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The Wrong Trousers

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Wallace and Gromit in The Wrong Trousers
Promotional poster, with Feathers McGraw in the foreground
Directed byNick Park
Written byNick Park
Bob Baker
Brian Sibley
Produced byChristopher Moll
StarringPeter Sallis
CinematographyTristan Oliver
Dave Alex Riddett
Edited byHelen Garrard
Music byJulian Nott
Production
company
Distributed byBBC (UK, TV)
PBS (USA, TV)
Release date
  • 26 December 1993 (1993-12-26)
Running time
30 minutes (NTSC)
29 minutes (PAL)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£650,000[1]

The Wrong Trousers is a 1993 British stop-motion animated short film directed by Nick Park at Aardman Animations, featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit. 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 sinister penguin uses Wallace and Gromit's robotic "Techno Trousers" to steal a diamond.

The Wrong Trousers premiered in the United States on 17 December 1993, and the United Kingdom on 26 December 1993.[2] It was commercially successful and won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. It also inspired a charity fundraising day, known as "Wrong Trousers Day", one of several events. A sequel, A Close Shave, was released in 1995.

Plot

Eccentric inventor Wallace (Peter Sallis) gifts his intelligent dog Gromit a pair of "techno trousers" to take him for walks. To pay their bills, Wallace decides to advertise their spare bedroom to let. The room is taken by an inscrutable penguin, who befriends Wallace and isolates Gromit by forcing him out of his own room and playing loud music. The penguin takes an interest in the techno trousers after seeing Gromit use their suction feet to walk on the ceiling while decorating. After Gromit is driven from the house, the penguin secretly rewires the techno trousers for radio control.

While Gromit hunts for lodgings, he discovers a wanted poster offering a reward for the capture of a criminal chicken by the name of Feathers McGraw. In fact, the "chicken" is the lodger penguin, who disguises himself by wearing a rubber glove on his head. Wallace's morning routine is interrupted when Feathers replaces his clothes with the techno trousers, and tires him out by sending him on an extended test run through town. Later, Gromit spies on Feathers as he takes measurements of the city museum. Returning home, he discovers Feathers' plans to steal a diamond from the museum.

While Wallace sleeps, 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 triggers the alarm, waking a panicked Wallace. Feathers marches him back to the house and traps him and Gromit in a wardrobe at gunpoint.

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, and he is later taken to the police, who imprison him in a city zoo. Wallace and Gromit celebrate paying off their debts with the reward money while the techno trousers, consigned to the dustbin, walk off into the sunset.

Reception

The Wrong Trousers was voted as the eighteenth-best British television show by the British Film Institute.[3] It has a unanimously positive score on Rotten Tomatoes with 24 reviews, 100% positive and an average score of 9.1/10. 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 September 2018, "The Wrong Trousers" inspired the development of the exoskeleton suit for disabled people.[4][5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Aardman Animations – A Close Shave". telepathy.co.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  2. ^ "The Wrong Trousers (1993)". BFI. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  3. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 11 September 2011. Retrieved 19 December 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ "Exoskeleton is helping me to walk again". BBC News. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
  5. ^ "Wallace and Gromit inspire smart trousers". BBC News. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
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