The Wrong Trousers is a 1993 stop motion animated short film directed by Nick Park at Aardman Animations, featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit. It was his second half-hour short featuring the eccentric inventor Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis) and his silent but intelligent dog Gromit, following A Grand Day Out, and preceding A Close Shave.
The film is not only distributed by BBC, but it was associated with BBC Bristol, BBC Lionheart Television and BBC Children's International.
As in A Grand Day Out, the thirty minute film uses sight gags and exaggerated physical comedy and quiet moments, as well as a few subtle film parodies. The film premièred in the United States on 17 December 1993, and the United Kingdom on 26 December 1993, Boxing Day. It won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
It was highly successful, and inspired a charity fundraising day, known as "Wrong Trousers Day", one of several events organised by the charity "Wallace and Gromit's Children's Charity". Wrong Trousers Day falls on the last Friday in June every year. During the day, participants wear the wrong trousers to work or school etc. and donate a pound to help sick children in hospitals and hospices. A sequel, A Close Shave was released in December 1995.
Plot Summary[]
The film begins at 62 West Wallaby Street on Gromit's birthday at breakfast. After being tipped out of bed and dressed using several mechanical contraptions, Wallace is greeted with a large pile of overdue bills. Wallace remembers Gromit's birthday and presents Gromit with a pair of "ex-NASA" robotic "Techno Trousers", acquired by Wallace to alleviate the burden of taking Gromit for walks. While Gromit is out on a "walk", Wallace realises they are in financial difficulty and decides to let the spare bedroom out.
He is answered by an inscrutable looking penguin named Feathers McGraw. The penguin comes to stay at the house, pushing Gromit out of his own comfortable bedroom, into the spare bedroom and keeping him awake at night with loud steam organ music, much to Gromit's irritation. On the other hand, Wallace takes a liking to him. Feathers also takes an interest in the Techno Trousers after seeing Gromit use their suction feet to walk on the ceiling while decorating the spare bedroom. Devastated that Feathers has barged in on his relationship with his master, Gromit packs up his belongings and leaves home. After watching Gromit leave, Feathers secretly modifies the Techno Trousers for his own use. He removes the controls on the trousers and turns them into a radio control.
The next morning, Gromit hunts for suitable lodgings. He discovers a wanted poster offering a reward for the capture of a "chicken" – actually a criminal penguin who disguises himself by wearing a rubber glove on his head. Meanwhile, Wallace's normal morning routine is interrupted when his expected trousers are replaced with the modified Techno Trousers.
Trapped inside the "wrong trousers", Wallace is marched out of the house and sent running around town on an extended test run, unaware that Feathers is controlling them. Gromit witnesses this spectacle and later spies on Feathers as he measures up the exterior of the city museum. He returns home and discovers Feathers' plans to steal a large diamond from the museum.
However, Feathers returns and Gromit is forced to hide. He watches as Feathers arrives dressed in the "chicken disguise". In a deep sleep after the day's misadventures, Wallace is unwittingly brought into the robbery by Feathers. Feathers marches him out of the house to the museum and uses the trousers' suction feet to climb up the building. The penguin controls the trousers from a window sill, while Wallace enters the building through a roof air vent and walks across the ceiling to the room with the diamond, narrowly avoiding the laser burglar alarm system.
The helmet Wallace is wearing contains a remote controlled claw that Feathers uses to hook the diamond. He narrowly succeeds, but accidentally dislodges a ceiling tile and sets the trousers off balance, thus causing the claw to swing into the laser and trigger the burglar alarm, waking Wallace up. Feathers then marches Wallace out of the museum and back to the house. The penguin reveals himself to be Wallace's lodger, and traps him in a wardrobe. Gromit confronts Feathers, but the penguin draws a gun and forces Gromit into the wardrobe, locking them both inside. Using his electronics expertise, Gromit tampers with the trousers' circuits to make them march and break open the wardrobe.
There follows a chase aboard Wallace and Gromit's model train set, as Gromit attempts to prevent Feathers from escaping with the stolen diamond. Feathers attempts to escape by driving the train straight toward the front door, but Gromit quickly switches the tracks before he can escape. Wallace's attempts to assist are mostly unsuccessful, though he manages to steal Feathers' gun and free himself from the trousers. Feathers' train collides with the trousers, and he is captured in a bottle, taken to the police station, and imprisoned in the city zoo.
Back at home, Wallace and Gromit celebrate paying off their debts with the substantial reward money. Meanwhile, the Techno Trousers, unceremoniously consigned to the dustbin, walk off by themselves into the sunset.