10 / 10
A Close Shave is the third Wallace and Gromit short and one of the finest pieces of stop-motion animation ever produced. Nick Park directed it. The short runs approximately thirty minutes. Wallace and Gromit have started a window-washing service. Sheep have been disappearing from local farms. Wallace has fallen for Wendolene Ramsbottom, the owner of a wool shop. The plot involves a corrupt cyber-dog named Preston, mechanized sheep-rustling, and a chase across the countryside that culminates in Gromit driving a sidecar at speed while Wallace shoots at Preston with a metal-eating contraption. The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 68th Academy Awards in 1996, the second consecutive Wallace and Gromit short to win the award after The Wrong Trousers in 1993.
Aardman Animations produced. The production team had grown by the third short but Park remained the central creative force. Every aspect of the production reflects his specific sensibility, including the introduction of Shaun the sheep, who would later spin off into his own franchise.
The Sheep
The film introduces Shaun the sheep, who has been a Wallace and Gromit auxiliary character ever since. Shaun is the sheep Wallace rescues from Preston’s mechanized truck and accidentally adopts. His name is a pun. Wallace shears him and tells Gromit he is a “shaun sheep.” Gromit’s face in response is one of the best individual reactions in stop-motion history. The character has been popular enough to support his own television series and two feature films across the subsequent thirty years.
The decision to introduce a character who would become this significant in a thirty-minute short is the kind of long-term thinking most franchise builders do not attempt. Park and Aardman did not know Shaun would matter. They built him into the story because the story needed a sheep. The character’s later prominence is a happy accident of the original design being durable enough to support expansion.
For Writers
Strong supporting characters can outgrow their original purpose. Shaun was a supporting character in A Close Shave. He is now the protagonist of multiple feature films and a long-running television series. The transition was possible because the character was specifically realized instead of generically functional. The lesson is to invest in supporting characters as if they might become protagonists. The ones with specific traits, specific reactions, and specific points of view are the ones that can carry their own work later.
Preston
Preston is one of the great villains in animation history despite appearing for under thirty minutes. He is a black robotic dog who has been disguising himself as a real dog working for Wendolene. The reveal that Preston is mechanical instead of biological happens when his face plate is knocked off mid-fight. Underneath is a chrome skeleton with red eyes. The image is one of the most memorable in the Wallace and Gromit canon.
The character works because the script lets him be both menacing and slightly pathetic. Preston was built by Wendolene’s late father. He has gone rogue. He cannot help his nature any more than Gromit can. The third-act sequence in which Preston is destroyed by his own meat-processing machine is appropriately gruesome for a children’s film. Park does not soften the consequences for the audience or for Preston.
For Writers
A villain whose nature is not entirely his fault is more interesting than a villain who chose his evil. Preston is a machine doing what he was built to do. He cannot stop. The pathos of his destruction is part of why the climax lands. The lesson is that antagonists who are products of their construction or circumstances can be sympathetic even while being dangerous. The two qualities are not in tension. They reinforce each other.
The Chase
The motorcycle and sidecar chase sequence is one of the most-quoted action sequences in any animation. Gromit drives a motorcycle. Wallace operates a sidecar that detaches and reattaches. The sheep ride in a sheep-shaped vehicle. Preston pursues in his automated truck. The geography of the chase is clear. The escalation is paced precisely. The climactic confrontation with Preston’s truck and Wallace’s spinning-blade contraption is staged with the kind of structural clarity that most live-action action films do not achieve.
The technical labor required to animate this much movement in stop-motion is approximately what animating a full feature film would require in CGI. The sequence is the longest sustained chase in any Wallace and Gromit short.
For Writers
Action sequences in animation can be choreographed with a precision that live-action sequences cannot match because the animator controls every frame. Aardman uses this control to make the geography of the chase legible at every moment. The audience always knows where each vehicle is, what each driver wants, and what the obstacles are. The lesson is that complex action in any medium benefits from absolute clarity of position and intent. Confusion in an action sequence is a writer’s failure, not a feature of the form.
Craft Note
Nick Park directed and wrote, with Bob Baker. Peter Sallis voiced Wallace. Anne Reid voiced Wendolene. Aardman Animations produced. Originally broadcast on BBC December 1995. Won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 68th Academy Awards in 1996. Approximately thirty-minute runtime. Introduced Shaun the sheep, who later spun off into his own franchise.
The Verdict
10/10. One of the finest short films ever produced in any animation medium. Aardman at peak craft. Park at peak storytelling. The chase is iconic. Preston is one of the great animation villains. Shaun’s introduction launched a franchise. Watch it. Watch all the Wallace and Gromit shorts.