Hitchcockian Blogathon - The Wrong Trousers

This post is part of the Hitchcockian Blogathon,

Celebrating the Best Films Hitchcock Never Made

 

All of the other post will be linked to from here as they become available.

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When you think of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, or in this case, films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock, probably the last thing you would think of is clay stop-motion animation. Of course, that is what makes, the Academy Award-winning The Wrong Trousers such a treat. 

The Wrong Trousers is the second a series of clay-animated films, directed by Nick Park and featuring inventor Wallace and his trusty dog Gromit that spawned two more short films, one feature-length film, and several TV spinoffs. Still not seeing it? Yeah, I kinda get that, but let's look at the story of The Wrong Trousers. Okay, for the sake of people who have never seen the film and not wanting to do spoilers, let's take a very high-level look at the story, like 40,000 feet. An man and his trusty companion are running short on money and decide to rent a room to a mysterious lodger, who they come to learn has nefarious plans.

Sound a little be more like something that Alfred Hitchcock might be involved in? See I told you. Okay, you do have to look past the fact that Wallace is an inventor whose gadgets include a system that drops you out of bed, down to the breakfast table, and dresses you just in time for the toast to pop up. And Wallace's trusty sidekick Gromit is an anthropomorphic dog, who doesn't talk, but communicates every bit as clearly through gesture and facial expressions. 

 Putting Hitchcock aside for a second, Wallace and Gromit and all of Nick Park's films are cute and funny and at times have almost roller coaster action, and The Wrong Trousers is no different. The gags are clever, and even background objects like sets and props are a hoot to look at. All of the Wallace and Gromit films are first-rate productions from top to bottom.

In The Wrong Trousers, Wallace has invented techno-trousers as a birthday present for Gromit, a mechanical pair of pants designed to take Gromit for walkies. Gromit is less than thrilled with the idea. Discovering they have piles of unpaid bills, Wallace decides to rent out the spare room. The lodger is a penguin, and despite an upbeat taste in music, Gromit suspects he's up to no good. There's even a chicken who's wanted by the police, but you're going to have to watch it to figure that part out.

I honestly don't know whether director Nick Park was consciously trying to parody Hitchcock or not, but I see it all over the place, from dramatic strains of music to heighten the tension to way he lays out the shots, going from a perspective shot to what's being looked at and then turning on a dime to lead into a truly funny gag. 

The Wrong Trousers gives you love, betrayal, action, suspense, a music score that works just the way it needs to, great perspective shots, clever visual story-telling, a jewel heist, a fight on top of a train, and situations where the feeling goes from fear to relief to humor with a grace and style that would make the Master of Suspense proud. Things go sideways and you even find yourself pulling for the bad guy, or penguin. The climactic chase is just something you have to see for yourself. In  a scant 29 minutes, The Wrong Trousers gives you everything you'd expect in one of Alfred Hitchcock's better films.