Wallace & Gromit : Un mauvais pantalon

The best film of the Wallace and Gromit trilogy, and one of the greatest films, period. Nick Park and the animators at Aardman are some true talents and gifted storytellers. Nick Park has made some great clay stop motion cartoons before, such as Creature Comforts, but with The Wrong Trousers he really topped himself. The technical aspects of the movie are amazing. The noirish lighting, the attention to detail, the small jokes in the background, the camera compositions and the fluid animation (it doesn't have that herky-jerky look of most clay animated films) are awe-inspiring by themselves, but combined with such a witty story and appealing characters the result is something that truly deserves to be called a classic.

Nick Park's hysterical plasticine duo Wallace and Gromit are back in this, their second outing, pitting themselves against the plotting penguine whose devious nature is taking advantage of Wallace's niavity. However, the ever suspicious Gromit is seeing through the Penguine's frosty exterior and sets out to uncover his secret scheming shadowy plan. The Wrong Trousers is the best so far from Peter Lord and Nick Park, putting even the outstanding Chicken Run and Close Shave in it's shadow. The characterisation is simply electrical. The ever suffering but mute Gromit and the clumsy well meaning Wallace muddle their way to stopping a truely outstanding criminal genius penguine (whose pesona is portrayed with such subtlety and effect that the cute bird becomes the very essence of evil). Park and Lord's pace and cinematography in this animation medium are truely world leading, climaxing in the mad mayhem of a train-set chase through their house. The plot is simple yet full of nuances and details (check out the headline's on Wallace's newspaper and the wall paper in Gromit's bedroom)raising this above even the best that that big studios can produce. A film almost without fault which pays homage to the greatest and most farciscal works of the great Ealing comedy era (there is something sinister happening but, it isn't that sinister really). Watch this film and let the quality and clarity of the humour seep into your soul. A true mile-stone of animation which deserved it's oscar like no other animation ever will.

In my opinion, Wallace & Gromit are to modern animation what Bugs Bunny was to classic cartoons: they truly set the standards. Following "Creature Comforts", Nick Park made "The Wrong Trousers". W&G take in a penguin as a boarder, and the little guy soon becomes Wallace's favorite. Gromit decides to leave, but then it turns out that this is no ordinary penguin.

I think that my favorite scene was Wallace "walking" around in the trousers; they must have had fun filming that scene. Watching these cartoons, one can see that "Chicken Run" was coming eventually. All in all, this is a cartoon that you can't afford to miss. Perfect.

This is considered the best offering from Wallace and Gromit, and although I love Close Shave just as much, I cannot disagree. Gromit steals the show with his facial expressions and his attempts to foil the plans of that cute but evil penguin. Peter Sallis again does a superlative job, and I must say he sounds more confident than he did in Grand Day Out, while the visuals especially the character designs have more finesse and the music is rousing. I loved the scenes in the museum, and my favourite scene was the train scene, towards the end. The trousers idea was a great idea, and it worked to an advantage. In conclusion, a hilarious short, and my advice to anybody who hasn't yet seen it, is do so now, because you'll never regret it! 10/10 Bethany Cox.

If you had told me that sitting for 30 minutes watching bits of clay would be entertaining, I would have said you were mad.

But you would have been right.

Thanks, Nick Park, for making this old man feel like a kid again.