Video Review: 'A Close Shave' (1996)

If you harbor the slightest fondness for things British and witty, have a go at A Close Shave, the third Wallace and Gromit adventure from London-based animation director Nick Park. Like installment No. 2, 1994's The Wrong Trousers, this half-hour tale won an Oscar for Best Animated Short, and it's almost as drolly hilarious (you can buy it in a $24.98 three-pack with Trousers and the first Wallace and Gromit film, A Grand Day Out). This time, the cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his loyal, silent pooch — delightfully expressive characters made of plasticine — stumble on a nasty bulldog's sheep-napping scheme. By the finale, in which a ''Knit-O-Matic'' machine goes berserk (hence the title), the gags build to an elaborate pitch of action-movie derring-do. Bravo, lads — you've more than earned your hunk of Stilton. A