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 is a 1995 British stop-motion animated short film produced by Aardman Animations. Directed by Nick Park and written by Park and Bob Baker, it is the third installment in the Wallace & Gromit series, following A Grand Day Out (1989) and The Wrong Trousers (1993). In the film, Wallace (Peter Sallis) and Gromit foil a sheep rustling operation operated by a sinister dog, Preston. Anne Reid also lends her voice to the film as Wendoline Ramsbottom.

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[1]
Country	United Kingdom
Budget	£1.3 million[2]
Box office	$20,909[3]

A Close Shave was acclaimed and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 68th Academy Awards.^[4] A spin-off television series based on the Shaun character, Shaun the Sheep, premiered in 2007.

Plot

Wallace and his dog, Gromit, operate a window cleaning business. Wallace falls for the wool shopkeeper Wendolene Ramsbottom. Her sinister dog, Preston, rustles sheep to supply the shop. After a lost sheep wanders into the house, 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 imprisoned, while Wallace's house is inundated with sheep. Wallace and the sheep save Gromit 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 dog food 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. Wendolene reveals that Preston is a robot created by her deceased inventor father, and his behaviour is a result of him malfunctioning.

When the Knit-o-Matic dresses Preston in a sweater made of his fur, he inadvertently hits the controls, and the group become poised to fall into the mincing machine. Shaun pushes Preston into the machine, crushing him. Gromit is exonerated and Wallace rebuilds Preston as a harmless remote-controlled dog. Afterwards, Wallace is saddened when Wendolene leaves and tells him that she is allergic to cheese. When he tries to cheer himself up with some cheese, he finds that Shaun has eaten it all.

Production

Peter Lord, the co-founder of Aardman, had Park simplify the script to keep the film to 30 minutes. Lord said it once contained "the best scene we ever had to cut", a love scene based on Brief Encounter between Wallace and Wendolene set in Crewe railway station.^[5] A spin-off television series based on the Shaun character, Shaun the Sheep, premiered in 2007.^[6]

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.^[7]