NEW YORK - There's something very "Wallace & Gromit about Helen Mirren in The Queen. Thick-calved, sensibly shod, with tweedy skirts, head scarves, and waxed huntsman jackets, Mirren's Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor struts about proudly, surrounded by All Things British. It's much the same universe that Nick Park's bumbling inventor and his scowling pooch belong to - an old-fashioned, make-believe Britain - albeit one of a distinctly different class. 

Of course, Her Royal Highness happens to be real, and Wallace and Gromit are little bendable figures made of clay. But both consummately embody Englishness, clinging fiercely to a nostalgia-hued vision of the past.