The Wrong Trousers

Plot

This article uses BRITISH ENGLISH.-- Wallace gifts his dog, Gromit, a pair of robotic automated "Techno-Trousers" for his birthday to take him on walks, which irrates 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. As Wallace and Gromit relax with cheese in the house, the discarded Techno-Trousers reactivate in the dustbin and walk off into the sunset.

Production

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 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. Baker 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. Sproxton described it as film noir, likening the alley scenes to Alfred Hitchcock. 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. The animators could not review their footage until it was developed in a separate studio in London. The first cut was 38 minutes long.

Reception

The film was previewed at Leicester Square; according to Sallis, the audience erupted in applause during the scene where Gromit was laying down train tracks during the chase.

Stephen Holden of the New York Times gave a positive review, praising the charcterization, action scenes and cinematography. Charles Solomon felt the film "offers further proof that Nick Park ranks among the best clay animators of his generation."

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 Guardians 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

Main article: Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

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.

References

References

1. "Aardman Animations Present Wallace and Gromit in Nick Park's the Wrong Trousers".
2. "Aardman Animations – A Close Shave". telepathy.co.uk.
3. "The Wrong Trousers (1993)". BFI.
4. "Wallace & Gromit: The Story Behind Feather McGraw’s Return".
5. Sallis, Peter. (18 September 2008). "Fading into The Limelight". Orion.
6. Shoard, Catherine. (2023-08-21). "Say cheese! Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers at 30 – in pictures". [[The Guardian]].
7. (4 December 1993). "Review/Film; A Man's Best Friend Can Wear the Pants And Drabble in Sleuthing". The New York Times.
8. "MOVIE REVIEW : 'Trousers' Is Best Fit in Animation Fest - Los Angeles Times".
9. "The BFI TV 100: 1-100".
10. "'' Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers ''".
11. Hilditch, Nick. (9 April 2001). "Wallace and Gromit - The Wrong Trousers (1993)".
12. The Hollywood Reporter. (2016-01-04). "Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, Danny Boyle, & More Directors on THR's Roundtables I Oscars 2016".
13. (December 2025). "VOD film review: UK TV review: Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers}}{{incomplete short citation".
14. (December 2025). "The Wrong Trousers".
15. "From Feathers McGraw to Mr. Burns: kids' TV's all-time evillest villains". The Guardian.