A Close Shave is a 1995 British stop-motion animated crime mystery comedy short film co-written and directed by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations in association with Wallace and Gromit Ltd., BBC Bristol and BBC Children's International. It is the third short film in the Wallace & Gromit franchise, following The Wrong Trousers in 1993 and followed by A Matter of Loaf and Death in 2008.
Plot[]
Wallace and Gromit have started a new window-washing business called "Wash 'N' Go" at 62 West Wallaby Street, Wigan. One day, they are called to clean the windows of a wool shop, owned by a woman named Wendolene Ramsbottom who has a guide dog named Preston, left to her by a father, an inventor. Wallace develops a crush on Wendolene. When they get back to their house, they find it has been chewed apart and left with a huge mess. They find that the intruder is a small sheep, escaped from Wendolene's farm, who they use to test Wallace's new machine, the "Knit-O-Matic". The machine has the sheep badly shorn, earning him the name Shaun the Sheep.
While Wallace and Gromit go to clean the town's clocktower, Gromit sees Shaun walk off while Wallace starts a conversation with Wendolene. Gromit follows Shaun, and becomes led into a trap by Preston, who traps in a truck and drives him off to the police where Preston frames him for a sheep rustling pandemic and has Gromit imprisoned. With the help of the rest of Wendolene's sheep flock, Wallace manages to break Gromit out.
Wallace and Gromit, on the run, bring back all of Wendolene's sheep, but while hiding, oversee Wendolene and all of her sheep being captured by Preston and loaded into his truck which he drives them off with. Wallace and Gromit pursue him using and motorbike and aeroplane-sidecar, but Preston manages to capture Wallace as well. Preston takes them to his dogfood factory lair where he throws them into the Knit-O-Matic he stole from Wallace. Shaun escapes and signals Gromit to save them. Gromit rides in, covering Preston with porridge, drilling his chest with a propeller, and sucking him into the machine where his skin is severely shed off. Then the machine breaks and a robot Preston emerges, revealed to have a mechanical endoskeleton. Gromit and Shaun manage to throw the robot Preston into a mixing machine where he is destroyed. With Wallace and Gromit at home cleared of charges, Wendolene comes by and reveals she has repaired Preston as a newspaper dog. Wallace offers her cheese, but he is heartbroken to hear of her allergies that prevent her from having any and annoyed to find Shaun has already eaten it.
Cast[]
- Peter Sallis as Wallace
- Anne Reid as Wendolene Ramsbottom
- Gromit
- Shaun the Sheep
- Preston
- Flock of sheep
Production[]
Development[]
Shortly after the release of The Wrong Trousers, Nick Park had ideas for a third film. He wanted to see how a new threat could "test their relationship". He took inspiration from Thunderbirds, Brief Encounter and The Terminator.
Casting[]
When asked why he chose her for the voice, Nick told Anne Reid that when he heard he had heard her voice on television, he thought it "sounded like it came out of a puppet".
Music[]
Release[]
Home media[]
- Main article: A Close Shave (video)
Reception[]
Box office[]
Videos[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The shop next to Wendolene Ramsbottom's wool shop is Baker Bob's bakery, a reference to writer Bob Baker that would be elaborated on in A Matter of Loaf and Death.
- Feathers McGraw can be seen standing on a cliff when Gromit rides through the rock valley. Some graffiti can also be seen on the wall of Gromit's prison cell saying "Feathers was 'ere", alongside the book Gromit reads having a penguin on its spine, resembling Penguin Books. Additionally, an advert for red gloves resembling Feathers' disguise can be seen in Wendolene's Wools.
- The newspaper Gromit reads at one point has the headline "Killer dog on loose. Lord Baskerville not connected." This is in reference to the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.
References[]
External Links[]
