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A Close Shave

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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 byNick Park
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyDave Alex Riddett
Edited byHelen Garrard
Music byJulian Nott
Production
companies
Distributed byBBC Worldwide
Release date
  • 24 December 1995 (1995-12-24)
Running time
30 minutes[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
Budget£1.3 million[2]

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.[3] A Close Shave saw the first appearance of Shaun, who became the main character of the Shaun the Sheep spin-off series.

Plot

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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.

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

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Reception

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On Rotten Tomatoes, A Close Shave has a perfect score of 100% based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "A Close Shave". BBFC.
  2. ^ "Production History – A Close Shave". Telepathy. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  3. ^ "The 68th Academy Awards (1996) Nominees and Winners". The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 25 March 1996. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  4. ^ "A Close Shave". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 28 February 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2023.
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