The thing about Feathers McGraw, he’s got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at you he doesn’t seem to be livin’… until he slides his flipper over the red, rubber glove stretched over his noggin…

It’s been 19 years since the last theatrical released Wallace and Gromit feature, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and 16 years since the last short, A Matter of Loaf and Death, but it’s been over 30 years since the last time we encountered Feathers McGraw, one of the coldest villains in cinema history, first introduced in the 1993 Oscar-winning short The Wrong Trousers. Since then, he’s been stewing in a prison cell (a zoo), lifting weights like Max Cady, and plotting. Staring into the cold eyes of the silent Feathers, you might as well be staring into the gates of Hell. It is only appropriate that Aardman Studios, who nearly ran out of clay to make this project happen, devoted all their strength and creativity to return to these characters after all this overdue time, and bring out the big guns with reviving a classic villain.

Having been released in some limited theatres in the states in December before premiering on BBC One in the UK on Christmas Day, Netflix debuted the film on January 3rd on their service internationally, their third feature collaboration with Aardman since acquiring A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon and Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. While Were-Rabbit was a hit in 2005, Aardman since has struggled to remain popular at the box office, making all the sense in the world that they’ve pivoted to streaming releases. Yes, it would be preferred to experience the grand return of our favorite socially-unaware scientist and his mute, anthropomorphic dog on a big screen, but their revival is a blessing nonetheless.

Its hard not to have good feelings just hearing Julian Nott’s jaunty theme on its own, a secret weapon that keeps only positive feelings flowing as the brilliant team at Aardman reconstruct the colorful interiors and exteriors of Wallace’s home at Wallaby 62 West Wallaby Street in Wigan, Lancashire.

The film starts right off the top with not a recap of The Wrong Trousers, but an extended ending, with the bagged Blue Diamond macguffin being safely returned to the authorities and Feathers McGraw incarcerated. Years later, Wallace and Gromit are back to where they usually are: Wallace focused on a useless invention for an arbitrary purpose and Gromit tending to most, if not all of the housecleaning. When Wallace manufactures a robotic garden gnome to help Gromit with outside chores, unaware that Gromit actually enjoys his proactive work, it catches the eye of the neighborhood. Soon, Wallace discovers he has a profitable business venture ahead of him. But plotting in the shadows, using stealth agility and inventions of his own, Feathers McGraw is able to hack into Wallace’s computer database (using a very obvious food-related password) and infiltrate his devices, and possessing Wallace’s inventions as his own army of robotic garden gnomes.

What always lands in Wallace and Gromit, beyond the clever gags, is a sense of real suspense. These stories all thrive off a sense of real danger (a psychotic Penguin, an evil wool shopkeeper, a murderous fiance, a giant monster rabbit) and with Feathers mostly sidelined in the first half as the story takes shape, the gnomes are an enjoyable plot device, and the second act does allow for some plenty unsettling suspense (a particular shot of all of the gnomes staring at the camera bathed in red lighting is genuinely effective). There’s even a clever Alien-esque sequence involving Gromit tracking the army approaching with a sonar scanner. But it isn’t until the third act when Feathers gets to take real action does the film really match the quality of the prior films, with a train car sequence eerily and impressively reminiscent of the finale of last year’s Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning. From there, it’s action filmmaking at its finest, requiring Aardman to employ more extensive visual effects work than just adjusting clay (which is no easy feat in itself).

Where Venegance Most Fowl feels most lacking is in its side characters, Chief Inspector Albert Mackintosh (Peter Kay) and his right-hand, PC Mukherjee (Lauren Patel), who feel adjacent to the main storyline without feeling tied to the action in an interesting or meaningful way, rather just a way to add conflict and pad out the already brisk 79 minute runtime. Mukherjee’s insistence on Wallace’s innocence should lead to her being more key to aiding the duo, but the character remains off to the side during the important action. One wishes most of the jokes, not centrally delivered by the main duo or Feathers, could have been mined a bit more clever. Nothing comes close to the brilliant coin gag from Were-Rabbit.

But minor criticism is just too easy to brush aside when it feels this good to be reunited with Wallace and Gromit, in a story that feels worthy and overdue. Even missing the late great Peter Sallis as the voice of Wallace is an afterthought as Benjamin Whitehead does a (cracking) seamless job taking over the role. The results, as expected, leave you grinning ear to ear. While it may be more tempting to be in the mood to revisit their other adventures, Vengeance Most Fowl now feels like essential post-Wrong Trousers viewing.