Directors: Steve Cox & Matthew Walker
Halloween is approaching and there is excitement on the farm. For the sheep, their secret pumpkin patch has produced a fine harvest, ready for Halloween carving. The farmer is excited to ask the vet to the Halloween Hoedown. But after a pumpkin patch accident, Shaun needs to find a way of regrowing the pumpkins in days, not months. Shaun’s plan doesn’t only help with the pumpkin shortage, it also creates The Beast of Mossy Bottom, leading to a panicked village and an adventure for the sheep and the vet to return the beast back to where he came from.
This is filled with all the ingredients that make Aardman films so enjoyable. A silly story, lots of lovely detail and plenty of cine-literate nods for the older members of the audience.
Shaun the Sheep is aimed at a younger audience than Aardman’s other favourites, Wallace and Gromit, and it plays like that. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t lots for everyone to enjoy. Shaun is silent movie slapstick in animation form: big, colourful and funny for the youngsters, with nods to horror and popular culture for the older members of the audience, everything from Friday the 13th and “Influencers” to The Traitors making subtle appearances.
The action is frantic and never dull. The film is colourful, the story fast moving (its 80-minute runtime whizzes by). It has great moments of slapstick, and as always with Aardman, wonderful background details — check out the name of the Mossy Bottom barber shop for instance. But it’s not all silly, with a sweet story between the farmer and vet at its centre.
While it’s a film that is dialogue-free, it’s not silent, and its voice cast, including Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, Emma Tate, Andy Nyman and Paul Whitehouse, provides plenty of appropriate noises and expressions that, even without words, give you all the meaning you need.
Shaun the Sheep is 80 minutes of rock-solid entertainment, and while it does play a little young, there is still plenty for everyone to enjoy.
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