An elephant gun is a large caliber gun , rifled or smoothbore, originally developed for use by big-game hunters for elephant and other large game . Elephant guns were black powder muzzle-loaders at first, then black powder express rifles , then later used smokeless powder cartridges.
51-458: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 animated comedy film directed by Nick Park and Steve Box . It was produced, made and owned by DreamWorks Animation in collaboration with Aardman Animations . It was the second feature-length film by Aardman, after Chicken Run (2000) and the last DreamWorks Animation film distributed by its parent DreamWorks Pictures , as
102-462: A Christmas Caper , starring the penguins from the Madagascar franchise. In Region 2, the film was released not only on VHS but also in a two-disc special edition DVD that includes Cracking Contraptions , plus a number of other extras on 20 February 2006. In Region 1, the film was released on DVD in widescreen and full-screen versions and VHS on 7 February 2006. Walmart stores carried
153-487: A cheese tent. Tottington knocks out Victor with her giant prized carrot and dumps him before Gromit quickly disguises Victor as the female Were-Rabbit, causing the townspeople and Philip to chase him away. Wallace morphs back to his human self and appears dead, but Gromit revives him with Stinking Bishop cheese . Tottington awards Gromit the Golden Carrot for his valor and converts the grounds of Tottington Hall into
204-468: A different caliber bullet). The rest of the old Nitro express calibers had faded into obscurity until a resurgence in safari hunting came about in the 1970s and 1980s. This prompted a new boom in elephant gun development and calibers such as the .416 Weatherby Magnum and .416 Remington Magnum arrived in factory offerings. The late 1980s and 1990s produced the .700 Nitro Express and the new brass manufacturers allowed even more powerful elephant guns such as
255-476: A few years the mighty bore guns of the previous era largely disappeared from the gamefields. The safari heyday of the early 20th century "nitro era" records much literature on such calibers as the .577 Nitro Express , .375 H&H Magnum , .416 Rigby , .404 Jeffery , .505 Gibbs , .450 Nitro Express , and .470 Nitro Express . These rifles came out in single shot, bolt action , and double rifle configurations and continued to be used until ivory hunting died off in
306-452: A film's atmosphere, character, and story, and therefore, the labels "drama" and "comedy" are too broad to be considered a genre. Instead, his taxonomy argues that comedy is a type of film that contains at least a dozen different sub-types. A number of hybrid genres have emerged, such as action comedy and romantic comedy . The first comedy film was L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895), directed and produced by film pioneer Louis Lumière . Less than
357-429: A hound in a hurry. The plot pitches the famously taciturn Dogwarts' alumnus and his Wensleydale-chomping owner (Sallis) against the dastardly Victor Quartermaine (Fiennes), taking mutating bunnies, prize-winning marrows and the posh-as-biscuits Lady Tottington (Bonham Carter) along for the ride. In short, it's the most marvellously English animation there is." The film's score was composed by Julian Nott , who also scored
408-468: A later date. Park will be returning as co-director and story co-writer alongside Merlin Crossingham. Comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor . These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending , with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the oldest genres in film, and it
459-483: A mainstream audience. The success of the American television show Saturday Night Live drove decades of cinema with racier content allowed on television drawing on the program's stars and characters, with bigger successes including Wayne's World , Mean Girls , Ghostbusters and Animal House . Parody and joke-based films continue to find audiences. While comedic films are among the most popular with audiences at
510-509: A minute long, it shows a boy playing a prank on a gardener. The most notable comedy actors of the silent film era (1895–1927) were Charlie Chaplin , Harold Lloyd , and Buster Keaton , though they were able to make the transition into “ talkies ” after the 1920s. Film-makers in the 1960s skillfully employed the use of comedy film to make social statements by building their narratives around sensitive cultural, political or social issues. Such films include Dr Strangelove, or How I Learned to Love
561-504: A nature reserve for Hutch and the other rabbits. In March 2000, it was officially announced that Wallace and Gromit were to star in their own feature film. It would have been Aardman's next film after The Tortoise and the Hare , which was subsequently abandoned by the studio in July 2001, owing to script problems. The directors, Nick Park and Steve Box , have often referred to the film as
SECTION 10
#1732773368251612-459: A separate genre, but rather, provides a better understanding of the film. Elephant gun As Europeans made inroads into Africa in the early 19th century, guns were developed to handle the very large game encountered. This was for self-protection, food gathering, and sport. The first guns were the simple muzzle-loading shotgun designs already used for birds and loaded with solid balls of lead for use on large game. Due to their ineffectiveness on
663-425: A special version with an additional DVD, "Gromit's Tail-Waggin' DVD" which included the test shorts made for this production, making of the Were-Rabbit creature, memorable moments of the film titled "Gromit's Favorite Scenes", a video showing the legacy of the "Wallace and Gromit" franchise, an instructional video on how to draw Gromit, as well as "Cracking Contraptions" shorts. A companion game, also titled Curse of
714-671: Is a subtly touching and wonderfully eccentric adventure featuring Wallace and Gromit." On Metacritic , the film received a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. In 2016, Empire magazine ranked it 51st on their list of the 100 best British films, with their entry stating, "The sparkling Curse Of The Were-Rabbit positively brims with ideas and energy, dazzling movie fans with sly references to everything from Hammer horrors and The Incredible Hulk to King Kong and Top Gun , and bounds along like
765-436: Is derived from classical comedy in theatre . Some of the earliest silent films were slapstick comedies , which often relied on visual depictions, such as sight gags and pratfalls, so they could be enjoyed without requiring sound. To provide drama and excitement to silent movies, live music was played in sync with the action on the screen, on pianos, organs, and other instruments. When sound films became more prevalent during
816-420: Is the beast and has Gromit lock him in a high-security cage. However, Gromit discovers a footprint trail leading into Wallace's bedroom and finds a pile of half-eaten vegetables inside, revealing that Wallace is the real culprit. After celebrating his success with Tottington, Wallace is cornered in the forest by Victor, who vies for Tottington's affections and fortune. Wallace transforms into the Were-Rabbit under
867-473: The Wallace & Gromit series, created by Park. The film centres on good-natured yet eccentric cheese-loving inventor Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis ) and his intelligent quiet dog, Gromit, in their latest venture as pest control agents. They come to the rescue of their town plagued by rabbits before the annual Giant Vegetable Competition. However, the duo soon find themselves against a giant rabbit consuming
918-540: The .585 Nyati by Ross Seyfried, .577 Tyrannosaur by Colonel Art Alphin and .585 Gehringer by Karl Gehringer to be made by wildcatters. The .600 Overkill made by Rob Garnick represents the greatest power available from a standard hunting action. Other wildcats based on the heavy machine gun .50 BMG and similar anti-materiel rounds have been devised which are much more powerful, though they are not generally considered useful hunting arms as their weight usually exceeds 11 kg (25 lb). During World War I , both
969-514: The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature , making it the second and latest film from DreamWorks Animation to win that award (following Shrek ), as well as the first stop-motion film to win. In January 2022, a new feature film, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl , was announced, which is due to release in 2024 on Netflix worldwide, except for the UK, where it will premiere first on
1020-475: The BBC before also coming to Netflix at a later date. As Tottington Hall's annual giant vegetable competition approaches, cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his beagle Gromit provide a humane pest control business known as "Anti-Pesto", protecting people's vegetables from rabbits . One evening, after capturing rabbits found in the garden of Lady Tottington using his "Bun-Vac 6000", Wallace uses his latest invention,
1071-572: The British and German armies used elephant guns obtained from their African colonies on the Western Front . The British used elephant guns as a means of countering the German tactic of having their snipers advance towards enemy lines under the cover of a large, 6–10 millimeter (0.24–0.4 inch) thick steel plate. Though normal small arms were ineffective against the plate, elephant guns of
SECTION 20
#17327733682511122-514: The "Mind Manipulation-O-Matic", to brainwash them into disliking vegetables. As they brainwash the rabbits, Wallace accidentally changes the setting of the Bun-Vac, and his brain is fused with a rabbit, forcing Gromit to destroy the machine. The transfer appears to have worked, as the rabbit shows no interest in vegetables. They name the rabbit Hutch and place him in a cage. That night, a giant rabbit-like creature devours many people's vegetables, and
1173-440: The 1920s, comedy films grew in popularity, as laughter could result from both burlesque situations but also from humorous dialogue . Comedy, compared with other film genres , places more focus on individual star actors, with many former stand-up comics transitioning to the film industry due to their popularity. In The Screenwriters Taxonomy (2017), Eric R. Williams contends that film genres are fundamentally based upon
1224-418: The 19th century was as much a test of the gun-bearer's ability to relay guns to the hunter, and of horsemanship to evade charges long enough to reload. Following the bore guns were the brass case "express" rounds, which incorporated black powder with modern ballistics by making relatively smaller projectiles go faster. The dangerous game projectiles were often hardened lead alloy. The .577 Black Powder Express
1275-593: The Bomb , Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? and The Graduate . In America, the sexual revolution drove an appetite for comedies that celebrated and parodied changing social morals, including Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Fanny Hill . In Britain, a camp sensibility lay behind the successful Carry On films , while in America subversive independent film-maker John Waters made camp films for college audiences with his drag queen friends that eventually found
1326-475: The Golden Carrot trophy to use as ammunition. Wallace carries Tottington atop Tottington Hall and reveals his true identity to her. Meanwhile, Gromit subdues Victor's dog, Philip, in a dogfight using aeroplanes taken from a fairground attraction. Gromit then steers his plane into Victor's line of fire as he shoots at Wallace, causing the bullet to hit the plane instead. The damaged plane falls, and Wallace jumps to grab Gromit, breaking his fall before they both land in
1377-472: The Mind-O-Matic. Tottington visits and informs Wallace of Victor's plan; as the moon rises, Wallace begins to transform again and hastily forces Tottington to leave. Victor arrives and attempts to shoot Wallace, but Gromit helps Wallace to escape. Once Victor is gone, Gromit and Hutch devise a plan to save Wallace. At the competition, after using up all his gold bullets, Victor takes an elephant gun and
1428-541: The Were-Rabbit , was released with the film. A novelization, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: The Movie Novelization by Penny Worms ( ISBN 0-8431-1667-6 ), was also produced. It was the last DreamWorks Animation film to be released on VHS. It was re-released on DVD on 13 May 2014 as part of a triple film set, along with fellow Aardman/DreamWorks films Chicken Run and Flushed Away . A Blu-ray edition of
1479-437: The Were-Rabbit . Park said that after separate test screenings with British and American audiences, including children, he adjusted the characters' speech for American audiences. Park was often sent notes from DreamWorks, which stressed him. He recalled one note that Wallace's car should be trendier, which he disagreed with because he felt making things look old-fashioned made it look more ironic. The vehicle Wallace drives in
1530-435: The advent of breech loading and rifling in the late 19th century) included the-4 bore, using a 130-gram (2,000 gr) slug at up to 430 m/s (1,400 ft/s). Despite their enormous power, the short low-velocity slugs still suffered the penetration issues which plagued guns of this era, particularly for the toughest shot of all: defeating the bone mass for a frontal brain shot on an elephant. Thus, dangerous game hunting in
1581-467: The box office, of which $ 56.1 million was from the United States. As of January 2023, it is the second-highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time behind Aardman's first feature film, Chicken Run . On Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 183 reviews and an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, " The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - Misplaced Pages Continue
1632-719: The box office, there is an 'historical bias against a close and serious consideration of comedy' when it comes to critical reception and conferring of awards, such as at the Academy Awards . Film writer Cailian Savage observes "Comedies have won Oscars, although they’ve usually been comedy-dramas, involved very depressing scenes, or appealed to stone-hearted drama lovers in some other way, such as Shakespeare in Love ." According to Williams' taxonomy , all film descriptions should contain their type (comedy or drama) combined with one (or more) sub-genres. This combination does not create
1683-471: The duo fails to respond. During a town meeting the next day, the creature is revealed to be the Were-Rabbit . Hunter Victor Quartermaine offers to hunt the creature, but Tottington persuades the townsfolk to give Wallace and Gromit a second chance. After Anti-Pesto unsuccessfully tries to trap the Were-Rabbit using a makeshift female Were-Rabbit, they find that Hutch has mutated; Wallace suspects that Hutch
1734-440: The end of the agreement, Aardman announced that they would proceed with another Wallace & Gromit project, later revealed to be a return to their earlier short films with A Matter of Loaf and Death for BBC One . During production of the short, Park remarked publicly on difficulties with working with DreamWorks during the production of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit , such as the constant production notes and demands to alter
1785-504: The era had enough force to punch through. Additionally, to penetrate steel plate loopholes , large caliber firearms, such as elephant guns, were deployed to eliminate snipers. In World War II , Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta gave his personal collection of elephant rifles to Royal Italian Army troops under his command during the East African campaign . They were used to target British armored cars , as Italian forces suffered from
1836-557: The film is an Austin A35 van. In collaboration with Aardman in the spring of 2005, a road going replica of the model was created by brothers Mark and David Armé, founders of the International Austin A30/A35 Register, for promotional purposes. In a 500-man-hour customisation, an original 1964 van received a full body restoration, before being dented and distressed to perfectly replicate the model van used in
1887-415: The film was released by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment in the United States on 4 June 2019. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit opened in 3,645 cinemas and had an opening weekend gross of $ 16 million, putting it at number one for that weekend. During its second weekend it came in at number two, just $ 200,000 behind The Fog . The Curse of the Were-Rabbit grossed $ 192.6 million at
1938-551: The film. The official colour of the van is Preston Green , named in honour of Nick Park's hometown. The name was chosen by the art director and Mark Armé. The film had its worldwide premiere on 4 September 2005, in Sydney, Australia. It was theatrically released in the United States on 7 October 2005, and in United Kingdom and Hong Kong the following week. The film was accompanied by the short film The Madagascar Penguins in
1989-427: The first to be known as the elephant guns of the black powder era (1850—1900), though their use also included all thick-skinned dangerous game such as rhinoceros, hippopotamus and cape buffalo. Due to the velocity limitations of black powder and lead—usually around 460 metres per second (1,500 ft/s)—the only way to increase penetration was to make a larger gun. The largest-bore guns in common use (and bore rifles with
2040-402: The full moon and flees. Now seeing the perfect chance to eliminate his rival, Victor obtains three "24-carrot" gold bullets from the town's vicar, Reverend Clement Hedges, to use against Wallace. On the day of the vegetable competition, Gromit reveals to Wallace that the experiment has swapped his and Hutch's personalities; the latter now carries his human traits and is the only one who can fix
2091-448: The largest game (up to 35 shots being recorded by some writers for a single elephant), they soon developed into larger caliber black powder smoothbores . The caliber was still measured in bore or gauge —10, 8, 6, 4 bore , and 2 bore —or the guns were named by number of projectiles per pound. The projectiles were lead round balls or short conical slugs, sometimes hardened with antimony . These very large and very heavy firearms were
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - Misplaced Pages Continue
2142-539: The late 19th century, that dangerous game could be taken with near 100% certainty. The Nitro Express line (c.1895), so named because the composition of the early smokeless powders such as Poudre B , ballistite and cordite, were the first of the new order of elephant guns. With smaller metal-jacketed projectiles ranging from 10.2 to 15.7 mm (.400 to .620 in) caliber and velocities around 610 m/s (2,000 ft/s) they possessed vastly improved trajectory and penetration over their black powder forebears. Within
2193-537: The losses related to Flushed Away , DreamWorks also revealed they had taken a $ 29 million write down over Wallace & Gromit as well, the film had drastically underperformed expectations in the home DVD market, despite grossing $ 192 million against a budget of only $ 30 million at the box office. Following the split, Aardman retained complete ownership of the film, while DreamWorks Animation retained worldwide distribution rights in perpetuity, excluding some United Kingdom television rights and ancillary markets. Soon after
2244-503: The material to appeal more to American children. This discouraged him from producing another feature film for years, with Lord noting that Park preferred the "half hour format". However, in January 2022, a new Wallace & Gromit film was announced, titled Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl , which is due to release in 2024 on Netflix worldwide, except for the UK, where it will first premiere on BBC before coming to Netflix at
2295-436: The mid-20th century. Thereafter, they largely switched roles to tools for game wardens and as back-up firearms for professional hunters guiding international hunters. The American gun market produced several famous dangerous game cartridges around this time, such as the .458 Winchester Magnum , .378 Weatherby Magnum and .460 Weatherby Magnum and many of these were " wildcatted " (to modify an existing case and rifle to fire
2346-435: The previous entries in the franchise. The score was produced by Hans Zimmer , and additional music was provided by Rupert Gregson-Williams , James Dooley , Lorne Balfe and Alastair King . After the box-office failure of Flushed Away resulted in a major write down for DreamWorks, it was reported on 3 October 2006 and confirmed on 30 January 2007 that DreamWorks had terminated their partnership with Aardman. In revealing
2397-470: The studio spun off as an independent studio in 2004 until its acquisition by NBCUniversal in 2016. The film debuted in Sydney , Australia on 4 September 2005, before being released in theaters in the United States on 7 October 2005 and in the United Kingdom a week later on 14 October 2005. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a parody of classic monster movies and Hammer Horror films and also serves as part of
2448-465: The town's crops. The film features an expanded cast of characters relative to the previous Wallace and Gromit shorts, with a voice cast including Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes . While the film was considered a box-office disappointment in the US by DreamWorks Animation, it was more commercially successful internationally. It also received critical acclaim and won a number of film awards, including
2499-450: The world's "first vegetarian horror film ". Peter Sallis (the voice of Wallace) is joined in the film by Ralph Fiennes (as Lord Victor Quartermaine), Helena Bonham Carter (as Lady Campanula Tottington), Peter Kay (as PC Mackintosh), Nicholas Smith (as Rev. Clement Hedges), and Liz Smith (as Mrs. Mulch). As established in the preceding short films, Gromit is a silent character, communicating purely via body language . The film
2550-491: Was originally going to be called Wallace & Gromit: The Great Vegetable Plot , but the title was changed, as the market research disliked it. The first reported release date for The Great Vegetable Plot was November 2004. Production officially began in September 2003, and the film was then set for release on 30 September 2005. In July 2003, Entertainment Weekly referred to the film as Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of
2601-410: Was the go-to dangerous game caliber from the 1870s through 1900. It spawned the .577 Express around 1890, which used smokeless cordite instead of black powder, and then the .577 Nitro Express in 1900, which used modern metal jacketed and solid bullets pushed by more modern smokeless powders . It was not until the parallel developments of jacketed projectiles, closely followed by smokeless powders in
SECTION 50
#1732773368251#250749