A Close Shave

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Wallace and Gromit on their way to wash windows

A Close Shave is a 1995 animated film directed by Nick Park at Aardman Animations in Bristol, featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit. It was his third half-hour short featuring the eccentric inventor Wallace and his quiet but smart dog Gromit, following 1989's A Grand Day Out and 1993's The Wrong Trousers.

To celebrate the film's premiere on 24 December 1995, BBC Two's Christmas presentation that year (broadcast from the 24th to 26th) featured Wallace and Gromit. The main ident featured the two eating Christmas dinner, with a large blue 2 (the channel's logo) situated in the middle of the table, covered with flashing Christmas lights. Several Christmas themed stings, also involving Wallace, Gromit, and the 2, were shown between programmes. The animation of these idents appeared slightly different from other Wallace and Gromit shorts.

Following in the footsteps of its predecessor The Wrong Trousers, in 1995 A Close Shave won the Academy Award for an Animated Short Film.

Summary

In this short, Wallace and Gromit are running a window-cleaning business, and their work brings Wallace into contact with wool shop owner Wendolene, who he becomes besotted with, but also gets them involved in a sheep-rustling scheme run by Wendolene's sinister robot dog Preston.

As before, the 30 minutes are packed with sight gags and exaggerated physical comedy, as well as a few subtle film parodies. Voice acting was before the sole duty of Peter Sallis (the voice of Wallace), as Gromit is always silent. In 'A Close Shave', Wendolene was introduced, and was a second speaking character for the series, voiced by Anne Reid.

Trivia

In-jokes and references

Here are a few subtle jokes from the film.

• Shaun may have got his name because his name is similar to the word 'shorn', which he is in Wallace's latest invention.

• The name of the heroine, Wendolene, is similar to "Windolene" - a window-cleaning solution.

• The name of Wendolene's scheming pet with a dark secret, Preston, is the name of Nick Park's home town in Lancashire.

• In Gromit's jail scene, the writing 'FEATHERS WAS ERE' is a reference to the penguin lodger Wallace took in during the previous film, The Wrong Trousers, Feathers McGraw. Feathers tried to steal an expensive diamond but was foiled by Wallace and Gromit and jailed (although he was actually jailed in a Zoo, and Gromit is shown as being in an actual Gaol). However, as Feathers McGraw is a known criminal, seen on wanted-posters even before he tries to steal the diamond, it can be assumed, that he has been in an ordinary prison earlier in his career and not impossibly in Gromit's cell.

• Graffiti on Gromit's prison table has many references to prison escapes, including The Great Escape (with an accompanying drawing) as well as Papillon. The table and graffiti are visible for less than one second before they are obscured by Gromit placing the present on the table.

• Also in the jail scene, Gromit is reading a book called 'Crime And Punishment' by 'Fido Dogstoyevsky'. Crime and Punishment is a classic novel written by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, so the author name on Gromit's book is a double-pun on the original author's name. The spine of the book also has a penguin on it that looks like Feathers McGraw, with the words "A Penguin Classic", another double-pun, which also derives from the name of the book publisher Penguin Books.

• When Wallace receives a call for window-cleaning service, his method of getting to his motorbike and out onto the road is a direct homage to the Thunderbirds TV series (specifically, the way Virgil Tracy gets to Thunderbird 2 and into the air). Pastiche music in the style of Barry Gray's Thunderbird's music support this spoof.

• When Gromit plummets down a precipice, the side-car he is travelling in turns into an aeroplane at the touch of a button. Gromit first avoids certain death, then uses the plane to attack Preston's truck. The side-car aeroplane is reminiscent of the gadgetry used by James Bond in his various films. Coincidentally the death-defying escape down the precipice is mirrored in the opening scene of GoldenEye which opened in cinemas one month before A Close Shave was first shown.

• There are a number of instances in the film which are obvious parallels to the films The Terminator and .

* As the truck catches up to Wallace's motorbike, Wallace exclaims "We're going at maximum speed". A scene in the second Terminator film has Arnold Schwarzenegger stating that their vehicle "has reached its maximum speed" as a truck is bearing down on them from behind.

* Preston is described as a "Cyber-dog", and emerges as a robot from Wallace's "knit-o-matic" with fur and skin removed. This is a parallel with Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator from both films, whose flesh is removed to show its robotic structure.

* As Gromit pounds Preston with his Porridge-gun, he drives Preston further back to the edge of a precipice, where he could be sucked into the Knit-o-matic. At just the last moment, Preston avoids this fate. In the second Terminator film, Linda Hamilton's character pounds the T-1000 (played by Robert Patrick), with shotgun rounds, forcing it to the edge of a precipice. Hamilton's character then runs out of shells, allowing the T-1000 to avoid destruction at the last moment.

* Preston is eventually defeated when he is crushed in a machine. In the first film, the Terminator is finally defeated when it is crushed by a machine.

Other trivia

• The screenplay for A Close Shave was co-written by Nick Park and Bob Baker. In addition to Preston the cyber-dog, Baker also co-created another mechanical dog, K-9 from Doctor Who.

• In another Aardman Animation production, Rex the Runt, Wallace is seen as a window cleaner, as he is in this film. In Rex the Runt, Bad Bob pushes Wallace and his ladder away from the window, making him fall.

Deleted scenes

• Because of the time-consuming nature of production, the running length had to be worked out by estimating each storyboarded shot's rough time, to avoid wasting days or weeks filming too much footage for the 30 minutes. The original storyboard was estimated to take up as long as 42 minutes of film, so an entire section at 'Ramsbottom Manor', featuring homages to the horror genre, and Walt Disney's Bambi, was cut out of the story and never shot.

• Eventually, about 5 minutes of actual shot footage had to be cut out of the film to trim it to the usual 30 minutes. The cut footage included some shots with Wallace and Wendolene in the wool shop, which recalled the Noel Coward film Brief Encounter.

Sequels

• After A Close Shave, Wallace And Gromit's next major outing was in a set of 10 2½-minute shorts called Cracking Contraptions, each showing one of Wallace's inventions. These appeared on the Internet and were also released as a limited edition Region 2 DVD, later on the Curse of the Were-Rabbit DVD.

• The true sequel to A Close Shave, however, is the feature film .

Credits

• Key Character Animator: Steve Box
• Character Animators: Loyd Price, Peter Peake, Gary Cureton, Nick Park
• Assistant Animators: Sergio Delfino, Ian Whitlock
• Floor Manager: Harry Linden
• Art Director: Phil Lewis
• Assistant Art Director - props: Trisha Budd
• Scenic Artist: Tim Farrington
• Set Construction: Cod Steaks
• Model Coordinator: John Parsons
• Model Sculptor: Linda Langley
• Model Makers: Jason Spencer Galsworthy, Zennor Witney
• Model Technician: Del Lawson
• Mechanical Models: John Wright, Jeff Cliff
• Photography: Frank Passingham, Tristan Oliver, Simon Jacobs
• Camera Operators: Sam James, Paul Smith
• Camera and Animation Assistant: Nick Upton
• Gaffers: Ian Jewels, John Bradley
• Animation System Engineer: Allan Yates
• Technical Crew: Alan Gregory, Bob Gregory, Glenn Hall, John Oaten
• Storyboard Artist: Michael Salter
• Graphic Design: Richard Higgs
• Optical Effects: Computer Film Company, GSE
• Production Consultant: Peter Thornton
• Assistant Film Editors: Tamsin Perry, Bridget Mazzey
• Foley Artist: Jack Stew
• Dubbing Editor: Adrian Rhodes
• Dubbing Mixer: Paul Hamblin
• Special Thanks to: Beth MacDonald, Toby Hannam, John McAleavy, Elizabeth Butler, Mike Booth, Susannah Shaw, Jason Marshall, Charles Copping, Douglas Calder, Adam Vernon, John Truckle, Tara Bacon, Darren Robbie, Ben Cook, Sophie Wright, Beverley Issacs, Curtis Jobling, Barry Shutler, Maxine Guest, Lisa Bilbe, Stuart Markovic, Janet Legg, Viv Paeper, Arthur Sheriff
• Director of Photography: Dave Alex Riddett
• Film Editor: Helen Garrard
• Music: Julian Nott
• Written by: Bob Baker, Nick Park
• Executive Producer for BBC: Colin Rose
• Executive Producers: Peter Lord, David Sproxton
• Producers: Carla Shelley, Michael Rose
• Director: Nick Park

External links

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