Apparently this film's creators didn't bring back certain key actors from the original film for fear of controversial pasts and "old" sounding voices. If that's true, and despite whether it would've hurt or not, they worried about the wrong thing. The creators should've been more concerned with the subpar writing and directing that makes this film unwatchable a 2nd time and keeps it out of my Aardman collection.
I give the animation and cinematography at least a 9 out of 10. Visually, it meets expectation. I give the story concept and voice acting at least a 7. It's sort of a typical tale of a teen rebelling against parent wishes, but at least told in a worthwhile way, and stays consistent with the action and characters to the end. The replacement voice actors do a decent job, imo. They're not as good and sometimes go through the motions (even the return actors), but they sound similar enough and don't botch it.
From those angles, this wouldn't be a bad sequel. However, everything else is well below standard for Aardman. It lacks wit, heart, originality and personality. Most jokes are straightforward, flat, overtly juvenile and overdone at times. Some of the music, additional voices and sounds do not flow. They sound cheaply done and formulaic.
It's as if the film's creators had no sense of what made people like the original film or any of the Wallace & Gromit catalogue. As if they expected to have an entirely new, unaware audience to depend on. One that didn't need to see the first film and is made up of easily-impressed 10 year-olds or moms whose film appreciation runs entirely through a kid-only, G-rated filter. There's nothing wrong with G-rated, but this effort abandoned every adult fan with a sense of humor, who appreciates subtlety and creativity - the way Aardman used to "craft" a film.
I literally only laughed at one brief scene. I rewound it a couple times because it was reminiscent of the original film. The scene involves Rocky suggesting a rescue plan that lacks plan, then Bunty and Mac give him grief over it. Mac makes a hilarious analogy which is made even funnier by her Scottish brogue.
I also thought "Reginald" was a redeeming character and played reasonably well by Peter Serafinowicz. But that was it. Nothing else stood out about this film other than how much it didn't stand out. Like someone else noted, I wanted to like this. I knew 20 minutes into that it was not going to be "great" but I watched to the end with hopes that it would at least finish "good." However, it is only just "okay" on a good day. To me, if you're going to make this effort 23 years later, why not make a proper effort?
I'm also baffled by how many reviewers "understand" why Gibson wasn't recalled. He had a degree of detractors even when he did the original film. He's still a viable and good actor today, and has been churning out films the past 3-4 years, including six in 2022. Most are rubbish, but he had a few good films and spectacular performances in the past decade.
I give the animation and cinematography at least a 9 out of 10. Visually, it meets expectation. I give the story concept and voice acting at least a 7. It's sort of a typical tale of a teen rebelling against parent wishes, but at least told in a worthwhile way, and stays consistent with the action and characters to the end. The replacement voice actors do a decent job, imo. They're not as good and sometimes go through the motions (even the return actors), but they sound similar enough and don't botch it.
From those angles, this wouldn't be a bad sequel. However, everything else is well below standard for Aardman. It lacks wit, heart, originality and personality. Most jokes are straightforward, flat, overtly juvenile and overdone at times. Some of the music, additional voices and sounds do not flow. They sound cheaply done and formulaic.
It's as if the film's creators had no sense of what made people like the original film or any of the Wallace & Gromit catalogue. As if they expected to have an entirely new, unaware audience to depend on. One that didn't need to see the first film and is made up of easily-impressed 10 year-olds or moms whose film appreciation runs entirely through a kid-only, G-rated filter. There's nothing wrong with G-rated, but this effort abandoned every adult fan with a sense of humor, who appreciates subtlety and creativity - the way Aardman used to "craft" a film.
I literally only laughed at one brief scene. I rewound it a couple times because it was reminiscent of the original film. The scene involves Rocky suggesting a rescue plan that lacks plan, then Bunty and Mac give him grief over it. Mac makes a hilarious analogy which is made even funnier by her Scottish brogue.
I also thought "Reginald" was a redeeming character and played reasonably well by Peter Serafinowicz. But that was it. Nothing else stood out about this film other than how much it didn't stand out. Like someone else noted, I wanted to like this. I knew 20 minutes into that it was not going to be "great" but I watched to the end with hopes that it would at least finish "good." However, it is only just "okay" on a good day. To me, if you're going to make this effort 23 years later, why not make a proper effort?
I'm also baffled by how many reviewers "understand" why Gibson wasn't recalled. He had a degree of detractors even when he did the original film. He's still a viable and good actor today, and has been churning out films the past 3-4 years, including six in 2022. Most are rubbish, but he had a few good films and spectacular performances in the past decade.