Aardman have made a bleating success from TV series leap to the big screen

SHAUN THE SHEEP has been a much-loved creature for over eight years on television and turning the successful franchise into a feature length film, was a bold move for Aardman – but definitely a good one.

The Bristol-based animation house have helped to create a global phenomenon out of the adorable sheep and have built on the success of their fluffy hero during the last two-and-a-half decades since the appearance of their Oscar-winning short CREATURE COMFORTS in 1989.

Over the years, fans of the show have become accustomed to watching over 130 seven-minute episodes since 2007, which have been sold to dozens of countries globally. Thanks to the lack of human dialogue in the episode – and indeed in the feature length film – Shaun has knocked down all language barriers, creating a show which is visually funny, engaging and simplistic.

In the movie adaptation, Aardman have stuck with that same recipe and cooked up a delightful 85-minute film.  The writer-directors Richard Starzak and Mark Burton took a big risk in making the leap from seven-minutes to a much longer story involving Shaun and the plot is exactly what the TV show audience have become accustomed to – Shaun and his friendly flock finding themselves in trouble involving a search for their farmer and they cause raucous on the roads. It’s audibly limited with the odd necessary grunts and snorts for expression, which is all jam-packed into a visually stunning, colourful stop-motion animation, effortlessly submerged in an endearing and affable plot, enticing for young children, older children and indeed adults.

Preceding all of this chaos, the plot of the story sees the Farmer of Mossy Bottom, a middle-aged agriculturalist, unwittingly entrapped in part of a plan by Shaun, who leads his effervescent flock in an ostentatious plot to bamboozle authoritarian sheepdog, Bitzer and keep Farmer asleep, all in a blissful attempt of a day off. However, their scheme does not quite go to plan when Farmer suffers a blow to the head, and ends up an amnesiac in the Big City. Shaun and his friendly flock realise how important it is for Farmer to return, so they decide to follow his trail to the Big City, which rather humorously sees them dressing up as humans, in order to restore balance and harmony to the world.

Along with the much-loved regular flock, we are introduced to some new characters: a dentally-challenged stray dog who finds herself impounded alongside Shaun in an animal shelter led by Trumper (voiced, or should we say grunted, by Omid Djalili) and they make a welcoming addition to the regular faces.

In the movie we see animal and human shenanigans perfectly entwined as the simplistic, primary-coloured animation marvels without human dialogue. It is intricately constructed, visually perfect and the characters are comically engrossing as always. In fact, it is like the perfect SHAUN THE SHEEP episode from TV, but better, longer and equally as entertaining.

Aardman Animations have worked their usual magic once again in this film. Even without the use of dialogue or voiceover to pull along the story, it really doesn’t need it. If you didn’t love sheep before, you certainly will after watching Shaun the Sheep. It is a funny, fast-moving, entertaining film for all of the family to enjoy.

Verdict

SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE will be leaping into cinemas on February 6th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&x-yt-ts=1421914688&v=E6qLSo9RsaE

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