The Wrong Trousers (Nick Park, 1993)

Nick Park’s stop motion animated short film, ‘The Wrong Trousers’ was the second to follow the inventor Wallace and his silent, but brilliant dog Gromit. ‘The Wrong Trousers’ refers to the “Techno Trousers” that a new thief (called Feathers Mcgraw, a penguin who dresses like a chicken by the way) uses to manipulate Wallace into bank heists. It is another brilliant idea from Park, which received both an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for the Best Animated Short of the year. A fantastic display of creative ideas, and an enjoyable narrative make this a great short and one of my definite favourites from childhood.

Performance:

With the film being a stop motion animation, and two of the three main characters remaining completely silent throughout the film, performance is not really a forefront of the film. With that being said, Park’s excellency allows us as the viewer to interpret Gromit and the Penguin’s mannerisms and behaviour without needing to hear them. We are lead to make impressions on both the characters through their facial expressions, and how they act towards one another. For example, starting with the penguin, our first introduction to it results in a long stare between it and Gromit. We can see from this that there is obvious tension, and it foreshadows a rivalry between them. We are encouraged to not align ourselves with the penguin; the first thing it does is steal Gromit’s room as if he owns it. We already have a strong allegiance with Gromit, as he is one of the main characters, and we understand him to a greater extent than the often oblivious Wallace. Seeing the penguin go against Gromit means that the penguin is against us too. We see more tension further on through as the penguin continues to stare at Gromit in the “Techno Trousers” almost like it is studying him. These moments are often accompanied with tense music, which encourages us to feel negatively towards the penguin. Much later on in the film, Gromit is hidden in a cardboard box while he spies on the evil penguin. We see the penguin walk off, then suddenly on the beat of some loud string instruments, the penguin turns and stares straight at the camera (aimed from Gromit’s POV). Extreme close-ups of Gromit show his fear, and we are made to be fearful as well. I remember watching the film as a child, I found the scene actually quite scary, which is funny because penguins usually only come with positive connotations, yet this one just seemed so evil. I find it amazing that a character can be given such a villainous personality, despite it being a stop motion animation.

Moving onto Wallace’s faithful companion, Gromit is another mute character in the film. However, despite his lack of verbal communication, I find that he is the character that the audience find it easiest to connect with. Park gives Gromit exaggerated facial expressions, which allow us to understand his thoughts and feelings without the need for him to tell us them. For instance, in the scene where he hides in the cardboard box that I referred to earlier, there are some extreme close-up shots, which really give the audience an understanding of the dog. Park humanises the dog and give it human-like emotions and expressions. Gromit is made to make further connections with the audience, and this comes through a short shot in which he “breaks the fourth wall” and directly communicates with the audience. We see a brief section of comic relief, in which Gromit is sent through Wallace’s mechanical morning regime. He lands on a chair facing away from the table as jam is sent hurtling towards him, covering his face. Gromit turns and stares at the camera, and without saying a word, we can understand the sarcastic and agitated thoughts that would be circling in his head. It allows us to make a close connection with him, one that we don’t have with any other character in the film.

Wallace is the eccentric inventor that is central within these films. Despite his scientific and engineering brilliance, Park consistently reminds us that while smart, he is still very naïve and his close understanding with Gromit has its limits. We recognise Gromit’s problems with the penguin immediately, but there are multiple occasions where Wallace doesn’t appear to recognise Gromit’s reaction to the penguin, which is why we align ourselves with Gromit to a further extent than we do with Wallace. We are also lead to understand that their relationship is essential to each others lives, as if they couldn’t live without each other. For example, when the penguin steals the diamond from the bank, Wallace shouts in fear “GROMIT!”, almost begging for his canine companion to come along and save him. Through Wallace and Gromit’s performances, we are lead to believe that despite Wallace being Gromit’s “owner”, Wallace depends on Gromit in many situations to help him through his transition into modern day life.

There are many great lines from Wallace; being the only vocal character in the film means, through verbal communication, he helps the audience to better understand the film and its characters. We learn that the reasons for his inventor-ways come from him wanting to join in the modern technological revolution. When he reveals the “Techno Trousers” to Gromit, he says “I think you’ll find this present a valuable addition to our modern lifestyle!”. This shows that Wallace’s motives for creation arise from his will to connect more with modern society’s rapidly developing technology. Wallace also helps to establish a calm and fun environment. One of his classic lines from the film “Cracking toast Gromit” is almost comical, and this coincides with the light-hearted atmosphere for the film.

“Cracking toast Gromit!”

Mise-en-Scene:

The mise-en-scene in the film is very influential in leading us to make many assumptions about Wallace and Gromit’s lives. For example, Wallace’s clothing suggests to us that he is actually quite old-fashioned, despite his ways with technology and inventing. He wears the same green knitted jumper with a red tie, which gives him a look that can definitely be described as smart but old-fashioned. His braces on his trousers also give us this impression, as they are not as common now. Moving on to the old house, we can tell that Wallace is not particularly wealthy, which is ironic considering all his crazy adventures in all the films. We can also see that the house and the furniture within it isn’t modern; the bed frames are dated and the front of the house (including the door and windows) are very dated, which reinforces this idea of an old-fashioned lifestyle that they lead.

Cinematography:

Despite being a stop-motion animation, Nick Park perfectly uses a range of shot lengths to accentuate the characters performances. Throughout the film, Park uses many close-ups and extreme close-ups to emphasise the character’s emotions and expressions. Close-ups are used mostly for Gromit. As he is a mute character, we as the audience cannot be shown his thought process through speech, so Park has to show Gromit’s character through facial expressions. Gromit’s facial expressions are much more exaggerated than the other character’s, which allows us to better understand his thoughts/feelings. Many of the photos at the bottom of this page show this, for example, when the penguin points the gun at Gromit, we can see that he is quite clearly afraid (obviously).

Sound:

Despite being a light-hearted stop-motion animation featuring two simple and loveable characters, the music used in The Wrong Trousers is extremely tense, greatly increasing the tension during the film. This happens multiple times, with two of the most notable sequences being Gromit’s first introduction to the Techno Trousers, and Gromit spying on the penguin outside the bank. When Gromit first sees the Techno Trousers walk towards him, the soft music is replaced with a crescendo of loud, almost threatening music. It is almost like Gromit’s response is influenced by this music, as he backs up to a wall in fear of the trousers. The music is deep and powerful, and is obviously encouraging the audience to be afraid of the trousers. This goes hand-in-hand with he extreme close-up of Gromit, which shows the terror he experiences from the situation. Later on in the film, Gromit is hidden inside a cardboard box spying on the penguin. As the penguin walks by, it abruptly turns it’s head and stares directly at the camera (aimed from Gromit’s POV). Right as it stares at Gromit, the music reveals a quick, harsh sound, as if to instantly and directly strike fear into the audience. This helps to put the audience into the perspective of Gromit, and pushes them towards making an allegiance with him.

Editing:

Editing in this film is very simple; there is no sort of quick cuts or long take tracking shots. This reinforces the simplistic nature of the film, and encourages passive spectatorship. There is no rapid change of scenery or events, which make it easy for the viewer to follow. This style of editing gives the film a light-hearted feel to it, and reiterates the positive tone and atmosphere shown for most of the film.

The film is done in the stop-motion animation format, which uses clay/plasticine models of the characters. This means that editing must be perfect in order to give a seamless flow to the film. This is achieved through taking pictures in between moving the models. If the pictures aren’t taking in the same position, or if one shot has a different duration to the others, it would cause the film to flow horribly, not giving it a smooth flow that allows for easy active viewing.

Narrative Structure and spectatorship:

The Wrong Trousers is a film made for a younger target audience, so the narrative structure for it is very simple, unlike some of the other short films I have watched. They are no twists or enigmas; it is easy to follow and events happen in a linear fashion. It could also be related to Todorov’s theory, as the film begins with an equilibrium (Gromit’s birthday) is followed by a disruption (the penguin thief) and ends with a resolution/new equilibrium (the penguin thief is captured and they earn a massive cash reward from it). This kind of narrative is easiest to understand and follow. This encourages passive audience spectatorship, as there are not any challenging concepts for the audience to understand, just light-hearted comedy and simple characters. It makes the film a form of escapism, allowing you to relax and enjoy the film rather than having to really pay attention to it to understand what’s happening.