Our Helena gets a makeover

Lady Tottington: Helena Bonham Carter as you've never seen her before

Meet Helena Bonham Carter as you have never seen her before.

The screen actress is transformed into an absent-minded aristocrat for the first Wallace and Gromit feature-length film, out in the autumn.

Bonham Carter is the voice of the red-haired, "exceedingly blueblooded" Lady Tottington, with whom hapless Wallace falls head over heels in love.

But his rival for her affections is the dastardly, bloodsport-loving Victor Quartermaine - a smug, portly character with an Elvis quiff, voiced by Ralph Fiennes.

Wallace And Gromit - The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit follows the much-loved twosome as they found a pest-control firm, Anti-Pesto, which is hired to protect a vegetable-growing contest.

But they come under attack from a beast destroying vegetable plots across the neighbourhood.

They harness the usual battery of bizarre machinery to help in their battle against the creature - a marauding giant rabbit.

Peter Kay and John Thomson also provide voices for the film, while Peter Sallis reprises his role as Wallace.

Unfinished clips were shown at the Cannes festival this year to widespread delight.

More than 30 animators have been working flat out at Aardman Animation's Bristol studios to complete the film in time for its premiere on 14 October.

The painstaking task of moving and filming each Plasticine character frame by frame results in only a few seconds of footage a day - if things go well.

The film is the second release, following Chicken Run, under a deal with US studio Dreamworks.

But despite its American backing, creator Nick Park insists: "There will be lots of action and adventure but at heart it will star good old Wallace and Gromit and be very British in its feel, subtlety and underplaying gags."

Wallace and Gromit began life as a college project.

Park's short film about them, A Grand Day Out, premiered in 1991 and was nominated for an Oscar.

The Wrong Trousers followed in 1993 and A Close Shave a couple of years later - both scooping Academy Awards.

"Wallace and Gromit are part of the family - they are like friends, Plasticine friends," adds Park. "I have a great affinity with the characters so it is really good to be back with old friends again.

I've always aspired to make a feature and even in the shorts there is a sense that these are frustrated feature films."

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