Colin Rose Movies

The third film to feature the claymation adventures of Wallace and Gromit, A Close Shave finds the inventor and his dog with a new business, new friends, and a new adversary. As the story begins, the team has decided to open a window-washing service, with Wallace providing clever gadgets while Gromit does the real work. Yet Wallace continues inventing in his spare time and has recently built a new device, the Knit-O-Matic, to clean and shear sheep -- which comes in quite handy when a lost lamb takes refuge in their home. Wallace and Gromit soon discover that this lamb has escaped from a pair of evil sheep rustlers who want him back. The mastermind of the rustling scheme turns out to be Preston, a dog belonging to local wool-shop proprietor Wendolene Ramsbottom; complicating things further is the fact Wendolene is also the object of Wallace's romantic affections. When Preston frames Gromit as the rustler and plots to steal the Knit-O-Matic, the pair must find a way to save the sheep and themselves. Director Nick Park once again mixes inventive animation with deviously clever plotting and whimsical humor, a combination that won him his third "Best Animated Short" Oscar. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Having nothing at all to do with the famed circus performer, The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb is instead a dark, nightmarish fable, equal parts Grimm Brothers fairy tale and post-apocalyptic science fiction. The title character is the freakish result of a mishap in an artificial insemination laboratory, a young boy only six inches tall. Despite his deformity, Tom is accepted and loved by his normal, if poor, parents. However, the family's uneasy joy is disrupted when Tom is kidnapped and trapped in a secret scientific compound, along with numerous other tiny medical oddities. However, with the help of one of his fellow captives, Tom engineers an escape in an attempt to return to his heartbroken family. Once free from the lab, Tom and his new cohort face threats from the malicious scientists, the dangers of the harsh city, and a secret society of escaped little people. Written and directed by Dave Borthwick, The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb relies upon a stop-motion animation technique (combined with live action) reminiscent of the Brothers Quay and Jan Svankmajer, but with a less experimental, fable-like tone and narrative comparable to Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's The City of Lost Children. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide