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| “ | Good grief! It's you! | „ |
| ~ Wallace shocked to see Feathers McGraw. |
Feathers McGraw is the main antagonist of the Wallace & Gromit franchise. He is an anthropomorphic yet mute penguin who is secretly a criminal mastermind. He wears a variety of disguises to commit crimes, most notably a red rubber glove to pose as a chicken. He is also the arch-nemesis of Wallace and Gromit.
Despite being entirely silent, his robots were voiced by Jon Glover in Project Zoo.
Biography[]
The Wrong Trousers[]
Feathers McGraw was first seen as a lodger, renting a room with Wallace when he had financial issues. Unimpressed with the room on offer, McGraw moves into Gromit's room, forcing him to live in the empty room. McGraw then proceeds to further annoy Gromit by playing music loud in the middle of the night, causing him to sleep in his dog house, hogging the bathroom, and monopolizing Wallace's time. Thinking Wallace has forgotten him, Gromit sadly leaves the house, while Feathers looks at him evilly.
Seeing Gromit gone, McGraw removes the controls on the techno-trousers to control them and arranges for Wallace to slide into them when he slid down to breakfast the next morning. McGraw then takes Wallace on a remote-controlled 'walk' to test his new control of the trousers. While searching for a place to live, Gromit notices Wallace trapped in the techno-trousers and follows. Gromit observes McGraw with the remote controlling Wallace and also spots a wanted poster of a disguised McGraw. Following McGraw to the city museum, Gromit secretly witnesses him take measurements for the break-in.
Gromit returns to the house to his old room, and finds blueprints to the museum's blue diamond exhibit. Feathers, disguising himself with a red rubber glove on his head (revealing himself to Gromit that he is the criminal chicken from the wanted poster he saw earlier), outfits the now-sleeping Wallace with a helmet equipped with a claw and walks him to the museum. There, he sends him through an air vent, inside to the diamond room, walking on the ceiling. There, using an electric claw to seize the diamond, he tries to walk Wallace back out. However, a loosened roof tile causes Wallace to sway off balance and trip one of the lasers, setting off the alarms.
McGraw walks Wallace home before he could get caught by the police, where he forces Wallace into a wardrobe before attempting to leave with the diamond. However, on his way out, Feathers is confronted by Gromit, who threatens him with a rolling pin, but the penguin holds Gromit at gunpoint and forces him into the same wardrobe with Wallace. Gromit hotwires the trousers to stomp continuously until the wardrobe's floor paneling breaks off, allowing them to break free. The two try to catch Feathers as he attempts to evade them on their electric train set.
After a long fight with the penguin, Wallace and Gromit manage to trap him in a milk bottle. They then seemingly return the diamond to the museum (although it is revealed in Vengeance Most Fowl that Feathers secretly replaced the diamond with a turnip and stashed it in Wallace and Gromit's teapot) after they contact the police to report Feathers' theft of the Blue Diamond and subsequent capture. Upon undergoing trial and being officially sentenced to life imprisoned in the West Wallaby zoo, Feathers keeps himself active as he plots vengeance on the pair.
Project Zoo[]
| “ | Feathers McGraw! But he's supposed to be doing porridge in the Penguin House! | „ |
| ~ Wallace upon spotting Feathers capturing Archie. |
Feathers escapes his penguin enclosure and takes over the zoo in order to create a diamond mine, enslaving many animals and holding their children hostage to do his bidding. Most importantly, Feathers has Wallace and Gromit's adopted polar bear from the zoo, Archie, held hostage throughout the game. He uses remote controls to control many of his inventions - including his boiler, helicopter, toy penguins, and the mining machine.
When Wallace and Gromit head to the West Wallaby zoo to deliver a birthday present to Archie, they find out that Feathers has escaped his enclosure and that he has captured Archie. The following night, the duo construct a giant wooden penguin (a parody of the Trojan Horse) to infiltrate the zoo. Feathers opens the gate for the wooden penguin and the duo manage to sneak inside. As Feathers and Archie come to inspect the structure, Wallace accidentally reveals himself to Feathers. As Wallace demands Feathers to release Archie, Feathers retreats to the jungle house with Archie as the duo chase after them.
Upon arriving at the jungle house, the duo stumble upon Feathers enslaving the elephants and imprisoning their children. As Gromit liberates several elephants on the way, Feathers orders his monkey minions to stop the duo. After traversing a temple filled with booby traps, the duo discover a secret passage leading to a mine entrance. When Wallace notices that the lock leading to the mine had been tampered with, he invents "Go-Higher Springy Boots" for Gromit to infiltrate the mine entrance, confident that they will catch Feathers by surprise. However, Gromit spots Feathers watching over him and Feathers activates a mole machine, while summoning his robot minions, which Gromit manages to destroy. Just as Wallace arrives at the entrance, Feathers angrily throws the remote control for the mole machine and manages to escape to the coal mine before the duo could capture him.
Whilst the duo traverse the coal mine and liberate the enslaved beavers, Wallace stumbles upon an areal landing area and spots a helicopter zooming by, prompting Wallace to invent a gyrocopter to chase after him. After dodging his robots and torches, the duo corner Feathers and Wallace demands Feathers to release Archie. Feathers pretends to release Archie and activates a trapdoor underneath the duo.
Before the duo could get crushed by closing walls, Gromit manages to unlock a nearby door, leading them to a factory. After liberating the enslaved gorillas, the duo return to where Feathers dropped them off. The duo spot Feathers at the boiler room and they immediately head to the gyrocopter, where they manage to clog up the boiler with porridge, while also dodging several penguin missiles. Just as the boiler begins to explode, Feathers manages to escape the scene with the duo following him.
The duo arrive at a crate factory, where they liberate the enslaved pandas, while also avoiding Feathers' security guards. Afterwards, the duo stumble upon Feathers relaxing on his chair, prompting him to cut out the lights to make his escape. The duo manage to escape the room and enter the polar bear exhibit, where they spot Feathers making his escape with Archie before Gromit could catch him.
After liberating the enslaved polar bears, the duo arrive at a pool area, where they spot Feathers and Archie. Gromit fires a turnip at a console and Wallace manages to obtain a remote control, which activates a submarine and a series of icebergs. After Feathers leaves with Archie, the duo manage to escape the trap.
Afterwards, the duo discover Feathers' Diamond-O-Matic and realize that Feathers is making diamonds. While Feathers obtains a diamond, one of his robot minions disposes of Archie by pushing him into the machine, prompting the duo to head after him. Wallace follows Archie, while Gromit manages to prevent the machine from burning and freezing him in addition to liberating the enslaved zebras. After traversing the machine and battling Feathers' robots, the duo manage to rescue Archie.
As the duo arrive at Feathers' lair, Feathers imprisons Wallace and summons his exoskeleton to eliminate Gromit by firing buzzsaws and missiles and sending his robots. Feathers is defeated by Gromit, yet he still tries to make one last escape with his diamond. However, when he exits from his hideout to leave the zoo, he finds himself confronted by the parent animals and is ultimately recaptured. Feathers loses his diamond and is taken back to his cell, while Wallace proclaims that Feathers will not be troubling them for a while.
Vengeance Most Fowl[]
| “ | Good grief! It's you... again! | „ |
| ~ Wallace shocked to see Feathers McGraw returning for revenge. |
31 years after his defeat in The Wrong Trousers, Feathers is spurred to action upon seeing a news report promoting Wallace's new Gnome Improvements gardening business, anchored by Wallace's Norbot invention. Utilising contraband he has gathered over the years, Feathers constructs an extended robotic arm that he uses to try to hack into Wallace's computer using one of the guards' desktop. His plans are nearly foiled when a stray feather triggers a guard to sneeze, but he is able to use the arm to grab a handkerchief and suppress it. He then manages to access Wallace's computer but is blocked by a security firewall. He tries guessing various passwords before correctly discerning the correct answer: "cheese." He then encounters a CAPTCHA screen asking him to identify all photos of cheese: he selects two, but is puzzled when he sees the third option is the Moon. Shrugging it off, he gets into Wallace's computer and finds his program for the Norbot, using it to reprogram the bot into becoming evil. He then orders it to build copies of itself and to steal garden tools from Wallace's neighbors. His work done, Feathers stores the arm away and relaxes in his bed, his plans set in motion.
The Norbots construct a submarine using parts stolen from customers, and travel through the sewers beneath Lancashire to the zoo, where Feathers awaits while petting a seal. He boards the submarine, taking a moment to punch a Norbot playing annoying bagpiping music, and prepares to head in before noticing Gromit observing him from nearby. He orders the original Norbot to break the branch Gromit is standing on before departing the zoo in the submarine. Unbeknownst to Feathers, the original Norbot's reset button is triggered, restoring his original goid natured personality. Feathers and the other Norbots head to Wallace's house, where the Norbots tie up Wallace and subdue Gromit when he arrives. He reveals himself to Wallace, who mistakes him for a chicken at first due to wearing his old disguise, and reveals the truth of his plans: years ago, while Wallace and Gromit were calling the police, Feathers was able to swap the Blue Diamond for a turnip, hiding the real diamond in a teapot that has been sitting unused on their shelf since. The entire plan with the evil Norbots was an elaborate scheme to ruin Wallace's reputation, culminating in framing Wallace for the Blue Diamond's theft, leaving Feathers to escape with the diamond himself―what Wallace declares to be "Vengeance most foul!" He has the Norbots imprison Wallace and Gromit in their closet before escaping.
However, Wallace and Gromit escape with the original Norbot and chase Feathers across town to the canals, where Feathers steals a narrowboat and begins making his way to the border to escape. While fleeing the two, Feathers overhears PC Mukherjee spot him and quickly dons a nun's disguise, which is enough to fool the dimwitted Chief Inspector Mackintosh. However, he quickly finds his army thinned when Wallace builds a makeshift invention that uses projectile boomerang boots to reset the evil Norbots back to good. Having lost an advantage, Feathers makes a quick stop at a repair shop and upgrades his narrowboat's speed, but Gromit lassos a rope onto Feathers' boat, allowing them to stay connected, and uses a winch to bring them closer. Feathers grabs a cheese knife and cuts the rope, but Gromit jumps onto the boat. The pair engage in a fight, with Feathers losing his disguise (and slapping Gromit for seeing him naked). As they cross the aqueduct towards the border, he sees the police shut the gate, blocking his escape, so he tries to make the boat jump the aqueduct's barrier, causing it to teeter off the edge with Gromit clinging to the bow for dear life. To Feathers' dismay, Gromit reveals he has the bag with the diamond in it, so Feathers mimes an offer to help Gromit survive if he gives him the diamond. After some encouragement from Wallace, Gromit does so, but Feathers immediately sees the opportunity to escape on a passing train and jumps off the aqueduct using an umbrella as a parachute.
Just as he gloats his victory, unfortunately discovers that Gromit had swapped the Blue Diamond for a turnip―the same trick Feathers had pulled―and he collapses on the bed of the freight car in defeat as disappointment while the train carries him off to the Yorkshire border, while Gromit hands over the diamond to the police. Wallace and Gromit are cleared of all charges and celebrated as heroes and another wanted notice is issued for Feathers. Now sporting his various disguises, Feathers keeps himself hidden from the public and he remains still wanted at large.
Personality[]
At first glance, Feathers McGraw appears as a harmless yet slightly unnerving individual whose lack of facial expression and speech makes him hard to read. He is shown to be very polite towards Wallace and gives him an extra hand. However, underneath his benign façade, Feathers is a very sinister, ruthless, sadistic, cold-hearted and megalomaniacal individual whose sharpened mind more than compensates for his small size and lack of physical strength.
A criminal genius, Feathers is extremely manipulative and cunning, as he's able to assess others quickly to get into their heads and can manipulate them to enable daunting circumstances to come out in his favour. He tends to keep his wits about him and maintain his concentration when performing elaborate tasks, even during intense episodes of anxiety and rage. He never allows his emotions to hinder his steady deliberation or to cloud his judgement. He clearly possesses some sociopathic traits as he has no problems taking hostages or attempting to pistol down anyone he perceives as a thorn in his side.
His technological prowess is fairly impressive, as he retrofitted the techno-trousers with a remote control, and his intelligence is almost parallel to Gromit's. As a nearly flawless tactician, it takes an experienced genius to outwit and subdue him.
Relationships[]
Allies[]
- Wallace (formerly; house guest)
- Norbot (formerly; brainwashed right-hand pawn)
- Norbot's Minions (formerly; brainwashed pawns)
- His Robots (minions; Project Zoo only)
Enemies[]
- Gromit (arch-nemesis/heroic counterpart/attempted victim)
- Wallace (2nd arch-nemesis/former house guest/attempted victim)
- PC Albert Mackintosh (arrestor)
- PC Muckherjee
- Archie (hostage; Project Zoo only)
- Archie’s Mother (Project Zoo only)
- Norbot (brainwashed victim/former right-hand pawn)
- Norbot's Minions (brainwashed victims/former pawns)
- 62 West Wallaby Police
- Anthony Trumper (kidnapper, implied; Shaun the Sheep Movie)
- 62 West Wallaby citizens
Other Media[]
In A Close Shave, when Gromit is in prison, graffiti is seen briefly behind him reading "Feathers Was 'Ere". This may be an indicator that Feathers escaped from prison before Preston's kidnappings and is now at large, or was transferred to another facility. Later, Feathers makes a brief appearance when Gromit activates his plane at the bottom of a cliff.
In The Curse of The Were-Rabbit, Feathers can be seen standing in a vase on a building at the right of the screen when Victor threatens to shoot Wallace, right after Victor says "Eat karat, bunny-boy!"
In Flushed Away, Feathers makes a brief appearance on a screen in Ratropolis during Roddy St. James' encounter with a local policeman.
In A Matter of Loaf and Death, wanted poster of McGraw can be seen near the entrance of the zoo, along with a ladder and a string of knotted bedsheets, indicating that Feathers has escaped again. Three of his kind are also seen in the penguin enclosure later on, when Piella Bakewell falls to her demise in the crocodile pen.
In the Wallace and Gromit graphic novel Catch of the Day, Gromit comes across several news reports proclaiming that Feathers has escaped, been recaptured, escaped again, been recaptured again, and escaped yet again while on the way to the fish and chip shop with Wallace.
In Shaun the Sheep: The Movie, a photo of Feathers can be seen on Anthony Trumper's office wall, indicating that he may have been captured by him.
In Early Man, Feathers can be seen in the background of the Bronze Age city's entrance. During the credits, a cave painting of Feathers in his disguise can also be seen.
In Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Feathers makes a cameo appearance in the end of the film, appearing in the background when Ginger and her team are preparing to rescue more chickens.
During the 2025 National TV Awards, Feathers steals Wallace's award.
Trivia[]
- Despite secretly replacing the diamond with a turnip shown in a flashback during the events of The Wrong Trousers, they're is no evidence how Feathers was able to get free from being tied up or how he managed to plant the diamond in the teapot, in spite of his plan.
- Feathers McGraw is the first Aardman antagonist to be an animal, and the first one to be silent, being followed by Preston, another Wallace and Gromit villain, (in which case, he is a robot) while The Toad from Flushed Away and the Cat from Robin Robin are the only Aardman animal antagonists to speak
- Despite controlling Wallace to steal the diamond, neither Wallace himself nor Gromit never opened the bag to find out that he used Wallace to steal the diamond despite Wallace holding it, but possibly off-camera he gave the evidence to the police, until it was revealed he placed a turnip in the bag to outsmart them.
- Feathers McGraw is the second Aardman antagonist who returns for his revenge against his arch-enemies, since Mrs. Tweedy from the Chicken Run Duology.
- Similarly to Gromit and Preston, Feathers McGraw does not express himself with spoken words. However, while the former's facial expressions and body language speak volumes, McGraw's face is always blank and impassive, giving no hint of his emotions.
- McGraw is the first villain in the Wallace and Gromit films to use a firearm, with Victor Quartermaine being the second.
- In the Cracking Contraptions episode "The Tellyscope", Wallace is shown watching a series on the television entitled "When Penguins Turn" (written in the same font as the Wrong Trousers logo), which shows many penguins of Feathers' kind.
- It is confirmed by his mugshot that he is 3ft high and weighs 12 pounds.
- Feathers McGraw is the second main antagonist of a Netflix-Aardman collaboration film after Mrs. Tweedy from Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.
- Feathers McGraw has officially made cameos in other Aardman media, as detailed previously.
- Feathers McGraw is the first one of Gromit's archenemies, followed by Preston, Philip and Norbot. He is also the only one of Gromit's archenemies to return in another Wallace and Gromit film as revenge.
- With him escaping in Vengeance Most Fowl, there could be a chance he could return in another film later down the line.
External Links[]
- Feathers McGraw on the Villains Wiki
- Feathers McGraw on the Wallace & Gromit Wiki
- Feathers McGraw on the Aardman Wiki
- Feathers McGraw on the Magnificent Baddie wiki
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