The Wrong Trousers

***The Wrong Trousers*** is a 1993 British stop motion animated short film produced by Aardman Animations. Directed by Nick Park and 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 (Jeff Bennett) 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. Like the previous film, it received critical acclaim, particularly for its model train chase. 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 irritates Gromit. To pay his debts, Wallace rents 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 then 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. As Wallace and Gromit relax with a cheese platter, the discarded Techno-Trousers reactivate in the dustbin and walk off into the sunset.

## Production 
 in Preston, Lancashire]]
Production began in 1990. Feathers McGraw was originally envisioned as a nephew of the duo, or a simple lodger before Peter Lord suggested to Nick Park for the character to be a villain. Peter Sallis said *The Wrong Trousers* was based loosely on 1964's *Topkapi* and said it was his favourite *Wallace & Gromit* film. He also provided additional cries as Wallace as he did with the first film. 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*.

Whereas Park wrote most of *A Grand Day Out*, for *The Wrong Trousers* he worked with the *Doctor Who* writer Bob Baker. Charles Solomon felt the film "offers further proof that Nick Park ranks among the best clay animators of his generation."

Roger Ebert wrote: "Wallace & Gromit, who like Bugs and Elmer or Mickey and Minnie live in an enduring, sometimes baffling, comic relationship.

*The Wrong Trousers* was voted as the eighteenth-best British television show by the British Film Institute. 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." 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 a 2001 BBC review, Nick Hilditch praised *The Wrong Trousers* as "the most accomplished" of the films, praising the heist and chase scenes. He praises the portrayal of Gromit, though he criticized the short runtime.

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.

In a 2019 review, David Farnor applauded the film as an achievement in animation. Dr. Grob gave the film five stars out of five, feeling that *The Wrong Trousers* must be regarded as "a milestone in animation".

In 2024, Michael Hogan in *The Guardian*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."

## Sequel 
A feature-length sequel to the film, *Vengeance Most Fowl*, was broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2024 in the UK and was released on Netflix internationally on 3 January 2025 to critical acclaim.

## Voice cast 
The voice cast of *The Wrong Trousers* include:

* Peter Sallis as the voice of Wallace
* Jeff Bennett as the vocal effects of Gromit

## See also 
* List of films featuring powered exoskeletons
* List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

## References 
## External links 
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