This cartoon is not just wonderfully created, it is hilarious. How can anyone get such emotional and behavioural subtleties out of plasticine? They make a lot of human actors seem less animate.
The comedy elements allied to Sallis's voice are amongst the best imaginable, and all done with stop-go animation. What makes a perfectly ordinary penguin with a rubber glove on its head - or a 'chicken' as it's called - look so menacing by simply turning its head? I just don't know. Remember; this isn't CGI. And then there's the jam-flinging gadget that gets unexpectedly out of kilter. The result could have been lifted from the best of Tom & Jerry. Techno-Trousers - ex NASA, just the thing for walkies. Gromit is yanked off without ceremony, just a stifled yelp of surprise. When that faithful but rejected dog decided it was finally time to leave home and the musical pathos welled-up, I saw a grown man wipe his own eye.
The devil's in the detail, and Nick Park misses very little.
What is also extremely imaginative is the sound track. Heard on a good system, it's really quite amazing. The echoey slap, slap, slappity-slap of little penguin feet in a lonely side-street, or the booming clamour of the air-conditioning plenum on the museum roof as Gromit's Techno-Trousers blunder about; all have a genuinely believable stamp. There's even the sound of wind blowing up there.
And finally, check-out the chase around the house on a toy train-set. It really does begin to look like magic. I love the little 'foop' as the pilfering penguin drops conveniently into a milk bottle. Witty and hilarious in equal measure.
Later, more sophisticated offerings like 'Chicken Run' seem to be just a little overblown and contrived. For me, 'The Wrong Trousers' will always be Nick Park's masterpiece.
Has anyone else noticed how similar his and Wallis's expressions are? Methinks he found his inspiration in a mirror.
The comedy elements allied to Sallis's voice are amongst the best imaginable, and all done with stop-go animation. What makes a perfectly ordinary penguin with a rubber glove on its head - or a 'chicken' as it's called - look so menacing by simply turning its head? I just don't know. Remember; this isn't CGI. And then there's the jam-flinging gadget that gets unexpectedly out of kilter. The result could have been lifted from the best of Tom & Jerry. Techno-Trousers - ex NASA, just the thing for walkies. Gromit is yanked off without ceremony, just a stifled yelp of surprise. When that faithful but rejected dog decided it was finally time to leave home and the musical pathos welled-up, I saw a grown man wipe his own eye.
The devil's in the detail, and Nick Park misses very little.
What is also extremely imaginative is the sound track. Heard on a good system, it's really quite amazing. The echoey slap, slap, slappity-slap of little penguin feet in a lonely side-street, or the booming clamour of the air-conditioning plenum on the museum roof as Gromit's Techno-Trousers blunder about; all have a genuinely believable stamp. There's even the sound of wind blowing up there.
And finally, check-out the chase around the house on a toy train-set. It really does begin to look like magic. I love the little 'foop' as the pilfering penguin drops conveniently into a milk bottle. Witty and hilarious in equal measure.
Later, more sophisticated offerings like 'Chicken Run' seem to be just a little overblown and contrived. For me, 'The Wrong Trousers' will always be Nick Park's masterpiece.
Has anyone else noticed how similar his and Wallis's expressions are? Methinks he found his inspiration in a mirror.