A Close Shave

This article is about the animated film. For the band, see Close Shave. For the saying, see close call.

A Close Shave
US edition VHS cover art
Directed by	Nick Park
Written by	Bob Baker Nick Park
Produced by	Carla Shelley Michael Rose
Starring	Peter Sallis Anne Reid
Cinematography	Dave Alex Riddett
Edited by	Helen Garrard
Music by	Julian Nott
Production companies	Aardman Animations Wallace and Gromit Ltd. BBC Bristol BBC Children's International
Distributed by	BBC Worldwide
Release date	24 December 1995 (1995-12-24)
Running time	30 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Budget	£1.3 million

A Close Shave is a 1995 British stop-motion animated short film co-written and directed by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations with Wallace & Gromit Ltd., BBC Bristol and BBC Children's International. It is the third film featuring Wallace & Gromit, following A Grand Day Out (1989) and The Wrong Trousers (1993). A Close Shave won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. A Close Shave saw the first appearance of Shaun, who became the main character of the Shaun the Sheep spin-off series.

Plot

Wallace and his dog, Gromit, operate a window cleaning business. During the night, a sheep escapes from a lorry and into Wallace and Gromit's house. The following day, Wallace falls for the wool shopkeeper Wendolene Ramsbottom while cleaning her windows. Her sinister dog, Preston, rustles sheep to supply the shop. Upon finally discovering the sheep, Wallace places him in his Knit-o-Matic, which shears sheep and knits the wool into jumpers. Wallace names the sheep Shaun.

Preston steals the Knit-o-Matic blueprints. When Gromit investigates, Preston captures him and frames him for the sheep rustling. Gromit is arrested and sentenced to life in prison, while Wallace's house is inundated with sheep. Wallace and the sheep break Gromit out of jail and hide out in the fields. Wendolene and Preston arrive in the lorry to round up the sheep. When Wendolene demands Preston stop the rustling, he locks her in the lorry with the sheep and drives away, intent on turning them into dog food.

Wallace and Gromit give chase on their motorcycle. When Gromit's sidecar detaches, he activates its aeroplane mode and resumes the chase from the air. Wallace becomes trapped in the lorry and he, Wendolene, and the sheep are transported to Preston's factory, where Preston has built an enormous Knit-o-Matic. The captives are loaded into the wash basin, but Shaun escapes. Shaun activates neon signs to reveal the factory's location to Gromit, who attacks Preston. Shaun sucks Preston into the Knit-o-Matic, removing his fur and revealing him to be a robot. Wendolene explains that Preston is a creation of her inventor father, that was made for good but has malfunctioned and become evil.

The Knit-o-Matic makes a sweater of Preston's fur and dumps it on his head, obscuring his vision. Shaun pushes Preston into the dog food mincing machine, crushing him. Gromit is exonerated and Wallace rebuilds Preston as a harmless remote-controlled dog. Afterwards, Wendolene leaves; Wallace is crestfallen when he learns Wendolene is allergic to cheese. When he tries to cheer himself up with some cheese, he finds that Shaun has eaten it all.

Cast

• Peter Sallis as Wallace
• Anne Reid as Wendolene Ramsbottom

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, A Close Shave has a perfect score of 100% based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10.

External links

• Official website
• A Close Shave at IMDb
• A Close Shave at Rotten Tomatoes