captaind's Full Review: Wallace & Gromit - The Wrong Trousers
In Wallace and Gromit’s second adventure, the improbable mind of inventor Wallace has created a set of mechanical trousers. These become at some point in the story The Wrong Trousers, but exactly how that comes to be is something I’m not going to tell you.
When claymation character Wallace finds himself a bit short of cash, he comes up with the perfect solution – a paying lodger. This of course means that his faithful and far more level-headed mutt Gromit is forced to live, quite literally, in the dog house. Meanwhile the mysterious lodger – an evil-looking penguin – buddies up to Wallace in a constant stream of ingratiating acts. Wallace of course, being somewhat simple-minded (with a slightly insane genius inventor streak to his mentality) falls for it completely, and soon Gromit is forced to conclude that he must pack up his bones and make his own way in the world. Then everything starts to happen…
The clay animation in this short film is significantly improved from the first animation, A Grand Day Out, with better models, smoother animation, and some frenetic action scenes that are a world away from the simple charm of the first film. (Steve Box joined Park on the animation and later co-directed Curse of the Wererabbit with Park.) The storyline has received a major boost in complexity too – there’s a real plot there with several layers to it, and more depth to the characters. We also see some of the now-famous gadgets that Wallace has invented – intricate devices that are to claymation what Tex Avery’s creations were to traditional cartoon animation. It is in The Wrong Trousers that Wallace and Gromit progressed from being amusing characters that we liked to characters that we really started to love. It is to many, myself included, still the pinnacle of their career – the animation became better and they had a full-length movie released worldwide, but somehow The Wrong Trousers has the perfect blend of humour, action, and improbable machines that work better in claymation format than they would have in any other medium. (The third short W&G film, "A Close Shave", was also great but the trousers just edge it for me.)
It lasts a full half an hour this time, and every one of those 30 minutes is a sheer delight. Julian Knott’s music complements the action perfectly and the theme tune is of course internationally famous. (Dah, da da dah, da da dah dah, dah dah dah dah, dah dah dah dah…) Peter Sallis (Cleggy in “Last of the Summer Wine”) is wonderful as the voice of cheese-loving, perpetually confused Wallace, and Gromit raises his eyebrows even more than before. His expressions alone are worth watching the movie for, somehow he’s the funniest clay dog ever to have hit the screen. (Admittedly that title is a little short of real competition, but still…) It’s very funny, some of the action sequences are truly cracking (the train sequence especially), and is truly entertainment that the whole family will enjoy.
Things to look out for
There are so many little details that you really do have to watch this several times to notice them all, but don’t miss:
Gromit reading a book – “The Republic” – in the human world it’s by Plato, but for dogs? … you guessed it, “Pluto”!
Gromit is reading a newspaper – look closely and you’ll see a headline “Dog reads newspaper”.
There are plenty of others but you’ll have to find them for yourselves!
Quotes
All from Wallace:
“Well, that went as well as could be expected didn't it, hmm? Though I might have to make a small adjustment to the drop, a touch painful on re-entry.”
“They're techno trousers, ex-NASA, fantastic for walkies!”
“Ah, well, it's no use prevaricating about the bush...”
Awards
“The Wrong Trousers” won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, the BAFTA for Best Animated Film, along with a small host of other awards from around the world. Full details here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108598/awards
Eccentric inventor Wallace has created a device that transports him out of his bed dresses him and prepares his breakfast. One morning however his mac...More at Family Video
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.