Top 25 Favourite Films: #4 The Wrong Trousers (Dir. Nick Park, 1993)
#4. The Wrong Trousers. Directed by Nick Park, 1993.
We British, at least outwardly, have many cultural institutions; the man and his dog, the ever-present cup of tea, the stiff upper lip, the shed at the bottom of the garden where your father does...undefined things with bits of old lawnmowers and a bit of imagination to build working go-karts, the list goes on. But if one work, aside from 1969's The Italian Job or the work of Monty Python, (already on this list), goes some way to summarise Britishness, it is Wallace and Gromit. The ongoing adventures of a Northern inventor (Wallace, voiced by Peter Sallis) and Gromit, his genius dog, who often needs to rescue his master from scrapes, are two of the most beloved characters in animation, and, myself included, have charmed and cheered audiences for three decades, since A Grand Day Out appeared at Christmas, in 1989.
But is undeniably their second adventure, 1993's The Wrong Trousers that is the series' high point, a tale of Ealing-esque jewel thievery, train chases, double crossing, and cinema's most evil penguin that packs more excitement, heartache and comedy into thirty minutes than some films do in two hours. With Gromit's birthday bringing with it both presents, including the advanced Techno-Trousers, and bills that force Wallace to take in a penguin lodger, Feathers McGraw, so the duo are slowly split apart by the newcomer, who strikes up a friendship with Wallace, invades and takes Gromit's room for himself, and eventually drives Gromit out of the house.
With Gromit out of the picture, so the penguin begins to show his true colours, hijacking the Techno-Trousers first to take Wallace on a chaotic run across town, then, whilst Wallace sleeps, checks out- and plans to steal a priceless diamond from-a local museum, using Wallace as his unwitting accomplice. With the plot going wildly off the rails, and with our heroes giving chase in one of the greatest single sequences in animation, period, so the penguin is brought to justice, the trousers consigned, so it would seem, to the dustbin, and our heroes settle down to their beloved cheese and crackers with tea.
Much of the charm of The Wrong Trousers comes from its characters-Sallis's voice as Wallace is practically iconic, and without it, as he slides between amusement, shock, annoyance and, more often than not, confusion, Wallace would lack the charm and sincerity of a well meaning if occasionally bungling inventor. Gromit, for his part, is one of the great silent protagonists of cinema, the classic Aardman brow adjusted to show him angry, annoyed, frustrated, or miserable. It goes without saying, that, between A Grand Day Out and The Wrong Trousers, Park refined the appearance of both characters, to their classic appearance today.
And then there is Feathers McGraw, perhaps the single greatest animated villain of all time, a silent, menacing figure that brings to mind everything from Alec Guinness in The Ladykillers and The Lavender Hill Mob to the icily cool Hans Gruber of Die Hard-he is utterly malevolent, utterly silent, and at points you have to remind yourself that he is simply foam and plasticine over a metal skeleton. It is undoubtedly he that drives the plot, undoubtedly he who, with Wallace and/or Gromit, has the best scenes, from the nail biting heist scene that riffs off Mission Impossible, to the equally tense scene in which Gromit is almost discovered spying on the penguin
But, for a film that runs on suspense and humour, from little background details, including sight-gags reaching from Pluto for Dogs, to the prehistoric Wallace-esque cavemen, to full on slap-stick, the film's finale is a perfect melding of these, flicking back and forth, at breakneck speed as the trio hurtle around the house's model train railway, from comedy to drama, before it concludes in a dramatic, and still jawdropping ending-no animated sequence, in the 26 years since has quite managed to match up to it, nor use the medium of animation so effectively, and so effortlessly.
The Wrong Trousers, is, in short, one of the finest 30 minutes of anything, ever, a pitch-perfect mix of comedy and drama that pays homage to one of the finest studios ever in the United Kingdom, with some of the best, and most charming, animation ever, in what is undoubtedly Wallace and Gromit's finest adventure. If, by some miracle, you haven't already seen The Wrong Trousers, you are missing out on one of the finest animated films ever made.
We British, at least outwardly, have many cultural institutions; the man and his dog, the ever-present cup of tea, the stiff upper lip, the shed at the bottom of the garden where your father does...undefined things with bits of old lawnmowers and a bit of imagination to build working go-karts, the list goes on. But if one work, aside from 1969's The Italian Job or the work of Monty Python, (already on this list), goes some way to summarise Britishness, it is Wallace and Gromit. The ongoing adventures of a Northern inventor (Wallace, voiced by Peter Sallis) and Gromit, his genius dog, who often needs to rescue his master from scrapes, are two of the most beloved characters in animation, and, myself included, have charmed and cheered audiences for three decades, since A Grand Day Out appeared at Christmas, in 1989.
But is undeniably their second adventure, 1993's The Wrong Trousers that is the series' high point, a tale of Ealing-esque jewel thievery, train chases, double crossing, and cinema's most evil penguin that packs more excitement, heartache and comedy into thirty minutes than some films do in two hours. With Gromit's birthday bringing with it both presents, including the advanced Techno-Trousers, and bills that force Wallace to take in a penguin lodger, Feathers McGraw, so the duo are slowly split apart by the newcomer, who strikes up a friendship with Wallace, invades and takes Gromit's room for himself, and eventually drives Gromit out of the house.
With Gromit out of the picture, so the penguin begins to show his true colours, hijacking the Techno-Trousers first to take Wallace on a chaotic run across town, then, whilst Wallace sleeps, checks out- and plans to steal a priceless diamond from-a local museum, using Wallace as his unwitting accomplice. With the plot going wildly off the rails, and with our heroes giving chase in one of the greatest single sequences in animation, period, so the penguin is brought to justice, the trousers consigned, so it would seem, to the dustbin, and our heroes settle down to their beloved cheese and crackers with tea.
Much of the charm of The Wrong Trousers comes from its characters-Sallis's voice as Wallace is practically iconic, and without it, as he slides between amusement, shock, annoyance and, more often than not, confusion, Wallace would lack the charm and sincerity of a well meaning if occasionally bungling inventor. Gromit, for his part, is one of the great silent protagonists of cinema, the classic Aardman brow adjusted to show him angry, annoyed, frustrated, or miserable. It goes without saying, that, between A Grand Day Out and The Wrong Trousers, Park refined the appearance of both characters, to their classic appearance today.
And then there is Feathers McGraw, perhaps the single greatest animated villain of all time, a silent, menacing figure that brings to mind everything from Alec Guinness in The Ladykillers and The Lavender Hill Mob to the icily cool Hans Gruber of Die Hard-he is utterly malevolent, utterly silent, and at points you have to remind yourself that he is simply foam and plasticine over a metal skeleton. It is undoubtedly he that drives the plot, undoubtedly he who, with Wallace and/or Gromit, has the best scenes, from the nail biting heist scene that riffs off Mission Impossible, to the equally tense scene in which Gromit is almost discovered spying on the penguin
But, for a film that runs on suspense and humour, from little background details, including sight-gags reaching from Pluto for Dogs, to the prehistoric Wallace-esque cavemen, to full on slap-stick, the film's finale is a perfect melding of these, flicking back and forth, at breakneck speed as the trio hurtle around the house's model train railway, from comedy to drama, before it concludes in a dramatic, and still jawdropping ending-no animated sequence, in the 26 years since has quite managed to match up to it, nor use the medium of animation so effectively, and so effortlessly.
The Wrong Trousers, is, in short, one of the finest 30 minutes of anything, ever, a pitch-perfect mix of comedy and drama that pays homage to one of the finest studios ever in the United Kingdom, with some of the best, and most charming, animation ever, in what is undoubtedly Wallace and Gromit's finest adventure. If, by some miracle, you haven't already seen The Wrong Trousers, you are missing out on one of the finest animated films ever made.
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