Two from the hands of Nick Park:

The Wrong Trousers

viewed July 11, 2000 on VHS   Full Details

A Close Shave

viewed August 7, 2000 on VHS   Full Details

In light of the release of Chicken Run, I thought to watch the previous masterworks of one half of the creative team behind this summer's poultry in motion, Nick Park (Peter Lord, the other collaborator, left me impressed but not amazed by his award-winning short, Wat's Pig; Lord and Park work together for Aardman Studios).  Park has three Oscars to his name, for his seminal early work in Creature Comforts (whose humanized zoo animals no doubt inspired the Chevron talking car ads) and the two Wallace and Gromit shorts I cover here.  For those who are sadly unacquainted with the series, Wallace and Gromit is the most exemplary work in clay animation since Ray Harryhausen's B-movie monster models in the 50s.  

Wallace is a doddy old English inventor of automatic gizmos that help him with his daily routine (automatic breakfast maker, automatic dog walker, automatic dog washer, etc).  Unfortunately, the machines are never quite so automatic and usually end up creating much more havoc than help.  Fortunately, Wallace's dutiful pet dog Gromit, who is exponentially brighter than his master, can usually sniff the way out of their messy situations.  The two figures are unforgettable: Wallace's tight-lidded, buck-toothed smile and the way he gushes about cheese; Gromit's incredibly expressive eyes, indicating cleverness, soulfulness and bottomless devotion to his doddy master.  

Wallace and Gromit won their first Oscar for their second short.  The first, in which the duo flies to the moon in search of cheese, is not nearly as sophisticated.  It would be in The Wrong Trousers that Park would develop the narrative arc that would give the series its model for delightful storytelling:  First, there is a slight problem with the household (out of rent).  Next they become involved with a stranger (the beautifully beady-eyed Penguin).  The stranger upends the household putting Gromit out, with Wallace hardly noticing.  The stranger then reveals himself to be a wanted criminal as he plots his grand caper.  Gromit returns from exile and helps apprehend the enemy in the nick of time, and life is restored back to manageable dysfunctionality.  

The Penguin is really the best part of The Wrong Trousers; he practically upstages the stars.  With his odd late night music selections ("Tie a Yellow Ribbon" at full blast), his almost unnoticeable blinking, his use of a red glove to disguise himself as a chicken, and his sweaty apprehension while trying to steal a prize diamond are all priceless quirks of a fascinating sociopath -- he's your freshman college roommate gone birdy.  

Wallace and Gromit don't really blossom into a Bert and Ernie level of immortality until A Close Shave, and the short is all the better for it.  Substantially more complicated than its predecessor, it puts the duo squarely in the center of a crazy juggling act (the last image happens to be of a sheep juggling balls) involving a herd of rustled sheep, the vicious dog that wants to turn them into his brand of dog food, and his hapless lady owner, who bears a toothy resemblance to Wallace.  Little fanfare is made of the expanded depth of field in the beautiful exterior shots, or the miracle of claymation water drops or soap suds, but you can sense there's been a lot put into this film. This time, it seems that every frame has a subtext, whether it's the running joke use of newspaper headlines or the book Gromit reads while in prison: Crime and Punishment, by Fido Dogstoyevsky.  Certain objects are brilliantly put to use, recurring throughout the film: an oatmeal dispenser doubles as a window-washing soap dispenser, and then is used as a weapon, with oatmeal the ammunition.  References to Batman and The Terminator are made, but in unexpected, hilariously original ways.  I really should have included it in my list of top films of the 90s -- it is a masterful use of resources and storytelling, and a perfectly realized work.

Having said that, I must again reiterate my disappointment with Chicken Run.  One can lavish praise at its technical achievement, but really it's nothing new following the Wallace and Gromit shorts, just expanded, and subsequently, diluted.  I seriously hope W. and G. make a comeback, though I heard a terrible story that Nick Park had left the working models of the delectable duo in the back of a taxicab.  For the sake of all of us, I hope he has the time and heart to carve out another pair.

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