A Close Shave

A Close Shave is a 1995 British stop-motion animated short film directed by Nick Park and written by Park and Bob Baker. Produced by Aardman Animations, it is the third instalment in their Wallace & Gromit series. In the film, Wallace (Peter Sallis) and Gromit are operating a window cleaning service. When Wallace falls for the owner of the local wool shop, Wendolene Ramsbottom (Anne Reid), the duo find that she is an unwitting accomplice in a sheep rustling operation run by her malevolent dog, Preston. Park and Baker came up with the story for A Close Shave while still working on The Wrong Trousers (1993). The film took ten months to shoot with five animators working on it to complete five seconds each day. As a result of the larger budget as compared to the previous productions, composer Julian Nott got to work with a much more expansive orchestra. A Close Shave premiered on BBC Two on 24 December 1995. It received similar acclaim as its predecessors and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 68th Academy Awards. A spin-off television series based on a character introduced in the film, Shaun the Sheep, premiered in 2007.