FILM 1903: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT
TRIVIA: The film required 2.8 tons of Plasticine in 42 colors and 1000 baby-wipes per week to wipe it off animators' fingers.
Took five years to make. Production started not long after the release of Chicken Run(2000), Aardman Studio's previous Stop Motion Film that got distributed by DreamWorks.
During filming, Aardman managed an average of 3 seconds of usable footage per day.
Nick Park and Steve Box referred to The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) as the world's first vegetarian horror film.
In Wallace's bookcase there are several titles which refer to cheese. They are "The Hunt For Red Leicester", "Brighton Roquefort", "How Green Was My Cheese", "Brie Encounter", "Swiss Cheese Family Robinson", "East of Edam", "Grated Expectations", "Fromage to Eternity", and "Waiting for Gouda".
The vegetable shop that the were-rabbit attacks is named "Harvey's." Its name is taken from Harvey (1950), the play and movie (starring James Stewart) about a man who befriends a six-foot-tall invisible rabbit named Harvey.
When the film was released in Portland, Dorset, UK, the posters had to be altered to remove the word "rabbit". There is a local superstition that prohibits the use of this word (they use terms such as "underground mutton" or "furry things" instead) because burrowing can cause dangerous landslips in the local stone quarrying industry. The film posters in Portland use the alternative slogan "Something bunny is going on."
The Were-Rabbit had an internal mechanism that allowed the animators to move the model with minimal touching of the fur covering, thus avoiding the tell-tale impressions left by their fingers.
Shortly after this film was released, the Aardman warehouse in Bristol, England burned to the ground, destroying hundreds of plasticine characters and sets, virtually the entire history of the company. Nick Park was quoted as saying, "Even though it is a precious and nostalgic collection and valuable to the company, in light of other tragedies, today isn't a big deal."
DreamWorks wanted Aardman to replace Peter Sallis, the voice of Wallace since the first animated short, with a well-known actor that American audiences would recognize. According to Entertainment Weekly, they politely but firmly refused; instead, they got Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter to play roles.
All the wallpaper created for the sets are entirely hand-painted.
During closeups of the character's faces it is possible to see tiny holes in the center of the pupils of the eyes. These were used to position the eyes by inserting a small pin and moving the eyes.
The grass is made from fun fur imported from the USA.
The end credits contain a list of the many babies that were born to the production staff over the long course of making this movie.
Next door to Harvey's Vegetable Shop, is a barbershop called, "A Close Shave," which is also the name of an Oscar-winning animated short starring Wallace and Gromit.
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 Peter Sallis was unavailable, and became the character's permanent voice in 2010 when Sallis retired from acting altogether.
