Dir: Nick Park, 2005 (10*)
Best Animated Short (AA), 3 total

Nick Park’s amazing claymation short films won 4 Oscars before he was able to get financing to make full-length films (Chicken Run, Curse of the Were-Rabbit). The first short, Creature Comforts, is not included here but the next three are: The Wrong Trousers, A Grand Day Out, A Close Shave. They are all amazing; I gave a mother Trousers once for her kid and he watched it 30 times in a week! Park made these by pushing clay around and snapping a frame at a time, he could only film 2-3 seconds per day, and would spend two years on a 10 minute film! The "sets" each fit on a folding card table. Park said that at day's end they'd be ankle deep in clay teeth, which were constantly raked out during dialogue and never reused. Wallace represents Park's 'weekend inventor' dad (nothing worked), and Gromit, the 'smarter' dog, is Nick himself. The results are hilarious and the best of their type.