Every ‘Wallace And Gromit’ pun checked by legal because people are so “litigious” now, says director

nme.com:

Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, have revealed that every pun has to be checked with their legal department because of the rise of “litigious” parties in society.The pair were behind the new Aardman Animations film, the latest in the deal between the studio and Netflix following 2023’s Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget.

The movie debuted on BBC One on Christmas Day in the UK and then January 3 on Netflix internationally. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at this year’s Golden Globes.As with past instalments, this story relies on what the directors call “shameless ‘punnage’ the whole time”.

These are mainly gentle wordplay gags, such as a newsreader called Anton Dec (a play on presenting team Ant & Dec), or one of the boats in the finale being called The Accrington Queen (a reference to the Hollywood classic The African Queen).Despite the family friendly nature of the jokes, the filmmakers revealed every one had to be run past their legal advisers to avoid any trouble.

Crossingham told Cartoon Brew: “Back in the day, no one ever checked those things from the legal department. Now everything we have to check.