This film’s a shear delight!

A sene from Shaun the Sheep.

A sene from Shaun the Sheep.

Published Feb 27, 2015

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SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE

DIRECTOR: Mark Burton and Richard Starzak

VOICE CAST: Justin Fletcher, John Sparks, Omid Djalili, Richard Webber, Kate Harbour

CLASSIFICATION: TBA

RUNNING TIME: 92 minutes

RATING: ***

CUTE, sweet and wondrously detailed, this film is a fun, extended episode of the popular Aardman Animations’ TV series, Shaun the Sheep.

Aardman Animations have stuck to their strengths, using claymation and fleshing out the spaces the sheep move through, though not at the expense of individuality of the characters.

Aimed more at kids than adults, this stop-motion animation film has no dialogue, but the narrative is clear in the visuals. Characters grunt, moan, laugh and sigh at each other and everyone understands everyone else perfectly, but even if the sound was turned off, the audience would still get it.

The slightly melancholic opening sequence gives us not only a song with words, but we also learn a whole lot more about the Farmer (mumbled by Sparks). Then it is business as usual, or not.

Shaun (mumbled by Fletcher) and his friends decided they need a day off, but they inadvertently drive the Farmer away. It takes a complicated yet delicate slapstick routine to mess things up thoroughly. And, then the pigs take advantage, but this is what happens at Mossy Bottom Farm.

Anyway, the Farmer ends up wandering around the city, amnesiac and anti-sheep and it is up to resourceful Shaun, responsible Bowzer the dog (Sparks) and the rest of the flock to get him back. That is, if they can keep a creepy animal wrangler off their trail.

As we have come to expect from the tv series, the sheep are quite individual, especially Shaun who communicates some complicated ideas to his family. And Timmy is still as cute as ever.

This film is almost nostalgically old-school in contrast to Aardman’s more recent fare like the parody The Pirates! Band of Misfits or crazy Arthur Christmas.

Still, it is nostalgia for style that doesn’t involve heavy cgi, not some bucolic world that no longer exists. The backgrounds are wonderfully detailed, especially once they move off the farm. The cityscape details are typical of the British city edges with its mix of concrete and steel flyovers and hundreds-year- old buildings and the city dwellers are a cross-section of contemporary society.

The slapstick is funny, sight gags abound and there are plenty of more subtle visual cues and cultural references to amuse adults.

On the downside, the inclusion of pop songs jar when no words are spoken, the plot is stretched further than is comfortable to make it a full-length movie and the directors occasionally seem to lose count of how many sheep they should have in the frame.

Still, much more straightforward than the more surreal Wallace and Gromit fare, this is utterly charming and totally barmy in its own right. The clay and wool models project a wonderfully tactile sense, so much warmer than a cgi glaze, and little people will watch it over and over.

If you like Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, you will like this.

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