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Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is the first (and, to date, only) feature-length animated film featuring Wallace & Gromit. Released in 2005, it was described by Aardman themselves as the world's first "vegetable horror movie". It was the second co-production between DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Animations (with the former only having worldwide distribution rights as Aardman owns the film outright), as well as being Aardman's second full-length feature film, after Chicken Run. Series creator Nick Park directed with Steve Box, who'd animated on A Close Shave and had previously directed the BAFTA-winning short Stage Fright, serving as co-director.

Due to rabbits disrupting the town's annual vegetable competition, the duo run a humane pest control service. Wallace falls in love with one of their clients, Lady Tottington, who is also being courted by an arrogant aristocratic hunter named Victor Quartermaine. A much larger threat is then posed by a nocturnal beast ravaging the townspeople's vegetables, which the vicar claims is a were-rabbit. Lady Tottington chooses Wallace and Gromit's humane capture methods over Victor's suggestion to shoot the monster. The duo set out to capture the beast before the contest, but things go awry when they learn the beast's true identity.


The Curse of the Were-Rabbit provides examples of:

  • Abhorrent Admirer: Victor Quartermaine to Lady Tottington; the former is a classist, arrogant, Egomaniac Hunter who thinks Murder Is the Best Solution to pest issues while the latter is a friendly Animal Lover, so they don't exactly get on from the start. This only worsens over the course of the film as Victor's ego and dislike of Wallace turn him into more and more of a Jerkass, culminating in his promotion to full-blown Big Bad when he tries to Murder the Hypotenuse.
  • Aborted Arc: When Wallace is unable to repair the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic, Hutch begins doing so instead. Unfortunately, they are interrupted, and it never comes into play again. In fact, Hutch being easily distracted also screws up Gromit's plan to distract Were-Rabbit Wallace with the marrow, resulting in the poor vegetable being destroyed. Wallace is instead cured of his kounanthropy by being exposed to the smell of Stinking Bishop, and Hutch retains Wallace's voice and personality. A Deleted Scene involved Wallace having to use the repaired Mind Manipulation-O-Matic to fully cure himself after transforming back but with rabbit ears still.
  • Absent-Minded Professor: Wallace, as usual. He's a brilliant inventor, but is rather bumbling and clumsy in day-to-day life, often missing things that are obvious to others even in spite of Gromit's efforts to point them out to him.
  • Accidental Public Confession: Everybody thinks Victor killed the beast, but when he whispers the truth to PC, he forgets he's holding a megaphone, allowing everybody to hear it.
    Victor Quartermaine: [whispering] Listen, I don't want to cause any panic, but the beast isn't actually dead yet.
    PC: [through the megaphone] THE BEAST ISN'T ACTUALLY DEAD YET?!
    Everybody Else: What?!
    [They all stare at Victor and PC in shock. Victor facepalms]
    PC: [through the megaphone] Oops.
    [The crowd immediately gets a Mass "Oh, Crap!"]
  • Actor Allusion: Peter Sallis had previously appeared in The Curse of the Werewolf.
  • Adaptational Badass: A mild example, but Wallace is in general a lot more on-the-ball here than he is in the shorts, and notably plays an uncharacteristically active role in the climax as opposed to being a Distressed Dude.
  • Adaptation Expansion: The town Wallace and Gromit live in is greatly expanded on in terms of cast.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal:
    • Wallace's invention: the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic.
    • When Victor confronts Wallace over their shared fancy for Lady Tottington: "I'm not about to let some puddle-headed peasant poach her from me!"
  • Affectionate Parody: Of Hammer Horror films.
  • All There in the Script:
    • The Vicar's name is never mentioned throughout the film. We only find out that it is Reverend Clement Hedges on the end credits.
    • PC. Mackintosh's first name is Albert.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Zig-zagged. Lady Tottington is a kind, generous Friend to All Living Things, but her suitor Lord Victor Quartermaine is a Trigger-Happy cad who eventually cements himself as the Big Bad when he seizes on The Reveal of the Were-Rabbit's identity as an excuse to Murder the Hypotenuse.
  • Artistic License – Biology:
    • Rabbits are physically incapable of burping. Rule of Funny applies, of course.
    • The rabbits in the film have pig-like noses, while real rabbits have small triangular noses. Real rabbits don't have paw pads either.
  • Artistic License – Gun Safety:
    • Even if he just fired his gun, Victor should know better than to wave it around in a crowded area like a church full of people.
    • The blunderbuss Victor uses in the climax should have been deactivated before it could be sold as an antique.
    • Victor's "Shut Up!" Gunshot at the church demonstrates some realism when a stone angel falls from above a few seconds after he fires and barely misses Philip, likely having been knocked loose by the bullet.
  • Artistic License – Space: There's a full moon for four nights in a row. A full moon can only occur once (or twice for a blue moon) a month.
  • Aside Glance: Gromit frequently gives these to the camera in response to Wallace's antics or the town's Skewed Priorities.
  • Assurance Backfire:
    Wallace: I haven't tested [the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic] yet, but it should be perfectly safe. Just a bit of harmless brain alteration, that's all! [Gromit is visibly panicked]
  • Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: On hearing that their vegetables will be used as bait to attract the Were-Rabbit, Mrs. Mulch flees with her Pumpkin, whilst the townsfolk yell at her "Come back! Come back!". The Were-Rabbit then approaches, prompting her to about turn. Cue villagers now yelling "Go away! Go away!"
  • Attack of the Town Festival: The Tottingtons' annual Giant Vegetable Competition. Since the eponymous creature is a giant rabbit, it's only interested in the produce, but the people treat the festival as Serious Business and are not happy about their hard-grown vegetables (or their chances at winning the competition) being threatened.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Anti-Pesto's Rube Goldberg alarm is certainly clever, but is rendered useless if the kettle is knocked over. The film might have gone a lot differently if Gromit had woken up to the alarm to find Wallace missing during the Were-Rabbit's first attack.
  • Background Body Part: Lady Tottington gets a background halo, along with a set of background wings, when she advocates trapping the Were-Rabbit humanely. Lord Victor Quartermaine, who wants to just shoot it, gets a pair of background horns.
  • Bait-and-Switch:
    • At first the movie cleverly fools you into thinking that Hutch is the Were-Rabbit, but as it turns out Hutch is simply a Were-Wallace. The real Were-Rabbit was Wallace.
    • When the Were-Rabbit breaks into someone's garden and eats their vegetables that are protected by Anti-Pesto, it cuts to Gromit waking up, suggesting the last scene was just a nightmare. He was actually woken up by the sound of the alarms on the portraits of Anti-Pesto clients.
  • Big Bad: The were-rabbit, as the creature responsible for ravaging the town's vegetables and causing general disruption. Subverted after The Reveal; the were-rabbit isn't actually that malicious, considering it's actually Wallace himself. Victor takes up the Big Bad role in his place by trying to murder the transformed Wallace repeatedly.
  • Big Damn Movie: The first feature-length movie featuring Wallace and Gromit after three short films.
  • Big "NO!":
    • Near the end of the chase scene on the second night of the Were-Rabbit's rampage, the lady who just locked her greenhouse full of carrots does one when the Were-Rabbit tunnels underneath and the carrots disappear into the ground.
    • Victor yells this in frustration when Gromit uses his plane to take the bullet meant for Were-Rabbit Wallace.
    • Before that, when Were-Rabbit Wallace just broke off the pipe he's climbing from, sending him tumbling down to the cotton candy machine.
  • Big "YES!": After the Were-Rabbit is seemingly shot by Victor and the townsfolk hear the echo, the Vicar is sombre for a moment, then suddenly yells "YEAH!" and the townsfolk start celebrating (save for Lady Tottington).
  • Bland-Name Product: Wallace and Gromit have a "Smug" fridge, replacing a real Smeg model.
  • Bling-Bling-BANG!: Subverted. The reverend points out to Victor that gold bullets don't come cheap due to being made out of, well, gold. After wasting all three, Victor's forced to jury-rig another bullet by himself using the contest's trophy, an elephant gun and a box of fireworks.
  • Body Horror: Wallace transforming into the Were-Rabbit.
  • Bungling Inventor: Wallace, natch. It's him accidentally kicking the "Suck/Blow" switch on the Bun-Vac that causes him to be infused with rabbit DNA and become the Were-Rabbit.
  • Canon Immigrant: Wallace's Indian next-door neighbor Mr. Caliche originally appeared in the comics, where he was named Mr. Patel.
  • Cassandra Truth: Wallace initially doesn't believe Gromit about the were-rabbit being himself, despite the fact that he is still sporting rabbit ears. It isn't until he finds that Hutch has become a rabbit version of himself that he believes it, realizing what had happened.
  • Cast of Snowflakes: As this is the most densely-populated installment of Wallace and Gromit and only the second to feature more than one human character, there's a conscious effort for all of the human characters to look more distinct than simply "Wallace wearing a hat/wig."
  • Chekhov's Boomerang: The "female rabbit". First Wallace and Gromit attempt to catch the were-rabbit with it, and then Gromit leads the were-rabbit away from Victor with it. Finally, Gromit dresses Victor in it to decoy the mob.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • The marrow Gromit is growing for the vegetable competition comes back in the climax when Gromit reluctantly uses it as bait for the Were-Rabbit. It survives the Were-Rabbit... until Hutch's decision to go to the cheese tent sends Gromit flying into and squashing it.
    • The giant carrot in Lady Tottington's vegetable garden. She shows it first to Wallace when he visits her the second time, then she uses it in the climax to knock Victor out.
    • Cheese. Eating so much of it has caused Wallace to put on weight. At the end, thanks to Hutch, Gromit gets the idea to revive Wallace from his Disney Death with a piece of Stinking Bishop cheese.
    • The bouncy Tottington Hall just appears as one of the festival attractions earlier, and then it breaks Philip's fall after his aerial battle with Gromit, allowing him to participate in Victor's Humiliation Conga.
    • The Golden Carrot trophy for the vegetable competition. Turns out it really is 24 carat - gold, that is - and that makes it a perfect substitute for killing the Were-Rabbit after Victor runs out of actual golden bullets.
  • Chirping Crickets: The constable accidentally repeating "The beast isn't actually dead yet?!" in his megaphone provokes a Mass "Oh, Crap!" at the fair. The heavy silence that follows is punctuated by a candy floss falling from its stick and rolling around like a tumbleweed. Then everybody panics.
  • Civilized Animal: Gromit is usually depicted as walking upright, and is capable of creating and operating complex machinery. Generally, he's shown to be significantly more shrewd and sensible than his master. However, despite all of this, everyone treats him the same as you treat any dog.
  • The Coats Are Off: When confronting Wallace, Victor removes his coat and hangs it on the axe handle to teach him a "jolly-good lesson".
  • Continuity Nod:
    • In the montage of portraits in the beginning, orange rockets resembling the one seen in A Grand Day Out appear on the wall.
    • Wallace and Gromit's automated process for getting out of bed and dressed into their Anti-Pesto uniforms is repurposed from their system to head out on their window washing jobs in A Close Shave. The scene is deliberately shot and scored similarly to the sequence in said short.
    • Upon witnessing the Were-Rabbit's transformation, Victor's toupée flies off, just as it did earlier when the Bun-Vac sucked it down a rabbit hole.
    • Victor does it again when he mentions Lady Tottington having "a spot of rabbit bother" when it looks like the competition will have to be called off. He used the same words to Lady Tottington the first time we saw him.
    • The dog-fight between Gromit and Philip, during which the plane stops because the coin has run out and another one has to be inserted, is one to the first short and Wallace and Gromit's fight with the coin-operated robot.
    • Speaking of A Grand Day Out, there are shots of the open cellar door showing the moon in the sky, which is almost exactly like a similar couple of shots in that short.
    • Three phrases Hutch in "Were-Wallace" mode spouts are from The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, respectively.
    • When Wallace leaves Gromit alone in the van, he's parked outside a hairdresser called A Close Shave.
  • Contrived Coincidence: The Vicar's golden bullets just happen to fit Victor's rifle.
  • Couldn't Find a Tissue: When Wallace is crying over not wanting to be a were-rabbit, he blows his nose on his rabbit ears.
  • Create Your Own Villain: Wallace accidentally creates (well, becomes) the titular Were-Rabbit after an experiment to get the rabbits to stop eating vegetables Goes Horribly Wrong.
  • Creative Closing Credits: Rabbits float past as if in the holding tank of the Bun-Vac. Some of them do ballet tricks, some glow bright colours as if radioactive, and some join with their fellows and share an Eskimo Kiss. The last rabbit bumps its head on the paragraph promising that No Animals Were Harmed.
  • Creator Cameo: There's two portraits of directors Nick Park and Steve Box (blink and you'll miss it) in the parsonage before the door slams shut.
  • Cute Critters Act Childlike: All the bunnies are very adorable and make high-pitched cutesy sounds as if they were little kids.
  • Cute Giant: The Were-Rabbit. Despite being many times larger than the average rabbit, it's still, well, a rabbit.
  • Cut Phone Lines: Played for laughs. After the were-rabbit's mass destruction of vegetables, Wallace is taking all the telephone calls with the complaints from customers, answering several handsets at once. He finally puts an end to it by pulling the plug out of the wall.
  • Dark Reprise: A somber version of the Wallace and Gromit theme is played when Gromit sees Wallace transforming back to normal.
  • Defanged Horrors: The film uses lots of horror movie tropes, but the monster steals and eats vegetables instead of killing people.
  • Delayed Safety Feature: Gromit deploys the car's lasso and successfully lassoes the Were-Rabbit. After a bumpy, high-speed tow-along where the car slips, skids and bumps into things, eventually the rope snaps and the Were-Rabbit escapes. Gromit pounds the steering wheel with his fist in disappointment, and that is when the airbag deploys in his face.
  • Did Not Get the Girl: Despite an enormous amount of innuendo whenever the two of them are both on screen and there being heavy hints that Lady Trottington returns Wallace’s affections, Wallace and Lady Tottington do not end up together, though they do ultimately become close friends and create a nature preserve for bunnies.
  • Disney Death: Were-Rabbit Wallace, after jumping from the roof of Tottington Hall to save Gromit's plummeting plane. He appears to be dead, but then Gromit waves a slice of Stinking Bishop under his nose and he jumps right up like nothing happened.
  • Disney Villain Death: Subverted with Philip. He falls from Gromit's plane in the climax and his teeth deflate the bouncy castle he lands on, but he survives.
  • Dramatic Irony: When Lady Tottington brings troubling news to Wallace that she's (reluctantly) given Victor the go-ahead to kill the were-rabbit, she sadly notes that as far as she's concerned, Wallace has no idea where the monster is. She could not be further from the truth.
  • Dramatic Thunder: Spoofed.
    Reverend Hedges: To kill such a beast would require nerves of steel and... [dramatic pause] a bullet. [thunderclap]
    Victor Quartermaine: A bullet? [thunder]
    Reverend Hedges: A bullet! [thunder]
    Victor Quartermaine: A bu— [thunder plays again; Victor slams the shutters of a nearby window shut, annoyed] What kind of bullet?
  • Dreamworks Face: Gromit sports one on the poster.
  • Driver Faces Passenger: Wallace to Gromit while Gromit is operating the female rabbit puppet, causing him to crash the puppet against the roof of a tunnel they're heading into. Hutch does this as well while he and Gromit lead Wallace-as-the-Were-Rabbit away from the people in the vegetable competition and winds up driving into a cheese tent.
  • Dumbass Has a Point: On the morning after the second night of the Were-Rabbit running loose, Wallace scolds Gromit for not waiting for him to return with an alternative trap. While Gromit had only done it to try and stop the Were-Rabbit from going too far, and at the time, neither of them were aware of the fact that Wallace is the Were-Rabbit, Wallace is correct in that they aren't in a position where they have any time for distractions or pleasure-seeking, not to mention the state of jeopardy the vegetable competition is in because of it all.
  • Dusting Off Your Hands: The villain, Victor Quartermaine, has been going after Wallace because they're both interested in the same girl. Gromit dresses Victor in a female rabbit suit that he and Wallace used to lure the Were-Rabbit. Then he shoves him out the door, causing the mob after the Were-Rabbit to go after Victor. Dusting his paws with a Death Glare at the villain, he returns to the tent to take care of his master.
  • Egomaniac Hunter: He isn't called Quartermaine for nothing. Almost never seen without rifle in hand and his hunting dog at his side, for Victor hunting isn't just his livelihood, it's his entire life. Even his attempts to woo Lady Tottington are intended to add another trophy to his collection.
    Victor Quartermaine: [on the were-rabbit, noticing the huge rabbit-shaped hole in the church window] It's a big fellow, perhaps... but a mortal creature of flesh and blood. A matter easily dealt with by a hunter. [flourishes gun]
  • "Eureka!" Moment:
    • Gromit gets a lot of these. Sometimes he accentuates them with a finger snap.
    • Thanks to a comment made by Lady Tottington, Wallace has one, where he gets the idea to brainwash the rabbits he and Gromit have captured with the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic into hating vegetables. It's even highlighted by the light atop their truck coming on.
    • A villainous example occurs during the climax, when Gromit speeds away in a hijacked toy plane taken from a toy plane ride. Philip sees him, then sees the sign above the planes ride says "DOGFIGHT".
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Victor sees Wallace and Lady Tottington falling in love, he thinks that Wallace is a Gold Digger like him and is only interested in Tottington's wealth.
  • Evil Counterpart: Victor and Philip to Wallace and Gromit, respectively. Both of them deal with pests, but the latter deal with them non-lethally, while the former deal with them lethally. Both Wallace and Victor also want to have a relationship with Lady Tottington, but Wallace genuinely loves her, while Victor wants to marry her for her wealth. Both Wallace and Victor are also bald, with the latter hiding said baldness with a toupee.
  • Eyelash Fluttering: When Wallace and Gromit first show up to rid the Tottington manor of rabbits, Lady Tottington brushes off Victor's flirting and secretly bats her eyes at Wallace to show she likes him instead.
  • The Faceless: For the first half of the movie, the Were-Rabbit is not fully visible on-screen. We see things from its POV, we see its shadow, and we see the hole in the shape of its outline it leaves in the church's stained-glassed window (one of a couple of references to Bugs Bunny), but we never get a clear look at its face. It is actually fully visible a couple of times during the scene where Gromit pursues it in the Anti-Pesto van, but only for a fraction of a second. The first time we get to clearly see the Were-Rabbit in full is when Wallace transforms into it on-screen.
  • Face Palm: Gromit's common reaction to the foolishness surrounding him. Victor, as well, after PC Mackintosh accidentally blurts out "The beast isn't actually dead yet?!" into the megaphone.
  • Failed A Spotcheck: Apparently none of the townsfolk noticed the ''gigantic rabbit-shaped hole' in one of the church's windows before the vicar points it out.
  • Fireworks of Victory: After Victor seemingly kills the Were-Rabbit, the residents take a moment to console Lady Tottington and then immediately begin celebrating, complete with fireworks. Played with in that a) it's revealed seconds later that Victor hit a decoy instead, and b) the Were-Rabbit's death wouldn't count as a victory for the audience, because he's actually Wallace.
  • Five-Second Foreshadowing: Played for laughs when, after receiving a call from Lady Tottington, Wallace comments to Gromit that he thinks they're about to go up in the world. Seconds later, he accidentally hits a button on the control panel in front of him, causing his invention to haul him up into the ceiling.
  • Flintstone Theming:
    • In a variation on the running gag of Gromit's canine-themed library, Wallace is shown to have a shelf of cheese-related books, such as East of Edam and Grated Expectations.
    • The music Gromit plays to encourage the vegetables to grow includes Gustav Holst's The Plants and Elvis Parsley singing "Blue Swede Shoes".
  • Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: At one point, when Gromit disguises himself as a female Were-Rabbit to lure the Were-Rabbit to safety, the Were-Rabbit pinches the female Were-Rabbit's tail.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Victor Quartermaine is more into the idea of marriage than Lady Tottington, and subsequent scenes show some level of incompatibility between them, implying there's something not quite right with the relationship.
    • When Lady Tottington thanks Wallace for getting rid of a "real problem", the camera lingers on Victor, as though hinting she'll have the same sentiment by the end about Wallace ridding of her unwanted suitor.
    • Early on, when the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic begins to go wrong, Wallace hops like a rabbit.
    • The morning after the first Were-Rabbit rampage, Gromit looks into the kitchen and sees the fridge door open and the cheese dish left on the floor, with bits of half-eaten cheese around it.
    • The first time Gromit encounters the Were-Rabbit and gives chase just so happens to be minutes after Wallace mysteriously disappears to retrieve one of the traps they intend to catch it with, and the previously-clouded moon becomes visible.
  • Four-Fingered Hands: Gromit. Also the hands on many of Wallace's inventions.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: It seems like every frame of animation has a joke in it somewhere. A notable example are the Dog Latin names in "The Observer's Book of Monsters": Loch Ness Monster — touristis trappus, Bigfoot — enormyious flippus-floppus, were-cow — numerous pedulus udderis, and, of course, were-rabbit — carrotus apetitus giganticus.
    • The same scene also shows Reverend Hedges' cabinet where he keeps the gold bullets is filled with garlic and wooden stakes, implying that he's Crazy-Prepared when it comes to vampires.
  • Freudian Slip: Victor does a couple of these in regards to the Were-Rabbit after finding out its identity. It bites him in the butt later on.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Lady Tottington, even to the point of not wanting the Were-Rabbit to be shot.
  • Funny Background Event:
    • The vicar's greenhouse has a stained glass window, depicting three angels blowing trumpets, and three mortals with pained expressions and their hands over their ears.
    • When Lady Tottington defends the Were-Rabbit from Victor, the former sniffs Tottington's carrot-like headpiece and takes a bite out of it.
  • Fun with Homophones: After Victor's wig is sucked up by the Bun-Vac 6000:
    Victor: I want...toupée, please.
    Wallace: Oh, grand. We take cheque or cash—
    Victor: Toupée, you idiot! My hair is in your machine!
    Wallace: Oh no, it's only rabbits in there. The hare, I think you'll find, is a much larger mammal.
  • Gassy Scare: When Wallace and Gromit find an oversized rabbit in their basement with all the other rabbits trembling and terrified, they assume they've found the rampaging were-rabbit. Wallace gets a metal grabber and holds onto the rabbit by its neck. Then the rabbit starts twitching and grunting like it's about to transform, only to finally force a huge belch past the metal around its neck. The other rabbits let out a sigh of relief, and Gromit waves the stink away from his nose.
  • Genius Ditz: Wallace's inventions range from malfunctioning Rube Goldberg-esque devices to clever and groundbreaking gadgets — which also have a tendency to malfunction. Notably, he seems more competent in the feature film than in most of the shorts. Notably, in spite of his general slowness he manages to invent an actual mind control device in this film, going well beyond the usual Rube Goldberg machines into full-on sci-fi territory.
  • Glowing Mechanical Eyes: In Wallace and Gromit's house, there is a wall of portraits of their "valued clients", whose eyes flash when one of their vegetable protection alarms is activated. After the were-rabbit's first rampage, all their eyes are flashing at once, which dissolves to the actual clients angrily surrounding Wallace in the church.
  • Gold Digger: Victor's already a rich nobleman, but he was wooing Lady Tottington solely for her money.
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: Wallace's attempt at brainwashing the rabbits out of their veg-eating habits results in the creation of a monster one hundred times worse than the rabbits had been.
  • Go Through Me: Lady Tottington, after she realises the Were-Rabbit is Wallace, attempts to protect him from Victor.
  • Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Phillip, Victor's dog, and Gromit, near the end.
  • Growling Gut: Wallace's stomach rumbles a few times.
  • Hair-Raising Hare: The rabbits are seen this way by the townsfolk and tend to be quite mischievous. Then the Were-Rabbit comes along...
  • Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: The montage of photos at the beginning show that Wallace used to have a full head of hair and a mustache.
  • Hands Looking Wrong: Both times Wallace turns into the titular Were-Rabbit, he realizes the transformation is occurring when he looks at his hands and sees them change into rabbit paws.
  • Heel–Face Brainwashing: While the rabbits were more of just a nuisance due to the town's Giant Vegetable Competition, Wallace decides to try and brainwash some of the rabbits in their storage to convince them to not eat vegetables for a while so they can be safely released and they can have more room. This doesn't work out.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: During the climax, Were-Rabbit Wallace jumps onto Gromit's falling plane to break its fall. He gets better though.
  • High-Class Gloves: Lady Tottington wears a white pair.
  • Holy Pipe Organ: Spoofed. During the town meeting scene, the pipe organ in the church continues to play dramatic stings after the Vicar is done talking. PC Mackintosh yells at the organist to stop and so she shuts the keyboard cover. Pipe organ music is then absent from the rest of the scene's Background Music.
  • Homemade Inventions: As is par for the course in Wallace and Gromit. The Mind Manipulation-O-Matic in particular is what kickstarts the main plot.
  • Horns of Villainy: Invoked and parodied. During the meeting of the town's citizens in regard to how to deal with the creature that has been seen around their town, just before Lady Tottington makes an address, Victor is shown with two pairs of spikes behind his head, making it look like he has devil horns. In addition, Tottington has an angel sculpture behind her which gives her the appearance of having wings.
  • Human-to-Werewolf Footprints: Reversed. Originally, they thought that the were-rabbit prints were leading to the basement and that Hutch was the culprit. Then Gromit closes the door and sees that not only do the prints continue past the basement door, they change into human prints as they lead towards Wallace's bedroom.
  • Humiliation Conga: At the end, Victor gets smacked by Lady Tottington with a giant carrot, stuffed into a rabbit suit, sent out to be chased away by the mob, and bitten on the tail of the suit by Phillip.
  • The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Victor, after a fashion, at the end of the film. Gromit dresses him up in the female rabbit costume and sends him out to the mob, who chase him away.
  • Hurricane of Puns: More like a perfect storm of puns.
    • The cheese-themed classic titles behind which Wallace's secret cheese dish is hidden.
    • The climax is also very groan-heavy.
  • Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Gromit as per usual, although Wallace is more competent in this film.
  • Hypocrite: Victor accuses Wallace of trying to swindle Lady Tottington out of her fortune, when that's exactly what Victor is trying to do with her.
    Victor: I know your little secret, Pesto! I know exactly what's going on!
    Wallace: Your Lordship?
    Victor: Oh, yes. You think you can pilfer my filly, don't you? You think you can con an innocent woman out of her fortune!?!?
    Wallace: Who, me?
    Victor: Well, I got here first! I've spent a lot of time reeling in that fluffy-headed bunny-lover, and I'm not about to let some puddle-headed peasant poach her from me! Comprenez?!
  • Idea Bulb: When Wallace gets the idea to use his brainwashing machine to make the rabbits he has captured hate vegetables, the light on his van turns on... though that was Gromit's doing.
  • Impact Silhouette:
    • The Were-Rabbit leaves a Were-Rabbit-shaped hole in the church window during its first rampage.
    • Gromit leaves a Gromit-shaped dent in the roof of the van after the van goes through a tunnel and the fake rabbit on top gets stuck above the tunnel.
  • Improvised Cross: During the Were-Rabbit's first rampage, he takes vegetables from the vicar's garden. The vicar tries to fend it off by forming a cross with two cucumbers, but the were-rabbit just eats them. Amusingly, the vicar is shown reaching past an actual cross in order to grab the cucumbers.
  • Ink-Suit Actor: Mrs Mulch resembles Liz Smith, the actress providing her voice.
  • Insane Troll Logic: When Gromit shows Wallace he's grown rabbit ears and makes it clear he knows Wallace's the Were-Rabbit, Wallace tries to pass it off as a side-effect of the veggie diet and "it's the toxins coming out!" Only Gromit showing him Hutch directly convinces him, though it's hinted it's just as much denial than anything.
  • Intellectual Animal: Gromit as always, but also Victor's dog, Phillip. Hutch also takes on shades of this after being infused with Wallace's personality, but doesn't seem to quite be truly sapient.
  • Ironic Echo: A rare non-verbal example; Victor's dog Phillip refuses to let Gromit step out of Wallace's car so that he can assist him during his duel with Victor. After Wallace transforms into the Were-Rabbit, Phillip begs for Gromit to let him inside his car. Gromit refuses to do so.
  • Irony: Just as Victor proclaims that with him, "what you see is what you get", the Bun-Vac accidentally rips off his toupée, revealing his baldness.
  • It's Personal: Victor is one of the few who knows the real identity of the Were-Rabbit and makes it clear to Lady Tottington that this trope is the real reason he wants the creature killed.
  • Juggling Loaded Guns: Victor at the church meeting. Downplayed, as he'd just fired his rifle before stepping inside and hasn't reloaded, but the townspeople are understandably wary about how casually he aims his rifle in whatever direction he's looking, ducking out of the way whenever he turns around.
  • "King Kong" Climb: At the climax of the film, the Were-Rabbit climbs to the top of Tottington Manor, carrying Lady Tottington. Gromit is driving around the edge of the manor in his toy plane, just to cap it off.
  • Lame Pun Reaction: Victor is not impressed by the vicar's little joke about how many "carrots" are in the gold bullets needed to kill the Were-Rabbit.
  • Left the Background Music On: The Vicar gives a doom-and-gloom rant about the Were-Rabbit with dramatic organ music in the background. The church organist is told to knock it off.
  • Let's Just Be Friends: Lady Tottington asks Wallace if they can "part as friends" after Wallace fails to catch the Were-Rabbit. Unknown to Lady Tottington however, he's actually turning into the Were-Rabbit at that exact moment and tries to shut the door in her face. She doesn't take it very well.
  • Little Bit Beastly: Midway through the film, Wallace is suddenly sporting rabbit ears. Somehow he doesn't notice until Gromit points it out to him (by holding up a mirror), at which point he concedes it's "a bit odd" but simply dismisses it as a side-effect of the vegetable diet Gromit has him on.
  • Love Makes You Dumb: Invoked with Wallace and Gromit constructing a massive female rabbit to distract the Were-Rabbit.
  • Love Triangle: Lady Tottington is being courted by Victor, but she develops feelings for Wallace.
  • Low Clearance: Wallace forgets that the lady were-rabbit decoy on top of the van is too high to fit under the tunnel and accidentally knocks it clean off, causing Gromit, who is animating it from below, to get slammed into the van's ceiling.
  • Man Hug: Wallace and Gromit exchange one after Wallace awakens from nearly dying.
  • Manly Men Can Hunt: Victor is utterly obsessed with hunting to the point where he keeps at it even knowing Totty can't stand it. The trope is also broadly deconstructed through the film - Victor's egotistical obsession with hunting actively drives Lady Tottington away from him and singles him out as the villain (particularly when he tries to murder Wallace-as-the-Wererabbit), while the much less overtly manly Wallace is the hero and attracts Lady Tottington in no small part because he refuses to kill rabbits in favour of humane capture.
  • Manly Tears: Wallace and Gromit both shed them.
    • Wallace when trying to fix the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic and hallucinates the part he's holding as a carrot, realising he's becoming more like a rabbit in mind as well as body and breaks down.
    • Gromit cries when Victor locks him in a cage to stop him interfering with Victor killing the Were-Rabbit. There's no sound and his face is partly blocked by the sign on the cage, but you can tell he's crying by his closed eyes and the way his body is shaking.
    • He sobs again during Wallace's Disney Death, before he gets the idea from Hutch to revive him with a piece of Stinking Bishop cheese.
  • Match Cut: Several.
    • From a shot of the moon in the sky from Wallace and Gromit's house window becomes a puddle reflection on a street.
    • A gnome's flashing red eyes fades to a portrait's flashing eyes.
    • After Gromit shows Wallace the newspaper showing the eaten vegetables, it then fades from Wallace being surrounded by portraits of his clients to the church with Wallace being surrounded with real clients.
    • A shot of Lady Tottington fades to her in a signed photo, with the same pose.
    • A shot of Gromit's scared eyes when he finds vegetables in Wallace's bed, realizing he is the Were-Rabbit to a manor's bells ringing.
    • A shot Lady Tottington's hair fades to a similarly shaped cloud.
  • Meat-O-Vision:
    • In the climax, the were-rabbit mistakes Lady Tottington for a giant carrot. Justified by the lady's wardrobe of dresses that are deliberately colored and patterned to look like vegetables.
    • Played for Drama before that: Wallace is trying to rebuild the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic when he holds up a part that looks like a carrot. He hallucinates that it is a carrot, and is about to eat it when he snaps out of it at the last second. The realization that his mind is becoming a "rabbity mush" is enough to briefly push him over the Despair Event Horizon.
  • Megaphone Gag: When the constable is directing the foot traffic of a vegetable competition through a megaphone, he forgets that he's holding it as he accidentally repeats shocking news whispered in his ear.
    Victor Quartermaine: [whispering] Constable, listen, I don't want to cause any panic, but the beast isn't actually dead yet.
    Constable: [through the megaphone] The beast isn't actually dead yet?!
    [stunned silence, Victor facepalms]
    Constable: [through the megaphone] Oops.
    [cue the Mass "Oh, Crap!"]
  • Medium Blending: The film makes use of both the series' usual Stop Motion puppets with claymation-styled CGI effects for elements like the Bun-Vac, the rabbits floating inside it, and the fur on the Were-Rabbit.
  • Mid-Battle Tea Break: Gromit and Philip are fighting in a coin-operated plane that suddenly stops working. They stop fighting to insert some more change, then resume fighting as soon as the plane starts working again.
  • The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Wallace still retains rabbit-like behavior and instincts whenever he's human, such as stomping his foot, loving produce (and flowers) instead of cheese, and scratching his ears with his feet.
  • Mistaken for Own Murderer: Played for Laughs. Gromit stuffs a woozy Victor into the lady rabbit costume, and shoves him out of the cheese tent to draw away the mob. Philip only sees the costume staggering around and hears Victor's calls for help. He believes that the Were-Rabbit ate his master and bites "it" on the butt. Victor's yell of pain is mistaken for a roar and the mob chases Victor out of the fair, Philip dangling from his behind.
  • Mood Whiplash: A plot-point. After the apparent demise of Wallace, Gromit, Lady Tottington and the rabbits are upset by this, then Hutch breaks the mood by loudly exclaiming his glee while eating the cheese tent's stock. This gives Gromit an idea and he grabs a piece of Stinking Bishop to revive Wallace.
  • Moon Rabbit: The Moon Rabbit legend is alluded to a couple times throughout the movie. Wallace uses the moon to power his Mind Manipulation-O-Matic and manipulate the rabbits' minds, and the Were-Rabbit only comes out during the night when the moon is out.
  • Neutral Female: Subverted. Despite having done little (physically, anyway) to stop Victor before, Lady Tottington takes up a bottle of pansy spray to defend the Were-Rabbit when Victor tries to shoot it in her greenhouse.
  • New Neighbours as the Plot Demands: As the first film in the series without a Minimalist Cast, Wallace and Gromit suddenly have a whole bunch of neighbours we've never seen before.
  • No Animals Were Harmed: Played for Laughs in The Stinger. After a credits sequence showing rabbits floating around weightlessly, this message comes up just before one of them hits it from below and drops screaming off the bottom of the screen.
  • Non-Lethal Warfare: Anti-Pesto prefers to use non-lethal equipment to capture the rabbits. When the rabbits are captured, Wallace and Gromit secretly raise them until the festival is over. Lady Tottington is impressed by this method and admits that the rabbits are just fulfilling their nature and aren't actively trying to cause chaos for the town.
  • Non-Malicious Monster: The were-rabbit doesn't mean any harm (and doesn't actually harm any living beings throughout the movie) - it just really likes vegetables. If the vegetable festival wasn't Serious Business, it wouldn't be any threat whatsoever. Even the normal rabbits the townspeople treat as vile, hideous pests are just being rabbits, as Lady Tottington lampshades.
  • Nonstandard Character Design: Unlike the rabbits seen in this movie made with the series' usual Plasticine, the Were-Rabbit has actual fur courtesy of its body being covered in fabric, which makes it stand out a lot more.
  • Noodle Incident: One of the town elders, Mr. Growbag, often brings up past incidents like the Great Slug Riot of '32 (when there were slugs the size of pigs) or the Great Duck Plague of '53 to compare them to current events.
  • Not Good with Rejection: Victor refuses to accept the possibility that Lady Tottington might not be interested in him.
  • Not This One, That One: When Victor visits the Vicar to ask about the Were-Rabbit, the Vicar tells him that everything he needs to know is in a book. Victor spots a magazine about nun wrestling on the desk, and the Vicar quickly says he meant the book in his hand, The Observer's Book Of Monsters.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Gromit when he sees that the van is heading for a tunnel it can't get through due to the fake rabbit puppet on top.
    • Gromit has two during the scene where he's chasing the Were-Rabbit in the van. The first is when he sees he's about to drive into a hedge. He brakes, but ends up going through the hedge and stopping in the vegetable patch on the other side. The second is when he sees the Were-Rabbit is about to lead him down a big hole in the ground. He puts the van in reverse, but is dragged in anyway.
    • Gromit gets a big one when he realises that Wallace is the Were-Rabbit upon following reversed Human-to-Werewolf Footprints leading to Wallace's bedroom and seeing a pile of half-eaten vegetables inside.
    • Wallace's own reaction to realising he's the Were-Rabbit and that Hutch has become a rabbit version of himself is more subdued, but still counts:
      Wallace: Ohhh dear.
    • Gromit when Wallace begins to turn into the Were-Rabbit. He reacts by locking the doors of the van.
    • Wallace near the end when the doorbell rings and, knowing he can't answer the door because of his rabbit ears, sees Hutch heading to the front door to answer it.
    • Wallace gets two more in quick succession when Lady Tottington arrives on his doorstep. The first comes when she tells him Victor will shoot the Were-Rabbit (which is actually him, but she doesn't know this), accentuated by a zoom into his shocked face. Gromit has one at the same time. The second comes seconds later when he starts transforming into the Were-Rabbit in front of her, as the moon appears from behind a cloud.
    • Gromit when Victor arrives at the house to kill the Were-Rabbit after Lady Tottington leaves.
    • Philip gets one during the plane fight with Gromit when Gromit opens the plane's bomb doors and Philip realises he's about to drop.
    • Later, Gromit and the Were-Rabbit get this in succession after they high-five each other. Gromit discovering he accidentally let go of the rope he was holding onto during the aforementioned high-five, followed by the Were-Rabbit very quickly realizing his mistake and what's about to happen to Gromit next.
    • The Were-Rabbit emits a Loud Gulp as Victor Quartermaine takes aim at him during the final fight scene.
    • Victor Quartermaine when he sees Wallace transform into the Were-Rabbit for the first time.
  • Only Sane Man:
    • Gromit; it turns out that Wallace is fairly typical of the villagers' level of common sense. Lampshaded in the church scene:
      Victor Quartermaine: How on earth would those tiny-minded buffoons ever catch such a big rabbit?
      Wallace: Um... with a big trap!
      [facepalm from Gromit; hurrahs from everybody else]
    • P.C. Mackintosh the police officer is a downplayed example. He isn't too good at keeping order and is quite foolish himself, though he is brighter than most of the villagers and rightfully says the vegetable competition makes everyone act nuts. He's also Right for the Wrong Reasons when he suggests that it's a villager that's responsible for attacking the vegetables.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: This is the first time we've seen Wallace both angry and in anguish, illustrating how much higher the stakes are this time out. He scolds Gromit for ditching him during their hunt for the Were-Rabbit (then unaware that he's the were-rabbit) and, as a result, getting the whole town mad at them for breaking their promise to catch it. Later, when he's slowly becoming more rabbit than man, he weeps at his work table, unable for the first time in his life to concentrate on inventing.
  • Oop North: Specifically, Oop in Lancashire (though Wallace's accent is actually Yorkshire). Kept vague, but a deleted scene shows Gromit dumping all the rabbits Wallace was catching over the border into Yorkshire. If you look closely the first time they start up the van you can actually see an A-Z of Wigan on the dashboard, implying it takes place at least close to said city.
  • Opposites Attract: Subverted. Victor is courting Lady Tottington even though he is an avid hunter and she is an animal lover, but it turns out he's only interested in her wealth. From their first scene together, it's clear that their efforts to compromise between Lady Tottington's affectionate nature and Victor's obsession with hunting aren't really working out.
  • Our Werebeasts Are Different: A were-rabbit instead of a werewolf.
  • Outlandish Device Setting: While pursuing the Were-Rabbit, Gromit is driving the business vehicle, which is being pulled by a tow cable that has snared the rabbit. As the rabbit tries to escape through its tunnels, Gromit finds his windshield accumulating much loose earth. He engages the wipers, which have four settings: Rain, Snow, Loam, Heavy Loam. Perhaps this is not the first time this vehicle has had to travel underground.
  • Parental Bonus: Besides a number of sophisticated jokes, Lady Tottington's nickname "Totty" is British slang for an attractive woman (particularly one from the upper classes).
  • Parody: Of Hammer Horror films.
  • Parrot Exposition: Spoofed.
    Reverend Hedges: To kill such a beast would require nerves of steel and... [dramatic pause] a bullet.
    Victor Quartermaine: A bullet?
    Reverend Hedges: A bullet!
    Victor Quartermaine: A bu—? [pauses to close the curtains and shut out the dramatic thunder] What kind of bullet?
  • Photo Montage: The opening titles.
  • Poor Man's Porn: The vicar avidly reading a magazine about nun-wrestling.
  • Popping Buttons: During the Were-Rabbit's transformation sequence.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Two from Victor.
    • When about to shoot an ordinary rabbit, he snarls "It's off to bunny heaven with you!".
    • Later, when about to shoot the Were-Rabbit with a golden bullet shaped like a root vegetable: "Eat carat, bunny boy."
  • Present-Day Past: The prices are in the old £sd currency, indicating that the action takes place before 1971, the price of a stick of candyfloss is 6d which is correct by 1966 values, and the colour codes of the three-phase wiring are also correct for this era; but this setting also has LEDs and diode lasers.
  • Primal Chest-Pound: The were-rabbit pounds his chest while howling at the Moon twice in the movie: first following his initial on-screen transformation (inciting the other bunnies in the forest to imitate him), and then once in the climax on top of a tower as part of a "King Kong" Climb gag.
  • Punny Name:
    • Most of the villagers have names related to plants or gardening. Even Lady Campanula Tottington gets in on it; Campanula is a type of flower (for bonus punniness, it's the genus that includes the harebell).
    • PC Mackintosh.
    • Wallace and Gromit's pest control company, "Anti-Pesto".
    • The author of the Observer's Book of Monsters: Claude Savagely.
  • A Real Man Is a Killer: Victor is quite disgusted to discover that Wallace's Bun-Vac doesn't harm the bunnies it captures. He asks how Wallace intends to finish the little blighters off and considers the job only half-done while the rabbits are still alive.
  • Red Herring:
    • The Were-Rabbit is set up to be Hutch, the rabbit victim of the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic. However, Gromit soon discovers, to his horror, that the Were-Rabbit is actually the human victim of the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic.
    • A big deal is made of Wallace's inability to fix the mind manipulator, and then Hutch takes over and seems to be making real progress repairing it, so it's natural to think that it will be a major plot point later. It's the last we actually see of it, though.
  • Red-plica Baron: In the ante-penultimate scene, Philip pursues Gromit on a fairground. Gromit comes upon a ride called "Dog Fighters", enters it and flies out in a Sopwith Camel, but Philip follows close behind in Richthofen's Fokker Dr.I, somewhat similar to the setting of the Baron's final fight.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter:
    • It's no wonder Lady Tottington doesn't want to harm the rabbits...
    • Heck, the Were-Rabbit can qualify as this at times.
  • Right-Hand Attack Dog: Victor's dog, Phillip.
  • Romantic False Lead: Victor Quartermaine. He's Lady Tottington's suitor and he becomes jealous when she takes a liking to Wallace. When Victor learns that Wallace is the Were-Rabbit he sees killing the beast as a way of both proving his prowess as a hunter and eliminating his romantic rival.
  • Ruder and Cruder: A mild example, as there is more innuendo and mild bad language than the original three shorts. The morning after the first were-rabbit attack, Constable Mackintosh attributes the incident to arson, then adds "someone arsin' around!". See the 'Radar page for more details.
  • Saying Too Much: Shortly after Lady Tottington discovers the true identity of the Were-Rabbit, they’re then cornered by Victor, which leads to this exchange.
    Lady Tottington: No, Victor! You don't understand! The hunt is off! We made a terrible mistake!
    Victor Quartermaine: Oh, no, you commissioned me to rid you of Pesto, and that's just what I intend to do! [covers his mouth as he realizes what he just said]
    Lady Tottington: "Pesto"...? Why, you... you knew it was Wallace all along!
    Victor Quartermaine: Argh... Oh, alright! So what if it is that blithering idiot? No-one will ever believe you!
  • The Scourge of God: What the Vicar claims the Were-Rabbit to be, a curse from God to punish the village for their greed and forcing vegetables to grow beyond their natural size.
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: Victor lets out a high-pitched scream when the Were-Rabbit flings a log over him and Gromit in the van after it seems like the Were-Rabbit was going to crush them with it.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Hutch is quick to escape upstairs the instant Victor is at Wallace's door, leaving Gromit to figure out how to protect his transformed owner from the hunter by himself. He comes back a few minutes later.
  • Serious Business: The veg competition. This being Wallace and Gromit, nobody's actually going to get seriously hurt, so to keep the tension/plot going, the townspeople take the competition super seriously. Lampshaded by one manic villager during the church scene who says that they're simple folk who haven't got much else going for them. PC Macintosh flat out says that the whole thing is more trouble than it's worth.
  • Shout-Out: Several.
    • The entire film's a Hammer Horror parody, even. They range from Dracula to King Kong to Jaws, and so on.
    • At some point, Gromit turns on the radio, and the song is Art Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes" from another British animated film about rabbits. Also a Take That! as Gromit rolls his eyes and changes stations.
    • The same scene is set outside of Harvey's grocers.
    • To Peanuts and Snoopy's role-play as a "World War 1 Flying Ace", when Gromit is flying a Sopwith Camel, and Philip is in a red triplane, like the Red Baron.
    • When Gromit slowly nods at Wallace at breakfast on being asked if he's been watching Hutch the Were-Rabbit unaware that not only does Gromit now know Wallace is the Were-Rabbit, but he now has rabbit ears, Wallace awkwardly says "What's up, Dog?"
    • During the opening credits, the camera pans over a series of photographs. One of them shows Gromit graduating from "Dogwarts University".
    • The music for the opening scene is reminiscent of John Morris's score from The Elephant Man.
    • The routine capture and containment from the opening scenes of the film plays rather like similar capture scenes from Ghostbusters.
    • Wallace staring in horror as his hands turn into the Were-Rabbit's paws is straight out of An American Werewolf in London.
    • Later, when Wallace starts turning into the Were-Rabbit again, he hides his transformed hands behind his back the same way Sex Machine hides his vampire hands.
    • The Were-Rabbit's reversion to Wallace is shot with his face upside down, like the reversion scene in Werewolf of London.
    • At one point when Victor faces the Were-Rabbit, he says, "Get your hairy mitts off my future wife, you big brute!"
  • Shaped Like Itself: Upon seeing Lady Tottington's estate teeming with rabbits Wallace remarks that "They must be breeding like...well, rabbits!".
  • Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: Wallace's; clothes do not survive the transformation into the Were Rabbit, rending them in tatters at each time.
  • "Shut Up!" Gunshot: Lord Victor Quartermaine wishes to announce to the vegetable festival attendees that he intends to kill the were-rabbit, and that he has two more golden bullets (the creature's only weakness). But everyone is too busy panicking to listen to him, so he fires his gun into the air to get their attention. And then he facepalms, as he realizes he just wasted one of the golden bullets and has only one left.
  • Silent Partner: Gromit, who is also a...
  • Silent Snarker: ...and it's remarkable how expressive he is considering he is always portrayed without a mouth, leaving his eyebrows to convey all of his emotions.
  • Silly Animal Sound: When the were-rabbit lets out a wolf- or coyote-like howl at the Moon, all rabbits in the forest imitate the sound.
  • Silver Bullet: Spoofed. A were-rabbit can only be killed with a gold bullet — 24 carat.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: What attracted Lady Tottington to Wallace was the fact that Wallace captured the rabbits in the least harmful way, whereas Victor would rather kill them all.
  • Skewed Priorities: During a brawl against Philip on a coin-operated toy plane ride, the timer runs out, stopping the plane and the fight. Gromit then rifles through his belongings to put more money in, until Philip pulls a coin out of his purse and reactivates the plane, then they resume the fight.
  • Slasher Smile: Victor gives one to Gromit after witnessing Wallace's transformation, realizing that he can legally kill two birds with one stone. He'll be hailed as a hero for disposing of the Were-Rabbit and he can eliminate Wallace.
  • Something Only They Would Say: Early on in the film, Wallace makes a playful "rabbit paws" gesture in Lady Tottington's direction. She smiles and repeats it back. Later, after carrying her away from the mob and back to the greenhouse, the Were-Rabbit makes the same gesture, looking at her wistfully. She recognizes Wallace at once, stops being afraid, and pulls a Go Through Me moment when Victor arrives to shoot him.
  • Spooky Animal Sounds: At the beginning, as a policeman is patrolling the town at night and the audience is led to believe that the were-rabbit is around, a cat yowls in the background.
  • "Spread Wings" Frame Shot: During the church meeting where the townspeople try to decide what to do about the Were-Rabbit attack, Lady Tottington, recommending Wallace for the job, appears to have wings and a halo from the pulpit behind her.
  • Stab the Salad: When one of the villagers grumpily remarks that she hopes the rabbits "get what's coming to them", the next shot has Gromit holding something on a cutting board and raising a big knife... and then it's revealed he is actually cutting up carrots for the bunnies.
  • Stealth Pun:
    • Gromit and Phillip have a final confrontation driving a pair of coin-operated biplanes. A literal and metaphorical dogfight, if you will.
    • Towards the end, Wallace finds himself clothesless, so he grabs a handy cheese box to cover his private bits. The box has a "May contain nuts" label on it.
  • Super Multi-Purpose Room: Basically every room in Wallace's house has built-in intricate mechanisms and contraptions to help Wallace and Gromit wake up, get dressed, effortlessly get seated for breakfast, get the breakfast prepared, get into their car, and ... See To the Batpole!.
  • Supporting the Monster Loved One: Lady Tottington, who Wallace has been dating, promises to protect him when she discovers he's the were-rabbit.
  • Suspender Snag: When Victor gives Wallace a piece of his mind for trying to steal Lady Tottington from him, Wallace tries to walk away from the situation, but his suspenders are snagged by Victor's axe and he gets pulled back.
  • Tantrum Throwing: Victor, when he is foiled in his attempt to kill the Were-Rabbit with a blunderbuss.
  • Tap on the Head: Lady Tottington temporarily knocks out Victor by hitting him in the head with a giant carrot.
  • Team Mercy vs. Team Murder: Wallace and Victor, respectively. Wallace deals with the rabbits humanely, which is why Lady Tottington hires him, whereas Victor would rather blast the little blighters to kingdom come.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Right before Wallace's transformation into the Were-Rabbit, Gromit slowly locks the doors to the van when he sees the full moon coming out.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: Wallace, coupled with an Oh, Crap!, when he realises he's the Were-Rabbit.
  • Torches and Pitchforks: When the Were-Rabbit is loose at the festival, a booth selling "farm supplies", with pitchforks prominently displayed, places a new sign reading "angry mob supplies".
  • To the Batpole!: Our heroes suit up via a Heath Robinson-esque process, depicted in all its absurd detail, complete with several direct references to Gerry Anderson and Thunderbirds.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Cheese, particularly Wensleydale, is Wallace's favorite, but he's also pretty enthusiastic about toast.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: One TV ad completely spoiled the secret of the Were-Rabbit.
  • Transformation Discretion Shot: A slow mutation begins in Wallace while being bullied by Victor Quatermain, growing huge buck teeth and large rabbit ears. These changes presumably continue as Victor, his dog, and Gromit all regard the transforming Wallace with growing apprehension. The next time Wallace is in shot, he's become a towering bunny that beats his chest like a gorilla and howls at the moon.
  • Transformation Horror: Both of Wallace's transformations into the Were-Rabbit are not Played for Laughs like you'd expect.
  • Traveling-Pipe Bulge: This is seen when the rabbits are sucked into the Bun Vac.
  • Unusual Euphemism: Victor gives a most indignant "Potty POO!!!" after Gromit blocks his shot at the Were Rabbit.
  • Uptown Girl: Wallace is a Working-Class Hero, while Lady Tottington is nobility.
  • The Vicar: Reverend Hedges.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Victor accidentally lets it slip that he knew the identity of the Were-Rabbit all along, irreversibly ruining his chances of marrying Lady Tottington, whom he was solely courting for her wealth, which he immediately admits was the foundation of their relationship. Victor then continues with crazed bloodlust to try to kill the Were-Rabbit anyway even though he has nothing to gain from it, all because Tottington was getting snatched away by the Were-Rabbit's human self, bruising his ego in the process.
  • Visual Pun:
    • At the beginning, when feeding the captive rabbits, Gromit finds some hiding in a breadbox labeled "Buns".
    • PC Mackintosh blurts out that the titular character isn't dead, the festival comes to a screeching halt, everyone is standing there in Stunned Silence, and a piece of cotton candy tumbles by.
    • Gromit and Philip settles their climactic fight by borrowing toy planes from the local toy plane ride, with the sign above the attraction saying "DOGFIGHT".
    • At the end of the film, after transforming back from being the Were-Rabbit and being left naked, Wallace covers his modesty with a cardboard box that has "MAY CONTAIN NUTS" printed on the front.
  • The Voiceless: All of the non-human characters, except for when the rabbits howl at the moon, cheer when Gromit takes the bullet in his plane that was meant for the Were-Rabbit, and cry when Wallace is believed dead; and Hutch when he's become a were-Wallace. Philip makes various growls and whimpers throughout the film as well in contrast to Gromit's full muteness.
  • Weight Loss Salad: When Wallace has announced that he is "in the mood for food", he is disappointed to see that Gromit has served him with a tiny portion of vegetables, to help him lose weight. This also sets the theme of the film being about vegetables, and Wallace himself being the were-rabbit who gorges on vegetables.
  • Weird Moon: The moon is full for five nights, four of which the Were-Rabbit runs loose.
  • Wham Shot: Gromit notices the Were-Rabbit has broken into the house and sees footprints down to the open basement door. As Gromit finishes building the bigger cage for Hutch, whom they believe to be the real Were-Rabbit, he leaves the basement and closes the door... only to reveal more footprints behind it, leading up to Wallace's room.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The name of the town is never given, though freeze-framing reveals a Wigan A-Z in Wallace's van.
  • Which Me?: When Lady Tottington rings the doorbell, Wallace panics that he can't see her with his rabbit ears. Hutch goes to answer it, and Wallace shouts, "I already am!"
  • Wink "Ding!": When Gromit presses a pedal to make the puppet lady-Were-Rabbit wink, a "ding" is heard.
  • Woken Up at an Ungodly Hour: Wallace and Gromit attempts to capture a pesky rabbit from stealing a pumpkin from a client in the night. They accidentally woke up two neighbors who are poking their heads out the window. The duo did manage to capture the rabbit as everybody in town had woken up to congratulate them.
  • Wolves Always Howl at the Moon: Parodied. The were-rabbit howls at the moon while doing a Primal Chest-Pound, making all the rabbits hearing it imitate him.
  • Worm Sign: Moving mounds of earth precede some of the Were-Rabbit's attacks.
  • You Can Run, but You Can't Hide: Near the end, this line from Victor: "You can hop, but you can't hide, Pesto!"

 
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Alternative Title(s): Wallace And Gromit Curse Of The Were Rabbit, Wallace And Gromit In The Curse Of The Were Rabbit

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Were-Rabbit Footprints

After locking up the supposed Were-Rabbit in the basement, Gromit discovers that the beast's footprints actually lead upstairs, where they change and lead to a shocking location.

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Main / HumanToWerewolfFootprints

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