Shaun the Sheep – Review by Cormac Fitzgerald

Directors: Mark Burton, Richard Starzack
Writers: Mark Burton (screenplay), Richard Goleszowski

Aardman Animations, the studio behind Wallace and Grommit and Chicken Run, have done it again with their latest feature length offering, Shaun the Sheep the Movie. Based on a popular children’s stop-motion animation, Shaun the Sheep tells the story of Shaun, who first appeared in Aardman’s 1996 short film Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave. He is a mischievous, smarter-than-average sheep who lives with his flock on Mossybottom farm under the watchful eye of Blitzer the Sheepdog and his owner, the Farmer.

Life is repetitive and mundane on the farm and Shaun is fed up. He decides to disrupt the daily schedule and with the help of the rest of the flock manages to get rid of the farmer for day. However, the plan backfires when the farmer unintentionally takes a one way trip to the big city and Shaun and his flock must rush to get him back and return life to normal.

Using figures made from clay and stop-motion filming technique (it takes 4 days to produce 6 seconds of film!) the crew at Aardman have managed to painstakingly craft a hilarious and uplifting movie that children will absolutely love and adults will thoroughly enjoy. Shaun the Sheep is a brilliant character: brave, ingenious and loyal he is the perfect leader for his flock, each of whom has distinct personality traits and are strong characters in their own right. Add to them the fiercely loyal but ineffectual Blitzer the Sheepdog, the bumbling Farmer himself, and a whole cast of supporting characters and you’ve got yourself a sure-fire hit.

Á la Babe: Pig in the City, although decidedly less dark, farm animals trying to come to grips with fast-paced urban life makes for great watching. As the flock and Blitzer struggle to save the Farmer, there will be animals dressed as humans, humans dressed as animals, a pound-worker with delusions of Rambo (suitably named A. Trumper), a psychotic cat and much, much more. Clocking in at 85 minutes the movie never lags and is kept going with brilliant visual slapstick comedy and series of well-produced montages.

The directors, Mark Burton and Richard Starzack, and the team of animators manage that most precarious of balancing acts in creating a movie to be enjoyed by both kids and adults. While children will love the movie for its slapstick and its constant references to the popular cartoon series, adults will enjoy the barrage of pop culture references and the hidden adult humour throughout (a Peeping Tom bird watcher and Hannibal Lecter cat are just two examples).

All the more impressive is that Shaun the Sheep the Movie manages to pull this all off without one word of dialogue. All communication is done through grunts, moans and other semi-legible noises that explain to the watcher what is going on. The music is light and uplifting and the entire clay world is beautifully laid out. The effort that Aardman’s animators put into every frame is evident from the off.

Shaun the Sheep the Movie is a beautifully made animation that kids will love. Through excellent direction and memorable characters it also ensures that adults won’t be left counting sheep.