Not hutch a good idea, film distributors told

Some viewers of previous Wallace and Gromit escapades may have found the protagonists' predilection for Wensleydale cheese not to their taste, or have been given the bird by tales of conniving penguins, but an even more sensitive scruple is being addressed in a Dorset community.

Advertising campaigns for Nick Park's new The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – which stars Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter and Peter Kay - are being tailored for residents of Portland island to omit the word "rabbit" in order to cater for an age-old superstition.

The fluffy fiends are believed on the island to be unlucky, as their burrows are believed to cause landslides in local stone quarries. As a result, they tend only to be mentioned obliquely - by monikers such as "underground mutton" – and teasers for the film have been altered to include the word "bunny" as substitute.

Mayor of Portland Tim Woodcock said: "There is certainly a feeling against the word rabbit, especially from some of then older residents. It is a local superstition but people take it seriously."

Perhaps appropriately, given the apparent potential for such scares in its marketing campaign alone, the film will parody the horror genre - much as 1993 animation The Wrong Trousers held resonances of thrillers per se, with particular nods to Hitchcock.

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