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Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

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 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 the Wallace and 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 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 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 the BBC before also coming to Netflix at a later date.

Plot
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, the "Mind Manipulation-O-Matic", to brainwash them into disliking vegetables. As they brainwash the rabbits, Wallace accidentally sets the Bun-Vac to "BLOW", 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 devours many people's vegetables, and 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 shoot the creature, but Tottington persuades the townsfolk to give Wallace and Gromit a second chance. After Anti-Pesto unsuccessfully tries to trap the rabbit, Wallace suspects that Hutch 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 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 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 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 onto a table of Crackers in a cheese tent. Tottington then whacks Victor in the head with a giant carrot and dumps him before Gromit quickly disguises Victor as the female Were-Rabbit, causing the townspeople to chase him away.

Wallace morphs back to his human self and appears dead, but Gromit revives him with Stinking Bishop cheese, undoing the curse. Tottington awards Gromit the Golden Carrot for his valor and converts the grounds of Tottington Hall into a nature reserve for Hutch and the other rabbits.

Voice cast

 * Peter Sallis as Wallace, an eccentric, absent-minded and accident-prone yet good-natured inventor with a great fondness for cheese, who works at Anti-Pesto with his dog and best friend, Gromit.
 * Sallis also provides the voice of Hutch, a kidnapped rabbit who gradually develops several of Wallace's mannerisms — his dialogue consists almost entirely of phrases and statements previously made by Wallace — after an attempted mind-alteration goes wrong and who is at first suspected to be the Were-Rabbit. Sallis's voice was digitally accelerated to create that of Hutch's.
 * Gromit is Wallace's silent, brave and highly intelligent dog who cares deeply for his master, and saves him whenever something goes wrong.
 * Ralph Fiennes as Lord Victor Quartermaine, a cruel upper class bounder and a prideful hunter who is courting Lady Tottington for her fortune. He wears a toupee and despises Wallace and Gromit.
 * Philip is Victor's vicious but cowardly and dimwitted hunting dog who resembles a Bull Terrier. He is too cowardly to face the Were-Rabbit so he instead targets Gromit.
 * Helena Bonham Carter as Lady Campanula "Totty" Tottington, a wealthy aristocratic spinster with a keen interest in vegetable horticulture and 'fluffy' animals. For 517 years, the Tottington family has hosted an annual vegetable competition on their estate on the same night. Lady Tottington asks Wallace to call her "Totty" (which is a British term for an attractive woman) and develops a romantic interest in him. Her forename, Campanula, is the scientific name of a bellflower, and her surname is taken from the Lancashire village of Tottington.
 * Peter Kay as Police Constable Albert Mackintosh, the local village policeman who judges the Giant Vegetable Contest, though he would prefer it if the "troublemaking" competition didn't happen.
 * Nicholas Smith as the Reverend Clement Hedges, the superstitious town vicar and the first resident to witness the Were-Rabbit.
 * Dicken Ashworth and Liz Smith as Mr. and Mrs. Mulch, neighbours of Wallace and Gromit who raise prize-winning pumpkins.
 * Edward Kelsey as Mr. Growbag, an elderly resident of Wallace and Gromit's neighbourhood and a founding member of the town's vegetable growers' council.
 * Mark Gatiss as Miss Blight, a resident of Wallace and Gromit's neighbourhood.
 * Geraldine McEwan as Miss Thripp, an Anti-Pesto customer. McEwan reprises her role in A Matter of Loaf and Death.
 * John Thomson as Mr. Windfall
 * Vincent Ebrahim as Mr. Caliche
 * Robert Horvath as Mr. Dibber
 * Pete Atkin as Mr. Crock
 * Noni Lewis as Mrs. Gridling
 * Ben Whitehead as Mr. Leaching
 * Whitehead is the current voice of Wallace in the franchise following Peter Sallis's retirement and subsequent death.

Production
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 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 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 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 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 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.

Release
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 a Christmas Caper, starring the penguins from the Madagascar franchise.

Home media
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 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 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 the film was released by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment in the United States on 4 June 2019.

Box office
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 the box office, of which $56.1 million was from the United States. , it is the second-highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time behind Aardman's first feature film, Chicken Run.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on  reviews and an average rating of. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit 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 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."

Soundtrack
The film's score was composed by Julian Nott, who also scored 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.

Sequel
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 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 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 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 a later date. Park will be returning as co-director and story co-writer alongside Merlin Crossingham.


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Guy Lapointe

Guy Gerard Lapointe (born March 18, 1948) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played for the Montreal Canadiens, St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League. He currently serves as Coordinator of Amateur Scouting with the NHL's Minnesota Wild.

Career
Nicknamed "Pointu" (a play on his name in French, where "pointu" carries most of the same meanings as "sharp" or "pointy" in English), Lapointe was famous for his powerful slapshot and brutal body-checks.

Along with defencemen Larry Robinson and Serge Savard, Lapointe was a member of the "Big Three" and played a key role in the Canadiens' winning the Stanley Cup six times in 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979.

He was traded to the St. Louis Blues in 1982 and signed with the Boston Bruins after the following season. He retired in 1984 following a series of injuries.

Lapointe was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993. In 884 NHL games, Lapointe recorded 171 goals and 451 assists for 622 points. He still holds the Montreal Canadiens' record for most goals in a season for a defenceman (28), and most goals for a rookie defenceman (15). His number (#5) was retired by the Canadiens on November 8, 2014. Since the #5 is already retired on behalf of Bernie Geoffrion, they will both share the honour. Interestingly, similar to Bernie Geoffrion, his number was raised side by side with the number of other members whose numbers were already retired before him, though this time being the 2 other members of the "Big Three", Serge Savard and Larry Robinson (Savard and Robinson's banner were lowered halfway and were raised back up to the rafters with Lapointe's banner).

Pranks
Lapointe was also known for his sense of humour and being a prankster. One of his most famous pranks is probably the Vaseline coated handshake with then-Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau as he was visiting the Canadiens' locker room. Another time, Lapointe "stole" rookie Mario Tremblay's new Pontiac Grand Prix and relocated it to a different level of that parking garage, then waiting a few days before disclosing this to Tremblay who had already filed a police report and contacted insurance.

Coaching and scouting
Following his retirement from playing, Lapointe became general manager of the Longueuil Chevaliers of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, followed by a stint as associate coach with the Quebec Nordiques. He later served as an assistant coach and later as a scout with the Calgary Flames.

He is currently the Chief Amateur scout with the Minnesota Wild, a position he has held since the franchise's inception.

Personal life
He is the father of three children: Guy Jr., Stephanie and Jordan.

Awards and accomplishments

 * NHL First All-Star Team (1973)
 * NHL Second All-Star Team (1975, 1976, 1977)
 * Played in NHL All-Star Game (1973, 1975, 1976, 1977)

International play
Early into his NHL career, Lapointe was chosen to play in the historic 1972 Summit Series against the USSR. Lapointe accepted the invitation regardless of the fact his wife would give birth to his first child (Guy Jr.), during the series, while the team was in the USSR. He would compete internationally again for Canada in the 1976 Canada Cup and the 1979 Challenge Cup against the Soviets, which replaced that year's All-Star Game.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Guy Lapointe


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Tana River (Kenya)

The ca. 1000 km long Tana River is the longest river in Kenya, it is also called Sagana River in the Mt Kenya region and gives its name to the Tana River County. Its catchment covers ca. 100,000 km2 and can be divided into the headwaters and the lower Tana consisting of the section downstream of Kora where the river flows for ca. 700 km through semi-arid plains. Its tributaries include some major rivers in the Central Region like Thika, Ragati River, Nyamindi, Thiba ,Mathioya, Chania, Thuci and Mutonga. The river rises from Mt Kenya in Nyeri. It initially runs southwest before turning south around the massif of Mount Kenya and meanders all the way up to the Indian Ocean. A series of hydroelectric dams (the Seven Forks Hydro Stations or the Seven Forks Scheme) has been constructed along the river. These include (in order of cascading) the Masinga Dam (commissioned in 1981 with an installed capacity of 40MW), the Kamburu Dam (1974, 94.20MW), the Gitaru Dam (1978, 225.25MW), the Kindaruma Dam (1968, 72MW) and the Kiambere Dam (1988, 168MW). en The Masinga Reservoir and the Kiambere Reservoir, created by the Masinga and Kiambere dams respectively, serve a dual purpose: hydro-electric power (HEP) generation and agricultural irrigation. The other three are used exclusively for HEP generation. A 2003 study reported that two-thirds of Kenya's electrical needs were supplied by the series of dams along the Tana River. Many people believe this river has groundwater underneath it, but it doesn't. The electricity is then supplied to the national grid system and distributed countrywide through a series of substations, transformers and cables.

Below the dams, the river turns north and flows along the north-south boundary between the Meru and North Kitui and Bisanadi, Kora and Rabole National Reserves. In the reserves the river turns east, and then south east. It passes through the towns of Garissa, Hola and Garsen before entering the Indian Ocean at the Ungwana Bay-Kipini area, at the end of a river delta that reaches roughly 30 km upstream from the river mouth itself. It runs through a semi-arid area and irrigates the surrounding land.

Annual flow is above 5,000 million cubic meters (MCM) on average, but varies substantially both within and across years, and includes two flood seasons each year Between 1944 and 1978, average total flow (at Garissa) was 6,105 MCM, varying from only 1,789 MCM in 1949 to 13,342 MCM in 1968. During the 1982-1996 period, annual flow remained above 5,000 MCM as well. Water is drawn from the river by the following major irrigation projects: Bura Irrigation and Settlement Project, Tana Irrigation Scheme and the Tana Delta Irrigation Project.

There is growing evidence that climate change will disrupt the Tana River and its surrounding habitats.

Eponyms
Two species of African reptiles are named after the Tana River: Mochlus tanae and Myriopholis tanae.

title: Tana River (Kenya)


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Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Gordon Lau

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was delete. — Xezbeth 07:06, May 2, 2005 (UTC)

Gordon Lau
Appears to be a vanity page for a high school wrestler. Delete. --Allen3 talk 12:55, Apr 23, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete Vanity, not notable. Andrew Lenahan - St ar bli nd 13:57, Apr 23, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Sorry people, but, no, not here. That's like the tenth one in a few hours! I'm beginning to think we need a new rule page, "What Wikipedia is not"! Master Thief Garrett 02:51, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, not notable, vanity. Megan1967 04:20, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


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Jack Laviolette

Jean-Baptiste "Jack" Laviolette (July 17, 1879 – January 10, 1960) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Laviolette played nine seasons for the Montreal Canadiens hockey club and was their first captain, coach, and general manager.

Laviolette was one of the first francophone ice hockey stars. He was born in Belleville, Ontario, but grew up in Valleyfield, Quebec. He was a solid scorer from the defenceman position, but Laviolette's true place in hockey history has less to do with his scoring prowess and more to do with his role as a founding organizer of the Canadiens hockey club. He was their first player, coach, and general manager in their inaugural 1910 season.

With the formation of the National Hockey Association (NHA) in December 1909, (replaced 7 years later by the NHL), team/league owner Ambrose O'Brien asked Laviolette to put together a team made up of French Canadian players to play as the "Les Canadiens" franchise in Montreal. Laviolette completed the task in time for the NHA's inaugural season. Among those that would sign on to that first team would be future hall of famers Newsy Lalonde, Didier Pitre. The team he built would go on to be the most successful franchise in professional hockey.

Playing career
Laviolette first played elite-level senior men's amateur hockey in 1904 for the Montreal Le National, famous for being one of the first men's teams composed of francophones. From 1905 onward, he played as a professional, first with the Michigan Soo Indians of the International Professional Hockey League for three seasons, and then returned to Montreal to play for Montreal Shamrocks in the 1908 and 1909 seasons. A teammate of Laviolette on all of those teams was forward Didier Pitre.

He then starred for the new Montreal Canadiens franchise from 1910 until 1918, both in the NHA and the NHL, scoring 51 goals in 156 games, and winning the Stanley Cup in 1916.

Laviolette lost his right foot in an automobile accident on May 1, 1918, ending his playing career. A benefit game for Laviolette was arranged at the Mount Royal Arena in 1921. He was the guest of honour, and also refereed.

Playing style

Primarily a defenceman position wise, Laviolette was renowned for his strong skating and his marvelous speed, which helped dub the Montreal Canadiens team The Flying Frenchmen. He would occasionally also play as a forward.

Player, coach, and executive Lester Patrick, who was a contemporary player of Laviolette and later a coach in the NHL with the New York Rangers, claimed that Laviolette could skate as fast backward as most other players could skate forward. On the other hand, despite Laviolette having solid goal-scoring upside both as a defenceman and as a forward, Patrick also claimed that Laviolette "lacked a sense of direction" to his game, which he claimed hindered him from reaching the superstar status of his fellow Montreal teammates Didier Pitre and Newsy Lalonde.

Laviolette was known as a clean and gentlemanly player, both in hockey and on the lacrosse field, which combined with his genial disposition on and off the sports venues made him a popular character in the various sports circuits. Outside of hockey and lacrosse, his fascination for speed also brought his attention to motorcycle racing and flying machines.

Awards and achievements

 * 1904–05, 06–07 – First All-Star Right Wing, IPHL
 * 1915–16 – Stanley Cup champion
 * 1960 – Inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame
 * 1963 – Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame

title: Jack Laviolette


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Sviland

Sviland is a borough in the southwestern part of the municipality of Sandnes in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the rural part of the municipality, southeast of the city of Sandnes. With a population (2020) of only 1,332, the borough is one of the least populous of all the boroughs in Sandnes. On the other hand, Sviland borough is 68.6 km2, making it the second largest borough by area. Sviland Chapel is located in the borough.

The borough is home of the legendary Norwegian race horse Rex Rodney, winner of the 1986 Elitloppet.

title: Sviland