Ah, the classic. Everyone loves the clueless cheese lover and his far more intelligent dog. The evil penguin - brilliant, absolutely brilliant. What can be more inventive? I actually almost cried when Gromit left. The laughs are genuine, the fun is great, this is a great stop-motion film, and I'm feelin' fine.

This second short film foray into the clay formed world of Wallace and Gromit arrived four years after A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit. The story opens on Gromit's birthday. The lovable little pooch is given a pair of robotic trousers that can take him for walks while Wallace sits around eating cheese. It turns out that Wallace has a spare "room to let." A shifty eyed penguin decided to rent the room, but opts for Gromit's room rather than the spare. This sends Gromit to the literal doghouse. Turns out, this shifty eyed penguin is actually a diabolical criminal who disguises himself as a chicken during robberies by putting a glove on his head. Wallace is a pawn in the schemers latest heist as are the robotic trousers.

This short is full of clever gags and silly moments. At one point Gromit shown reading a newspaper with the headline "Dog Reads Newspaper". If you think that's funny, this short will have you cracking up. The clay style is a perfect medium resulting in hilarious facial expressions on the characters. In fact, the work here is so fluid, its easy to forget that this is stop motion. The whole thing ends up in a daring train chase scene, well model train to be exact. Our hero Gromit steals the show, though the penguin is a welcome guest star. Of the 3 Wallace and Gromit 30 minute shorts, this one is my personal favorite. For this outing, this pair of cheese eaters earn an A.

The art of Claymation is a tough and unforgiving one. Once you start you cannot go back, make a mistake and you have to start the whole scene over. If that wasn't enough the manipulation of the model eventually leads to it warping and the hot studio lights will, sooner or later, start melting the plasticine. The first of these problems can also be attributed to other stop-motion techniques; however the last two are limited to clay, but easier to solve by making multiple models of the characters.

These problems are also why you don't see a lot of commercial stop-motion these days, but when you do the results can be a mixed bag. Aardman have a better track record than most and Wallace & Gromit's second film continues this trend, with one, if not the best claymation film ever made. The eccentricities are as present and as British as the previous short, Wallace's invention for getting out of bed is amusing, especially since Gromit is the one doing all the actual work. The canine also steals the show, and since the short centres around his Birthday, why shouldn't it? His facial expressions speak volumes and are pure pathos. Miming is something the penguin carries off smoothly, even without the ability to change his expression, indeed This lack of emotion gives him a dark, sinister air.

Going back to the point I made earlier, the sequence at the end of the film must have been a nightmare. And it's the one thing that amazes me the most though. The speed, fluidness and expertise of the animation is as mind-numbing as it is awe-inspiring. The same can be said about the short as a whole, with no little detail falling through and many little ones making the difference. However, in the end, it's the fact that you can lose yourself in a world of plasticine that, at times, seems more real than the real world that is the true achievement of this film.

...and this is where it all comes together.

The best of the three Wallace and Gromit short films, 'The Wrong Trousers', in my opinion, is Nick Park's masterpiece (or his greatest masterpiece, if you prefer).

An improvement in every way over 'A Grand Day Out', 'The Wrong Trousers' features amazing claymation, hilarious situation humour, unforgettable characters. It became a cult classic overnight, and for my money is more entertaining and likeable than the feature film 'Chicken Run', if only for the sheer genius of the characters and setting.

That setting is a kind of pleasantly demented England of the late 50's or early 60's, no doubt inspired by the sort of TV Nick must have watched as a kid. Everything is delightfully retro, in a sort of childish, innocent way, yet it's adults who generally appreciate the Wallace and Gromit films the most (I should know I worked weekends in a video store for years, and they were the ones who always rented it while their kids wanted Pokemon vol 87)

The sheer inventiveness of the film is consantly delightful. Deranged mechanical trousers, a sinister, criminal penguin, ridiculous, elaborate inventions for cooking breakfast which spit porridge everywhere. And the emotions, even pathos, conveyed by Gromit's character is remarkable considering he never says a word.

This is a unique, eccentric masterpiece which ought to be far more famous than it is (though it is pretty famous in England and Australia). There's really nothing else like it, except the other two Wallace and Gromit shorts, and this is the pick of the bunch.

Quite honestly, I couldn't think of anything to fault in this movie, except perhaps that it's over too soon.

Perfect. They just don't get any better than this. The animation is just priceless and particularly impressive since Wallace is the only character that talks throughout the entire short. The other two primary characters--Gromit and the penguin--convey their wide range of emotions entirely through the animation... and there never has been a penguin that evil. Delightful to watch and the finale will have you rolling in the aisles.