Released in 1993, The Wrong Trousers introduced British national treasures Wallace & Gromit to the villainous penguin Feathers McGraw. This dastardly foe harboured ambitions to put Wallace’s ingenious inventions to criminal use. The film won an Academy Award and became part of a long legacy for the company as the home of British animation. For the film’s 30th anniversary, The Cartoon Museum and Aardman are collaborating to bring you a truly spectacular exhibition that celebrates that legacy.
The exhibition invites you to make your own piece of plasticine history and walks you through their one-of-a-kind collection of the full production process of Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers. They have never-before-seen behind the screen shots showing the artists and studio as the film was made, once believed lost set pieces and models and every surviving piece of original artwork.
Taking you through the process of creating the film, the exhibition starts by delving into where Nick Park and Peter Lord, the film’s producers, got their inspiration – including a look into some of the wonderful artworks in The Cartoon Museum’s own collection. They look at original art showcasing early designs for characters, and even find out the method behind Gromit’s many hilarious faces.
But how do you make a stop-motion film? How long does it take? How do you prevent plasticine dogs melting under stage lights? And with such a delicate process, how much is planned out in advance? The story is told through a treasure-trove of models, scripts, behind-the-scenes photos, original storyboards, and other artworks from the Aardman vault that will inspire wonder and nostalgia alike.
Few actual artefacts from this piece of movie magic exist to this day, and now for the first time in cartooning history, they will have them at the museum. Alongside the story of the film-making process, they will also explore the legacy of the film, including Wallace & Gromit’s amazing comic history.
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