(UK 1993 31m) DVD2
Pick up a penguin
p Christopher Moll d Nick Park w Nick Park, Bob Baker ed Helen Garrard m Julian Nott art Yvonne Fox
VOICES BY:- Peter Sallis (Wallace),
Wallace the inventor with a passion for Wensleydale cheese always reminded me of the Beano’s Calamity James without hair and, like that comic creation, he has an infinitely more street-smart pet (substitute Gromit the dog for Alexander the lemming). For any one of a number of reasons Wallace and Gromit became a national institution in the nineties, a source of endless pleasure for young and old and the source of instant fame for its modest creator with a taste for outrageous bow-ties, Nick Park. Much was made of the incredibly pain-staking animation methods used and they are certainly as close to being a polar opposite to the CGI world of Pixar as could be offered. But these films are more than mere animated shorts, they are classic comedies. Period. They belong with the best of Keaton, Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy. And though A Grand Day Out and, particularly, A Close Shave are rightly feted, for me The Wrong Trousers is Aardman’s greatest film.
The film begins with Gromit pending the rising from bed of his owner, Wallace, and anxiously awaiting his birthday presents. Eventually he is presented with a new dog collar (which he hates) and some leftover NASA space trousers to take him for walkies and leave Wallace to eat his cheese and invent his crackpot devices. At the same time, money is running a little thin and Wallace is forced to take in a lodger, in the form of a suspicious looking penguin, who proceeds to take over Gromit’s room and force the poor old dog out into the kennel and, eventually, complete with yellow raincoat and trademark knotted spotted hankie, to leave home. However, the penguin has sinister plans for Wallace, using his trousers to rob the local museum of a priceless diamond.
The homages to numerous films are there for all to see and some of the little sight gags are so quick you’d miss them if you blinked. I loved the newspaper headlines, such as “moon cheese shares soar”, (a reference to the previous A Grand Day Out), “sheepdog found guilty” and “dog reads paper” as Gromit does that self same thing. Then there’s the playing of ‘how much is that doggy in the window?’ by the nefarious penguin as Gromit sits outside in his kennel, trying to shut it out with ear muffs. But as is always the case with Aardman’s work, right back to the iconic Creature Comforts, it’s the expressions that provide the most pleasure, Gromit’s in particular. One thinks of his look knowing he’s about to be splatted with jam when caught in Wallace’s trousers, his incredulity at Wallace’s actions, his ear shaking terror at the Karloffesque space trousers, his emotional last glimpse of his photo of himself with his master prior to leaving home and, last but not least, his threatening the penguin with furrowed brow and a rolling pin, only to have the penguin pull a gun on him. Pure genius, yet not all the comedy lies here, Trousers being also a throwback to the old slapstick days. The penguin is a superb creation, emotionless behind his beedy eyes, devilishly using a sleepwalking Wallace as an unwitting accomplice in his criminal schemes. How could you not enjoy a character called Feathers McGraw who is sent not to prison but to the zoo?
However, piece de resistance has to be the final chase on the train set, which is not only a genuine homage to Keaton’s The General but a masterpiece of screen comedy and more entertaining than a thousand redundant car chases in the latest mindless blockbusters, with Gromit under the lampshade, being fired upon by the penguin, hastily laying the tracks in front of the electric train he’s riding as it’s moving and his final capture of the penguin in a milk bottle. It’s organised chaos into which Wallace can only interrupt with a trademark “hang in there, everything’s under control!” We never doubt that everything will, just as with another northern treasure George Formby, turn out nice again, but one always wishes it wouldn’t quite so soon. We always want more.
Well. This is an inspired choice and a welcome one as well. Parks shorts featuring these characters are better than 90% of the live action feature length films of this, or any, decade. Aside from the brilliant animation and sure-fire character construction, the thing about these mini-movies that always caught me was the creators attention to realist back-drop detail (this sells the bizarre fantasy of the stories by grounding them in reality) and his almost tribute like presentation that recalls Hollywood films of the 30′s anfd 40′s. The score for this film is reminiscent of the great Max Steiner and the camera angles (rare for animation) are straight out of films like Huston’s THE MALTESE FALCON. More than anything, though, its Park’s love for the absurd that takes center stage (the Penguin disguising as a chicken by a mere rubber glove on his head-the shoot out on the runaway model train set-Gromits tailing of the criminal) and its all wrapped in the warmth of characters we actually like and care for.
I’ll further say that there’s a moment in this film, when the alarms go off in the museum during the diamond heist, that builds true tension. As a viewer, we are inextricably drawn into all kinds of emotional reaction (feari for our hero not to get caught, anticipation to see if he can get away and tremendous relief when he finally, accidentally, does). I don’t know of too many film-makers, let alone animation film-makers, that can produce such reactions from viewers. Park, too his credit, imbues these short films with so much quick and deep information pertaining to character that we love these guys from the beginning and fear for there predicaments. Add the bizarre humor and, viola, an almost perfect film. Disney could do this, Chuck Jones too. Lasseter and his Pixar boys are absolutely doing this. Simple stories, the “what if” factor and a whole lotta patience. Guys like Nick Park are treasures to the world. THE WRONG TROUSERS is a masterpiece.
Fun pick (I’m really enjoying this 90s list) though I don’t think I actually saw this one. Didn’t it win an Oscar years after ’93 (which I assume was its British release)? I seem to remember it winning kudos in the late 90s.
Oddly enough, I have a cousin who was terrified by Wallace and Gromit – or claimed to be (something about that underbite, I think).
Yes, MOVIEMAN, YES, Nick Park won a well deserved Oscar for this magical little gem!
Great pick and essay, Allan. I’m still taken aback by how natural the movement of Nick Park’s stop motion animated creatures are, from his earliest shorts on (the only exception is “Chicken Run,” which was unfortunately photographed at 20 frames per second to save money, and suffers as a result). They’re caricatures, to be sure, but they possess an organic fluidity I have yet to see even in other superlative examples of the technique (Henry Selick, Jan Svankmejer, etc). There’s a scene late in “The Wrong Trousers” when the penguin has Gromit up against the wall with a gun, and to signal where he wants the dog to move the penguin makes a slight tilt of the head and flipper that brings a grin to my face. Park’s mimicry of the tiny, yet crucial nuances of kinesthetic communication is what makes his universe succeed so indelibly. Well, that and the preoccupation with cheese. Wallace and Gromit are, without a doubt, the least distancing of their brethren, and a charming paean to the sly drollity of British humor.
I rather like Chicken Run myself, but this may be the best Park of all.
Excellently said JON LANTHIER. I’d add to the full illusion Parks use of classic camera movement and placing and, as I stated above, his superlative attention to details with props, backgrounds and surrounding. Richard Donner once said (about SUPERMAN-his only great film), that in order to sell fantasy or the unbelievable you need to ground the whole thing in reality. By making everything that surrounds the fantastical elements (in this case, a pistol packing jewel thief penguin, robotic/bionic pants and a dog with a Felix Unger complex), then everything that they touch, live in and move through must sing of authenticity. Look at the sets that make up the alley way the Gromit spys the Penguin in. From dirty trash cans, an errant rat, wet pavement and dirty windows, the illusion is perfectly real. The mimicry of real human movement then adds to the illusion on top of it. Add to the fact that stop motion is three dimensional and the fantasy becomes solid. I think Park is a genius.
Cracking choice! I liked the full-length Wallace and Gromit movie, but the plasticine shorts are even better.