The Wrong Trousers

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox film The Wrong Trousers is a 1993 British stop-motion animated short film produced by Aardman Animations. The film was directed by Nick Park and co-written by Park, Bob Baker, and Brian Sibley. It is the second installment in the Wallace & Gromit series following A Grand Day Out (1989). In the film, Wallace (Peter Sallis) and Gromit find themselves in the crosshairs of a villainous penguin, Feathers McGraw, who uses Wallace's latest invention, a pair of robotic trousers, to steal a diamond from the city museum.

Production on The Wrong Trousers began in 1990. Baker, who was a writer on Doctor Who, took ideas from Park's sketchbooks, suggesting they make a drawing of a penguin the villain. Park wanted to include a chase on a model railway, feeling it would be funny to stage a Hollywood-style action sequence in a living room, so Baker suggested they make a heist film with the train as the denouement.

The Wrong Trousers debuted in the UK on 26 December 1993 on BBC Two.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Like the previous film, it received critical acclaim. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1994.

Plot

Wallace gifts his dog, Gromit, a pair of robotic "Techno-Trousers" for his birthday to take him on walks, which concerns Gromit. To pay his debts, Wallace lends a room to a penguin, who befriends Wallace and drives Gromit out of the house. The penguin takes an interest in the trousers, which can walk on walls and ceilings, and secretly rewires them for remote control. Gromit discovers that the penguin is Feathers McGraw, a criminal who disguises himself as a chicken by donning a red rubber glove on his head.

Feathers forces Wallace into the trousers, sends him through town to tire him out and sends him to bed. Gromit spies on Feathers as he takes measurements of the city museum and discovers his plans to steal a blue diamond. While Wallace sleeps, Feathers marches him to the museum in the trousers. He infiltrates the building and captures the diamond, but he triggers the alarm, waking Wallace up. Feathers marches him back to the house and traps him and Gromit in a wardrobe at gunpoint.

After Gromit rewires the Techno-Trousers to break open the wardrobe, he and Wallace pursue Feathers aboard their model train set. Wallace disarms Feathers and frees himself from the trousers. After Feathers' train collides with the trousers, Gromit captures him in a milk bottle. Feathers is turned in to the police, being imprisoned at the city zoo, and Wallace pays his debts with the reward money. Outside, the discarded Techno-Trousers reactivate in the dustbin and walk off into the sunset.

Production

Sculpture based on The Wrong Trousers at the Market Hall in Preston, Lancashire

Production began in 1990. Peter Sallis, who voiced Wallace, said The Wrong Trousers was based loosely on 1964's Topkapi and said it was his favourite Wallace & Gromit film.<ref name="Fading">Template:Cite book</ref> David Sproxton, the co-founder of Aardman and the producer of the Wallace & Gromit films, said that The Wrong Trousers was "a whole league higher up the food chain in terms of production values and storytelling" compared to 1989's A Grand Day Out.<ref name="Shoard-2023">Template:Cite news</ref>

Whereas Park wrote most of A Grand Day Out, for The Wrong Trousers he worked with the Doctor Who writer Bob Baker.<ref name="Shoard-2023" /> Baker took ideas from Park's sketchbooks, suggesting they make a drawing of a penguin the villain.<ref name="Shoard-2023" /> Park wanted to include a chase on a model railway, feeling it would be funny to stage a Hollywood-style action sequence in a living room, so Baker suggested they make a heist film with the train as the denouement.<ref name="Shoard-2023" /> Sproxton described it as film noir, likening the alley scenes to Alfred Hitchcock.<ref name="Shoard-2023" /> Feeling that most stop-motion animation used bland lighting, the animators tried to light the sets as if they were making a live-action thriller.<ref name="Shoard-2023" /> The animators could not review their footage until it was developed in a separate studio in London. The first cut was 38 minutes long.<ref name="Shoard-2023" />

Reception

The Wrong Trousers was voted as the eighteenth-best British television show by the British Film Institute.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The film has an approval rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 26 reviews, and an average score of 9.1/10. The critical consensus reads, "An endearing and meticulous showcase of stop motion animation, The Wrong Trousers also happens to be laugh-out-loud funny."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The film was awarded the Grand Prix at the Tampere Film Festival, and the Grand Prix at the World Festival of Animated film – Animafest Zagreb in 1994. The Wrong Trousers won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1994. In 2024, Michael Hogan in The GuardianTemplate:'s list of greatest Kid's TV villains ranked Feathers McGraw number 1, writing, "The definitive screen villain of our age is a penguin with a red rubber glove on its head. The gun-toting, 3-foot tall criminal mastermind first terrorised viewers in 1993 Oscar-winning short The Wrong Trousers. [...] The fact that he's mute with expressionless beady eyes only makes him more terrifying."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

During a 2016 directors' roundtable interview conducted by The Hollywood Reporter, the American filmmaker David O. Russell cited the climactic train sequence as an influence on his direction of the action in the Three Kings (1999). The British filmmaker Danny Boyle said it was one of the greatest action sequences.<ref>Template:Cite AV mediaTemplate:Better source needed</ref>

Sequel

Template:Main A feature-length sequel to the film, Vengeance Most Fowl, was broadcast on BBC One on 25 December in the UK and was released on Netflix internationally on 3 January 2025 to critical acclaim.

See also

• List of films featuring powered exoskeletons
• List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0108598

 | title/{{#if: {{#invoke:ustring|match|1=0108598|2=^tt}}
   | Template:Trim/
   | tt0108598/
   }}
 | {{#if: {{#property:P345|from=}}
   | title/Template:First word/
   | find?q=%5B%5B%3ATemplate%3APAGENAMEBASE%5D%5D&s=tt
   }}
 }}{{#ifeq: {{#invoke:If any equal|main|Q618779|Q67325957|Q33999|value=Template:Wikidata}} | yes 
     | {{#switch: Template:Wikidata 
       | Q618779 
       | Q67325957  = awards Awards for
       | Q33999  = fullcredits Full cast and crew of
       }}
   | {{#if: Template:Wikidata 
     | {{#switch: Template:Wikidata
       | Q63032896 
       | Q66763446  = fullcredits Full cast and crew of
       | Q107974527 
       | Q482994  = soundtrack Soundtrack of
       }}
     }}
   }} Template:Trim] at {{#if: | IMDb | IMDb }}Template:EditAtWikidata{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:IMDb title with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|showblankpositional=1| 1 | 2 | 3 | description | id | link_hide | qid | quotes | title }}{{#switch: {{#invoke:String2|matchAny|^tt.........|^tt.......|tt|.........|source=0108598|plain=false}}| 1 | 3 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning| 4 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning}}{{#if: 0108598 {{#property:P345}} || Template:Preview warningTemplate:Main other }}{{#switch: Template:Wikidata 

| Q21191270 | Q21664088 | Q50062923 | Q50914552 | Q99079902 | Q123186929 | Q55422400 | Q61220733 = Template:Preview warning | Q3464665 = Template:Preview warning }}{{#ifeq: Template:Wikidata | Q21191270 | Template:Preview warning }}{{#if: 0108598 | Template:WikidataCheck }}

• Template:Rotten Tomatoes