DreamWorks Animation SKG apparently pulled out all the stops in promoting its next animated feature at the Cannes Film Festival. The publicity stunt for the clay-animated Wallace & Gromit–The Curse of the Were-Rabbit involved 30-foot high inflatable Gromit balloon that towered over the Croissete on Thursday.
Following the morning’s fanfare at the Carlton Beach Café, the party moved into the Palais, where DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg hosted a special tribute to Aardman. An official part of the festival, the tribute featured appearances by Wallace & Gromit creator and director Nick Park, and Aardman co-founders David Sproxton and Peter Lord.
In addition to showing clips from Aardman’s Academy Award-winning Wallace and Gromit shorts and the DreamWorks/Aardman 2000 feature, Chicken Run, Katzenberg introduced a preview of Wallace & Gromit–The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and another upcoming DreamWorks/Aardman collaboration, Flushed Away. The latter will mark Aardman’s first foray into computer animated features.
Wallace & Gromit–The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is the first feature-length comedy featuring cheese-loving British inventor Wallace and his faithful canine companion, Gromit. The film features the voices of Oscar nominees Helena Bonham-Carter and Ralph Fiennes in a story that has our heroes taking on a huge, mysterious beast in order to protect the town’s Giant Vegetable Competition. The comedy, directed by Nick Park and Steve Box (Stage Fright), opens nationwide on Oct. 7.
Slated for release in November of 2006, Flushed Away will star Hugh Jackman as the voice of Roddy, a pampered rat who is flushed from his posh high-rise apartment and into Ratropolis, the bustling sewer world under London’s streets. Kate Winslet co-stars as Rita, an enterprising scavenger who helps Roddy find his way as he learns how the other half lives and becomes an unlikely hero. The film is being directed by Sam Fell and David Bowers, with Peter Lord, David Sproxton and Cecil Kramer producing.
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