Wallace & Gromit the Wrong Trousers (Park, 1993)
Nick Park’s stop motion animated short film, ‘The Wrong Trousers’ was the second to follow the inventor Wallace and his dog Gromit. ‘The Wrong Trousers’ refers to the “Techno Trousers” that a new uses to manipulate Wallace into bank heists. The film displays both Wallace & Gromit’s attempt to stop this heinous crime.
Genre Codes:
Throughout the Wallace & Gromit the Wrong Trousers (WGWT) Park presents typical Film Noire conventions. This is established through technical processes such as lighting. Chiaroscuro lighting is used in lots of famous Film Noires including WGWT. In the scene of Wallace & the penguin eating, we see a large shadows of Feathers McGraw. And throughout the film, large shadows are displayed in shots of McGraw which creates tension throughout the film. Another major genre code is the plot point of solving a crime. We see Gromit take up a detective role of him tracking Feather McGraw and piecing the puzzle together of the crime McGraw commits. Throughout the film, there is a tense build up which results in a large chase seen which can be seen in many classic film noires including Sunset Boulevard (Wilder, 1950). To help build tension, Park uses a classical score with dramatic violins to help put spectators on edge. Both the opening score and the pieces of the score that follow Wallace and Gromit themselves are very upbeat to display the cheerful and comedic atmosphere in the short film. When the trousers are revealed, the non-diegetic score appears ominous to act as a misdirection to make the audience initially think that it is something threatening. This juxtaposition helps align spectators against the trousers & Feathers McGraw and creates this binary opposition. Also, most film noires end with a happy ending with a criminal being held accountable and facing prosecution and the protagonists ending up happy and returning to a peaceful life that we often see at the beginning of the film. This is the case for WGWT, McGraw is arrested, and Wallace & Gromit return to their home together with their relationship rekindled.
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. 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 to process of editing the film has to be flawless as if a model isn’t put back in the same place the film would become chunky and lose the flow of the entire scene.
Narrative:
The narrative structure is very simple as the films target audience are younger people. There are no complicated twists or enigmas. It is linear and simple to follow but still highly engaging due to the plot points such as the heist McGraw attempts & the comedic mechanical trousers which turn on Wallace (the man who bought them). The comedic story lines help keep audience engaged as well as the tense build up of the reveal of Feather McGraw being a criminal allowing spectators to align with the good guys (Wallace & Gromit). However, the film still does not require large amounts of active spectatorship and even slightly encourages passive audience spectatorship so it can still appeal to the younger target audience it was made for.
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