Netflix bosses in America issued a concern over Peter Kay’s voice work in the latest Wallace and Gromit film.
On Christmas Day 2024, the stop-motion animated duo returned for an acclaimed new special titled Vegeance Most Fowl, which brought back terrifying villain Feathers McGraw.
It’s the first Wallace and Gromit project to be released in ten years – and the first since Peter Sallis, the voice of Wallis, died in 2017.
Ben Whitehead replaces Sallis in Vengeance Most Fowl, which also features the voice work of Reece Shearsmith, Lauren Patel and Diane Morgan.
But it was comedian Kay who provided a spot of trouble for directors Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham due to a line he improvised while in the recording booth.
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At one stage in the new film, Kay’s character Chief Inspector Mackintosh exclaims: “Flippin’ Nora!” – a phrase unknown to the executives in charge at Netflix US.
Park told The Sun: “Peter ad-libs quite a lot. At one point, he’s astonished at something and shouts: ‘Flippin’ Nora.’ One day we did get a note back to ask: ‘Who is Nora and why is she being flipped?”’
Crossingham said that they convinced the bosses Ka’s comment was “not rude, not an expletive” but “an innocent turn of phrase”.
Speaking about replacing Sallis in the lead role, Whitehead told The Independent: “The character has always changed, at least physically. So Nick and Merlin did give me a little bit of permission to evolve the voice and develop it. That frees you up – you stop worrying so much about an impersonation, or hitting the elongated vowels in just the right way.
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“But, saying that, you do want him to sound like Wallace. It’s tough as a fan to hear it and go, ‘That’s not Peter Sallis!’”
Park previously told the BBC he found making the film “quite emotional” as Sallis “was such an original, unique voice”.
He continued: “So it’s very hard for anyone to step into his shoes. But we have been blessed with a youngish actor whom we’ve known for many years who can do a fantastic Wallace impersonation.
“He’s stepped in very kindly, and is just great. It’s hard to tell them apart.”
In a four-star review, The Independent’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey, wrote: “Vengeance Most Fowl is proof the traditional can still thrive – not only in how a film looks, but even in the barrage of puns (one magazine reads: “Gardens of the Galaxy”) and corny dad jokes.
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