The Wrong Trousers

The Wrong Trousers
Promotional poster, with Feathers McGraw in the foreground
Directed by	Nick Park
Written by	Nick Park Bob Baker Brian Sibley
Produced by	Christopher Moll
Starring	Peter Sallis
Cinematography	Tristan Oliver Dave Alex Riddett
Edited by	Helen Garrard
Music by	Julian Nott
Production companies	Aardman Animations Wallace and Gromit Ltd. BBC Bristol Lionheart Television BBC Children's International
Distributed by	BBC Enterprises
Release dates	17 December 1993 (1993-12-17) (US) 26 December 1993 (1993-12-26) (UK)
Running time	30 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£650,000

The Wrong Trousers is a 1993 British stop-motion animated short film directed by Nick Park, featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit, and was produced by Aardman Animations in association with Wallace and Gromit Ltd., BBC Bristol, Lionheart Television and BBC Children's International. It is the second film featuring the eccentric inventor Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis) and his dog Gromit, following A Grand Day Out (1989). In the film, a villainous penguin named Feathers McGraw uses Wallace and Gromit's robot "Techno-Trousers" to steal a diamond from the city museum. This was the last Wallace and Gromit film to have Wallace as the only spoken character.

The Wrong Trousers premiered in the United States on 17 December 1993, and the United Kingdom on 26 December 1993 on BBC Two. It was commercially successful, and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1994. It also inspired a charity fundraising day, known as "Wrong Trousers Day", one of several events.

The short was followed by two sequels, A Close Shave, released in December 1995, and A Matter of Loaf and Death released in December 2008. Feathers McGraw returns in the 2003 video game Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo.

Plot

On Gromit’s birthday, Wallace gives Gromit a new invention called the “Techno-Trousers” to take him for walks, and discovers he doesn’t have enough money to pay off his bills and debts. Wallace lets the spare bedroom to a penguin, who befriends Wallace and drives Gromit from the house. The penguin takes an interest in the techno-trousers, which can walk on walls and ceilings, and secretly rewires them for radio control. Gromit realizes that the penguin is Feathers McGraw, a wanted robber who frequently disguises himself as a chicken.

Feathers forces Wallace into the techno-trousers and later sends him on a test run through town. Later, Gromit spies on Feathers as he takes measurements of the city museum, and discovers Feathers' plans to steal a diamond from the museum. While Wallace is asleep, Feathers marches him to the museum and uses the trousers to infiltrate the building. He uses a remotely operated crane claw, contained in a helmet he has made Wallace wear, to capture the diamond, but accidentally trips the alarm. As Wallace wakes up, Feathers returns to the house and traps him and Gromit in a wardrobe at pistol-point.

Gromit rewires the trousers to break open the wardrobe. He and Wallace chase 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. The police imprisons Feathers in the prison-cell of the city zoo. At the end of the film, Wallace and Gromit pay their debts with the reward money, while the techno-trousers walk off into the sunset.

Soundtrack alterations

In the original airing, first VHS release of the film and the 1999 DVD release, Gromit's birthday card plays "Happy Birthday to You".

In subsequent home video releases and airings, this was replaced with "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" to avoid copyright infringements (likely due to this version of Happy Birthday being copyrighted). Also altered (again for reasons of copyright) are two specific songs from the penguin's radio, which were replaced with unidentified pieces of music, played through a Hammond organ. "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", also played through the same instrument, was left intact, due to being in the public domain.

The pieces that were removed are "Happy Talk" from the musical South Pacific and "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?", along with Wallace's singing of the latter during the subsequent morning. In addition, Gromit's television during breakfast no longer plays the Open University theme, although an announcer can still be heard saying, "Welcome to Open University".

However, the original soundtrack can still be heard in the background of the commentary track of the DVD release, although the Blu-ray release features the commentary track with the altered soundtrack. The original soundtrack can also be heard in non-English versions of the film.

Reception

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 9.10/10. 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.

See also

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

External links

• The Wrong Trousers at IMDb
• The Wrong Trousers at Rotten Tomatoes