SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE

UK, 2015, 85 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, Omid Djalilli.
Directed by Mark Burton, Richard Starzac.

This is a holiday film which will entertain young audiences and keep their parents interested and amused, even though the story is very slight and a straightforward adventure of sheep and a dog in the city looking for their farmer who has a concussion, loss of memory, and is in hospital.

The films, both feature-length and short, from Aardman Studios in Bristol, have a very high reputation. A quarter of a century ago they made the short film, A Grand Day Out, following with a number of very entertaining films featuring Wallace and Gromit. Since they have been screened on television many times, most audiences may have seen the films – but repeats will entertain the youngsters who have not seen them. Their feature films include Chicken Run and Curse of the Were- Rabbit.

Shaun the Sheep is not new to television or film. He made his debut in the third Wallace and Gromit film, A Close Shave. Then he had his own television series, a range of short films, which endeared him to audiences. Now he has his own movie!

While there is a lot of music in the background and quite a number of noises, grunts and exclamations from the characters, the film works in the vein of silent films, no spoken dialogue, character and impact relying on visuals, expressions, situations, and quite a bit of slapstick comedy.

Shaun and the small number of sheep on the farm, live their day, day by day, according to the farmer’s routine, waking up, breakfast, slamming the door and squashing his dog, getting his list of chores, rounding up the sheep – and one day shearing them including Shaun. But routine is routine, even for the sheep on the farm, and Shaun must have remembered that Aardman Studios started with A Grand Day Out. Why not a day for Shaun and the sheep!

It seems a good plan, with the farmer in his truck, but Shaun and the sheep underestimating a hill, downhill, so that the truck goes hurtling down, the farmer gets hit on the head and has to go to hospital where he loses his memory. This means that the Grand Day Out is one of rectifying the situation, tracking down the farmer, discovering him in hospital, passing a group singing in Baa- Baa’s shop, and trying to avoid the machinations the Bif Ciyt’s animal hunter. One of the enjoyable jokes, repeated, is having the sheep go round and round jumping over a barrier with the farmer and the hunter watching and gradually nodding off and falling asleep, not exactly counting the sheep, but the equivalent.

This means a lot of humorous situations, parodies of human behaviour, pratfalls and mistakes, the sheep getting themselves in tangles, and the dog doing his best to help out. Happy to say that when they get the farmer back home, and go into their routines, he gradually gets a sense of their presence, recovers and all is the same, no, better, at the farm with the dog almost always avoiding being crushed by the door.

Perhaps not the most memorable of Aardman Studios films, but certainly a welcome and popular addition.

1. The popularity and quality of the Aardman Studios films? The popularity over the decades? The stories, characters, comedy and adventure?

2. The popularity of Shaun the Sheep, in the shorts television films, his own series, star of a feature film?

3. The stop-motion animation, meticulous in attention to detail? The farm backgrounds, the Big City, the blend of the familiar and the surprising? The detail of the characters, the sheep, the dog, the humans? The musical score?

4. Silent film techniques, no words, just sounds, reliance on the visuals and expressions?

5. The routine at the farm, the farmer getting up, breakfast, the dog squashed by the door, the list, the leaves of the calendar, rounding up the sheep? The shearing of the sheep?

6. Shaun, the youngest, the leader, his strong personality? The idea of the day out? The plan, the role of the sheep, the dog? The farmer, asleep in his truck, the crash, concussion, hospital, amnesia?

7. The sheep on the day out, the trip to the Big City, the dog? The barber chorus? The animal hunter and his schemes and comeuppance?

8. The hunt in the city, Shaun and his ingenuity, discovering the truth, the hospital, the rescue?

9. The return home, the farmer and his amnesia, repeating the routines, his getting a sense of the sheep’s presence, recovering?

10. Quite a day out for Shaun and the sheep? For the dog? And all is well that ends well in recovering the daily routine?