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Comment by codeulike | Hacker News Reader

And then for his next work to be The Wrong Trousers, a near perfect film with the ending train sequence widely acclaimed as one of the best action sequences ever put to film

https://youtu.be/jrmZIgVoQw4?feature=shared

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To prove your point: here's the Hollywood Reporter's "Directors Roundtable" video where Danny Boyle mentions it's one of the greatest action sequences of all time and everyone else (Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, Alejandro Inarrito, Tom Hooper, David O. Russel) immediately agree. David O. Russel even says it was an inspiration for him for the final action sequence in Three Kings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ7qKKQrSBY&t=581s

"The Wrong Trousers" also has one of the best heist scenes in cinema imo, up there with Rififi. It gets overshadowed by the action sequence though.

Probably the only heist sequence where the burglar is asleep. The way he dangles is so relaxed, it's a great counterpoint to the lodger wiping the sweat off his brow.

Thank you for this! I had no idea these roundtables existed. I wish that interviewer would stop interrupting though :s Apart from that this is gold!

Theres a scene there that's one of my favorite comedy bits in any film, the breakfast scene where you see a buzzer and light going off repeatedly, like they have some sort of computer system to indicate it is breakfast time... but then it cuts to Wallace in bed and he is just repeatedly pressing a button next the the bed, with the same specific cadence, to make the buzzer sound. I don't know why I find that so hilarious.

For me its gromit cutting eye holes in a box which turns out to coincidentally have a face drawn on it

...which is echoed in the final shot of Feathers McGraw grasping the bars on the window of his cell, which zooms out to reveal that it's set in a mural

I would say that all the best elements from the wrong trousers train scene were already done two years earlier in "The Good The bad and the Tigger" from the New adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

I have just looked it up what you're referencing, and I disagree.

The W&G train scene is a chase sequence. It has derring-do, thrills and spills. One moment the baddy is ahead, the next moment the goodies are ahead... high-octane stuff. The WtP cartoon doesn't have any of that, it's a sedate cartoon for kiddies. Tigger standing next to the train and carefully placing train tracks before the train gets there is nothing like Gromit sitting on the train and having to franticly lay track.

WtP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5l_fGY-EfA

W&G: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrmZIgVoQw4

Well, there is one similar joke where Tigger quickly lays down train tracks in front of a running toy train before it runs off of the tracks. That might have been an inspiration, who knows, but it's executed very differently either way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5l_fGY-EfA&list=PL65tAzyNzM...

... and then the episode becomes a parody of Westerns as it switches to the "imagination vision" of the characters, and the story and gags are not really comparable to The Wrong Trousers at all after that.

I mean, I watched taped episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh religiously as a small child and has strong nostalgia goggles for it, and even I don't think that it is on the same level. Even childhood me would have agreed: I remember loving and enjoying this episode (just like all the others), but the first time I watched The Wrong Trousers as a child I was genuinely laughing so much I had sore core muscles the day after, because I had never seen a film that funny and amazing before in my life.

Its not the elements, the idea of "Laying track infront of a toy train" is a pretty obvious idea. What makes the Wallace and Gromit scene so classic is the direction - by which I mean camera angles, camera movement, edits, and the 'acting' which are all akin to a hollywood action sequence but (somewhat absurdly) set in a claymation world. Think about the part where gromit goes under the table -

- you see gromit glance up, his eyebrows communicate that he's seen something challenging

- shot of table approaching, an impossible forest of wooden legs

- shot from the side of gromit (impossibly) finding a winding path under the table, brows furrowed but determined

- shot of wallace at the back of the train, from the side, following the same path

- shot from under the table, facing forwards, seeing our heroes continue into the room

That just one four-second segment of the chase. Its an absolute masterclass of editing and camera angles. And its also impossible, but it makes sense to the viewer.

Also, consider that of the three characters in the chase, only one can talk. Gromit expresses everything with his eyes and body language. And the penguin has barely any facial expression at all, just two black eyes. Mostly the penguin's emotions are expressed through neck movements. But nonetheless he's a classic antagonist.

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