The Art of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit

by Andy Lane, Paul Simpson

Chronicles the story behind the making of "Wallace & Gromit, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" with behind-the-scenes information as well as concept art, storyboards, character models, set designs, and interviews with the filmmakers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Film, Media Tie In

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

See also works published as Andrew Lane

During 2009, Macmillan Books announced that Lane would be writing a series of books focusing on the early life of Sherlock Holmes. The series was developed in conjunction with the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Lane had already shown an extensive knowledge of the Holmes character and continuity in his Virgin Books novel All-Consuming Fire in which he created The Library of St. John the Beheaded as a meeting place for the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who.

The first book in the 'Young Sherlock Holmes' series – Death Cloud – was published in the United Kingdom in June 2010 (February 2011 in the United States), with the second – Red Leech – published in the United Kingdom in November of that year (with a United States publication date under the title Rebel Fire of February 2012). The third book – Black Ice – was published in June 2011 in the UK while the fourth book – Fire Storm – was published originally in hardback in October 2011 with a paperback publication in March 2012. The fifth book, Snake Bite was published in hardback in October 2012 and the sixth book, Knife Edge was published in September 2013. Death Cloud was short-listed for both the 2010 North East Book Award. (coming second by three votes) and the 2011 Southampton's Favourite Book Award. Black Ice won the 2012 Centurion Book Award.

Early in 2012, Macmillan Children's Books announced that they would be publishing a new series by Lane, beginning in 2013. The Lost World books will follow disabled 15-year-old Calum Challenger, who is co-ordinating a search from his London bedroom to find creatures considered so rare that many do not believe they exist. Calum's intention is to use the creatures' DNA to help protect the species, but also to search for a cure for his own paralysis. His team comprises a computer hacker, a free runner, an ex-marine and a pathological liar.

Reviews

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More picture available at parkablogs.com)

I love the movie Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit. It is stop motion goodness and the soundtrack is fantastic as well. This book is pretty good also. While the book is titled "art of", it's actually more of a "making of" book.

Nick Park and Steve Box are the directors. They are also artists and did most of the illustrations, concepts and storyboards for the film. Most of them can be seem, together with illustrations and sketches from other artists as well.

As with any good "making of" book, this book takes an in depth look at how the shots are created. In this case, four scenes are pulled out, namely The Anti-pesto Launch Sequence, Gromit Chases the Were-rabbit, The Beast Within and The Finale. There are storyboard comparisons with film stills, some photos on the set and characters. Captions provided by the crew talks about the technical challenges faced during production.

On the story side, there are write up on the history of Wallace and Gromit, the early developments, characters, sets and inventions. All provide for interesting read into the back stories and how their aid the movie plot.

This is a great book for those into stop motion animation, as well as fans of the movie.

This review was first published on parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute movie adaptation. Nice chapter book for elementary-schoolers.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stylistically, this book isn't mesmerizing to look at. But that was never Aardman's aim in the first place. Wallace & Gromit's world is made to be a sort of realistic plasticine world where everything's a little chunkier. Which is why, in my eyes, this book does not lose points for its design. It is very much Wallace & Gromit-esque. It has a light-hearted feel to the book, just like with Aardman's comedic animations.

The contents are portioned well, with topics being equally distributed over about 2 pages each. When there's less text, there are more pictures. Overall, I'd say you're getting a good amount of both. Also ladled in are joke dialogues from the movie. These have a good British sense of humour and I found reminded me partly why the movie was such an enjoyable experience. After having read this book, I feel like rewatching the movie (again)!

I am thoroughly satisfied with what I've read and to my pleasure, they'd started off past works of Wallace & Gromit. Furthermore, talking about their shorts and beginnings, these were not just thrown in there as filler whatsoever. The passages ties in information from all of their films prior to the publication of this book and uses that to discuss the development of the characters and the world.

To end this off, something I've yet to see in any other art book is the fact that THROUGHOUT this entire book, there are short notes indicating Easter eggs in the film. They make you very aware of the homages it pays and is definitely a testament to Nick Park's knowledge of pop culture, thought put into detail and desire to go that extra mile for a crack of a smirk.

[Amber Butler]

Good :D

[Kevin de Ataíde · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very simply written and with lots of glossy pictures, a treat for the eyes and a good coffee table book.

[Katie]

Oh My gosh. Cool.

[Gregory Patrick]

I might be okay