Various Trivia:
The movie won the Academy Award for "Best Animated Feature", the second DreamWorks picture to achieve this after the inaugural Shrek. It's also the second non-American film to receive this honour, and the second non-computer animated film (the first in both cases was Spirited Away), and would be the last one until Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio won 17 years later. It also won the British Academy Film Awards' "Best British Film", the British Comedy Awards' "Best Comedy Film", and the Hugo Award for "Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form", among many others. It's currently the second highest-grossing stop-motion film ever, behind Aardman's own Chicken Run.
Trivia Tropes:
- Accent Depundent: This exchange, which depends on the second character's very posh RP accent.Wallace: [on phone] Just stay right where you are, Your Ladyship, and we'll be with you in an... (gets yanked upstairs) Aaahhh!
Lady Tottington: In an hour?note I can't wait an hour. I have a major infestation! - Acting for Two:
- Peter Sallis voiced Wallace and Hutch. This is carried over to the various foreign dubs.
- According to Nick Park, some of Wallace's lines were actually recorded by Ben Whitehead, who also voiced Mr. Leaching. Whitehead went on to voice Wallace for specific projects whenever Sallis was unavailable, and became the character's permanent voice in 2010 when Sallis retired from acting altogether.
- Completely Different Title: In Latin America, the film is titled "La Batalla de los Vegetales" ("Battle of the Vegetables").
- Creator Backlash: While neither had ever spoken ill of the film, Nick Park and Peter Sallis have separately stated that the characters of Wallace and Gromit work much better in shorts than in a feature. This could be due to the executive meddling that happened during the production.
- Cross-Dressing Voices: Mark Gatiss as Miss Blight.
- Deleted Scene: One from the beginning of the film. It involved PC Mackintosh coming across a poster for the vegetable competition when walking down the street, and remarking the citizens as "vegetable mad". He would then see a rabbit-shaped shadow behind him and turn around, only to reveal that it was actually a moth's shadow amplified by a streetlight. DreamWorks Animation apparently forgot to inform the merchandisers, though, as some storybooks and similar promoting the film mention the scene as if it were in the final movie.
- Directed by Cast Member: The Latin American Spanish dub was directed by Herman López, who was one of the additional voices.
- Dueling Movies: With Corpse Bride, another stop-motion film starring Helena Bonham Carter. Both films were nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, with Curse of the Were-Rabbit winning. Although if Word of God is anything to go by, both parties were very supportive of one another. The two films even share the same post-production team.
- DVD Commentary: With directors and co-writers Nick Park and Steve Box.
- Executive Meddling: This film was really where Aardman began to feel the pressure from DreamWorks Animation which would eventually lead to them breaking off their contract two films early. Jeff Katzenberg pushed Nick Park to "Americanize" some aspects of the film, such as the designs of Wallace's car and even replace Peter Sallis with a more famous American actor. He also wanted the film to have Denser and Wackier humor in the wake of the success of Shrek. Aardman politely but firmly dismissed these suggestions, eventually compromising by casting well-known British actors like Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter, while keeping Sallis in the title role, and toning down the British accents. They also re-dubbed almost every mention of marrows to "melon", in the US release, because DWA thought most Americans wouldn't know what a marrow was.note
- Extremely Lengthy Creation: The film took five years to make. Production started not long after the release of Chicken Run.
- Kids' Meal Toy: The movie's Burger King toyline from 2005 would be the last time BK licensed from Aardman.
- No Budget: The budget for this movie was only $30 million, the smallest budget in DreamWorks Animation history as of 2023.
- Orphaned Reference: The "veg bad" spiel that Wallace gives to the rabbits in order to brainwash them is meant to completely echo the "cheese bad" spiel he gives to himself when the Mind-Manipulation-O-Matic first appears. Notice that he doesn't show any interest in cheese after that moment until Gromit used a slice of Stinkin' Bishop to revive him. In the final film, Lady Tottington's call interrupts him just before he turns the machine on.
- The Other Darrin: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Alejandro Villeli voices Wallace instead of Alfredo Sandoval.
- Real-Life Relative: Herman López directed the Latin American Spanish dub and was one of the additional voices, while his then-wife Norma Iturbe voiced Miss Thripp.
- The Red Stapler: The Stinking Bishop cheese
is featured in a plot-critical moment. Sales of this niche culinary product rose by 500% after the film was released. - Same Content, Different Rating: While the film received a PG rating in the United Kingdom, it and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron are the only Dreamworks films to receive a G rating in the United States.
- Two Voices, One Character: Though Peter Sallis reprised his role as Wallace, Ben Whitehead voiced some of the character's additional dialogue.
- What Could Have Been:
- The planned opening sequence was much gloomier and mysterious, with shots of the camera roving through moorland while a sinister rendition of the movie’s Leitmotif played. This was replaced by the warmer and humorous sequence of the camera scrolling through photographs of Wallace and Gromit.
- Wendolene from "A Close Shave" was originally supposed to return with Wallace as her gardener, but as production moved on, she was replaced with Lady Tottington.
- The design for the Were-Rabbit was much more ferocious-looking and bigger, but was toned down to make it less scary.
- At one point, Wallace would have written a song for Anti-Pesto, which he would have played on a ukulele early in the Film, and later in bed. Some lyrics in the Song would have also referred to their window cleaning business from "A Close Shave".
- This would've played a part in an even bigger subplot. It would be revealed that Wallace took up the ukulele because he wanted to join a band. Unfortunately, the band kept rejecting him because his playing wasn't good enough. When Hutch begins to act like Wallace later in the movie, he would be successfully inducted into the band, leading to Wallace and Gromit having to get him back.
- One version of the ending would have featured Lady Tottington marrying PC Mackintosh and have Wallace and Gromit dumping the rabbits over the Yorkshire border. In the audio commentary for this particular final scene, Nick Park stated that test audiences hated it because Wallace didn’t marry Lady Tottington. The supposed Downer Ending was quickly scrapped, but the Yorkshire border joke was reused in a later short.
- One version of the ending had Wallace left with the rabbit ears after changing back from the Were-Rabbit, necessitating Wallace and Hutch going through the Mind-Manipulation-O-Matic a second time to change Wallace back and leaving Hutch a normal rabbit again. In the final version, Wallace's brief detransformation sequence during his Disney Death shows his human ears still having the Were-Rabbit's fur on them during the last shot before he is fully human again. (This is why Lady Tottington's mouth movements don't match when she says, "The Rabbit's gone," as her original line, "In Bunny Heaven" was redubbed.)
- The prize was originally a silver carrot since traditionally silver bullets kill a werewolf, which is why some tie-in media shows a silver trophy. It was changed to a gold one during production for the sake of the "24-carat" joke.
- The Victor Quartermaine character was once known as Tristrum, and was originally written into the script as Lady Tottington's son.
- Working Title: The film was originally planned to be titled "Wallace and Gromit: The Great Vegetable Plot". However, it was rejected in favor of its current title due to it being disliked by market researchers, arguing that "vegetables are a negative with kids".
The video game contains examples of:
- The Other Darrin: Whilst the majority of the cast (even the small roles) have the cast reprising their roles from the film, Victor, PC Mackintosh and Mr Growbag are voiced by Kayvan Novak , Dean Williamson and Nick Haverson rather than Ralph Fiennes, Peter Kay and Edward Kelsey.
