as supervising animator on the project, which has been in production for more than a year. On average, an animator produces 4.2 seconds of animation each week. With as many as 30 animators working on the film during peak production times, a little over two minutes of animation was produced each week. Actor Ben Whitehead recorded more than 20 hours of dialogue takes for Wallace's performance. This film comes 19 years since the Oscar-winning feature Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rab- bit. Here, Becher shares insight into Aardman's animation process, the tools they use, and how the film came together in time for its Christmas release in the UK. Will, tell us about your history with Aardman and how you got involved in this project? Will Becher (WB): Everyone who works on the project at Aardman is an Aardman partner. That's what we call ourselves because the two founders of the company, they made it employee-owned sev- eral years ago. So, anyone working on the film—working at Aardman on an Aardman project—is brought in on a regular sort of contract for that whole job. I've been an Aardman employee, working on Wallace & Gromit, and I have been on all the films essentially over the years. I've had different roles on each one. Between Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit, and Shaun the Sheep, the studio has been steadily busy over the past 20 years. WB: Yeah, I started actually on Chicken Run [2000]. The first Chicken Run film was my first job in the industry…I came in, did work, made some chicken wings, and really, I've worked on every film since then… We've actually had a really good run of features…When we're not making feature films, we still have the studios and a lot of the crew. We tend to work on series and commercials, but also, we have the other departments to do things like interactive and events. We've got this big events team who do things like create sort of theme-park rides and things using the Aardman characters. So it's quite a broad range of things. But the animation team particularly that I work with, we will generally work on features or series, and the series tend to fit in-between the features. Tell us about the weekly review meetings you have regarding the progress of the animation. Will Becher has worked with Aardman since Chicken Run (2000).