As Easter hippity-hops onto the horizon, we can look forward to a film for the whole family - there's action, romance and oversized vegetables made of Plasticine. Britain's favourite stop-motion animated duo conquers the full-length feature format in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (HBO; Saturday at 9pm). As the town prepares for the annual giant vegetable competition, Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis), who runs a thriving, humane pest-control service called Anti-Pesto with his trusted mute beagle, botches an attempt to brainwash a rapidly growing number of captured rabbits (the main culprits of veggie theft) with his Brain-manipulator-o-matic. One of the fluffy thieves, Hutch, takes on Wallace's characteristics, including his mode of speech and love of cheese. Soon after the incident, vegetable thefts skyrocket and are traced back to one creature - the giant were-rabbit. The villagers are outraged and fearful. Lady Campanula Tottington (Helena Bonham Carter), who Wallace secretly fancies, convinces everyone to give Anti-Pesto a chance to redeem itself by capturing the furry fiend. Meanwhile, her ladyship's ghastly suitor, Lord Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes), vows to beat Wallace and Gromit to the punch, using his own methods - trapping and killing. The hunt builds to a fun, rip-roaring climax on the night of the competition, as the nobleman mistakes the trophy for a weapon and Gromit engages in a high-altitude battle with Philip, Quartermaine's pooch. In the end, it is Hutch who holds the key (or rather, a block of Stinking Bishop cheese) to lifting the curse of the were-rabbit.
