Wallace & Gromit are back in an outstanding new adventure. Directors Nick Park (four-time Oscar winner) and Merlin Crossingham (Annie winner) present Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. It opens in select theaters Dec. 18 and debuts on Netflix Jan. 3. Park and Crossingham dive into what makes Aardman’s latest W&G stop-motion action comedy fun and heartwarming, especially for longtime fans of these beloved characters. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: This movie is so lovely, because it’s not only a new adventure with these two but it’s also a tribute to the fans, who have been with these characters for decades. Did you always know that you wanted [both of these things]?

Nick Park: Yeah, I think both of those, really are true. Definitely. We’ve had that in mind all the way. We’ve reached a certain point that’s very celebratory. We haven’t before in a movie actually either brought back characters from the other films or referred to the other movies in this way. A love letter in the music as well, to “The Wrong Trousers” and “Were-Rabbit”.

JM: There’s so many nods to the other films and a brilliant new story. Merlin, you’ve been with Aardman for a long time, working on “Chicken Run” and “Early Man”. What have [W&G] meant to you throughout your time at Aardman and love of animation?

Merlin Crossingham: Well, I still remember to this day when I first got to animate Gromit, and that was in preparation for working on “Curse of the Were-Rabbit” — and just being excited and nervous all at the same time. And actually, I had that same feeling when Nick asked me to join him to direct this. The excitement and the trepidation of partnering with Nick on something I could feel was important. And it has been a huge part of my professional life working with Wallace and Gromit. It’s just fantastic to have a film out there and to have it getting a warm reception and for us to feel proud about it.

JM: You both should be very proud of this. The NORBOT [gnome] is such a wild new character. Nick, those first few scenes especially, the fast movements in the yard — unbelievable. Incredible. What were the challenges of pulling that off?

NP: NORBOT was a challenge. Every character’s always something of a challenge. But because he’s so tiny as well. If you imagine Wallace is about nine inches high, NORBOT is about a third of the height. He was too small to use clay with, so we had these very small armatures with very small joints in the arms and legs and used silicone covers. It was originally sculpted in clay and then molded and made out of silicone. We’ve always had this thing of defying the stop-motion — just make things move quickly. More like a Chuck Jones cartoon but in stop-motion.

MC: A testament to the animators. Moving something fast is one thing. But moving something fast so you see the important bits — snippets of information at the right time, so it’s not just a blur. You actually understand what’s happening. We’re very lucky that we got some of the best stop-motion animators in the world on our team.

JM: Feathers McGraw is back, in a James Bond, “Mission: Impossible”-esque villain role in this caper. Merlin, as has been proven in the past, when it comes to Gromit and Feathers, they have no dialogue and you’re still able to get such expressive nature out of these characters.

MC: It’s not easy. Gromit is very difficult. He doesn’t speak but he has a brow and shoulders. He’s quite physically expressive. And he’s quite challenging. Feathers is on a whole nother level because he doesn’t even have a brow. He’s a bottle-shaped penguin with beady eyes. His beak doesn’t even move. Nick and I would debate heavily about whether he should even blink at points. Because he’s so simple and graphically elegant, we try to move him only when it’s essential. Dialing into that with the animator of what makes him feel like he’s thinking to the audience. Sometimes it’s not the animation, it’s the camera move or the music or a combination. There’s an inherent stillness to him, and that’s where his power lies. He is both most rewarding and most difficult to work with. But we all love Feathers, and hopefully the audience does too, because you’ve got to love to hate your villain. It’s important.

JM: Nick, I think this is one of the best screenplays of any movie this year. And I’ve seen more than 200 new films. You’re true to yourself. The core of this franchise is Gromit feeling a little overlooked and underappreciated by Wallace until Wallace sees the value and the intelligence Gromit has. What has that arc meant to you as you’ve made these films?

NP: Thank you for the compliment. Mark Burton, our screenwriter, has been absolutely amazing on all of this. I remember pitching him the basic idea and he immediately lit up and really wanted to write this and saw all this potential for all the characters. But yeah, I feel so lucky, really, that we’ve landed on… I hate to use the word ‘formula’… a kind of pattern.

MC: A blueprint, isn’t it?

NP: A blueprint. Yeah. Very early on — back in the days of “A Grand Day Out”, which was my college film, really. It was that dynamic of, as you described it, the dog that has feelings and feels put-upon and long suffering of his idiotic master, who doesn’t seem to be that sensitive. Well-meaning, but a bit daft. And that came right in the early days out of the practicality of animating clay. It did have a mouth and was gonna speak, but I couldn’t get around his face to get to the mouth, at the time. I just found that moving his brow did everything.

NP: There, Gromit was born, and at the same time so was Wallace because… the human one became the less intelligent one and the dog became the more sensitive, sentient one and much more intelligent one. In a way, we’ve always played with that dynamic throughout the whole thing. They’re like an elderly couple. They know each other so well and they kind of get annoyed with each other and put up with each other’s foibles. How can you put up with the one closest to you but always annoys the Hell out of you? These are not just puppet films. They’re serious movies… that are treated in the camerawork and the lighting and everything like a serious movie. Real stories with real plots.

JM: Merlin, I love all the new mechanisms we see in Wallace and Gromit’s house. Plus, I love [Chief] Inspector Albert Mackintosh. He is hysterical.

MC: Mac… voiced by Peter Kay. We were rolling around laughing when he was performing for us. He only had a small part in “Were-Rabbit”. It was lovely to be able to dig into him as a character and give him a bit more shape and screen time. As for the contraptions, Wallace’s contraptions are always a very complicated method to do a very simple job or just completely unnecessary in the first place. A lot of them are quite whimsical and frivolous. But usually they have a meaning within the story. As you see in the opening sequence, the whole ‘get up’ routine is about Wallace thinking he’s brilliant and Gromit has had enough. If it’s riffing on a theme that’s new but hopefully for fans who know and love “Wallace & Gromit”, it’s kind of familiar but new.

JM: In addition to this being in theaters and on Netflix, it airs on the BBC on Christmas Day. What does that mean to you? I think it’s so cool.

NP: It’s so incredibly significant. BBC has always been the home of “Wallace & Gromit”. I remember when I was making “A Grand Day Out”. One of my friends at film school said… “I can imagine one day this might be on the BBC at holiday time.” I thought, “Ah, that’d be brilliant.” But I never imagined it would be like this, with Netflix and the BBC and actually Christmas Day viewing. It’s very, very moving. I have to pinch myself.

MC: Everybody likes to tell their mom and dad they’ve done something and you can see it. And to be able to say, “Oh we can watch it altogether on Christmas Day” is a very special thing. And we’re also super excited that Netflix is taking it around the world for us — out to an audience that we could almost never imagine.