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| Courtesy of Lionsgate |
Aardman
Animations hasn’t reached Pixar levels of fame and adoration, but the studio
has been creating clever, innovative and deceptively simplistic projects since
the 1970s (including Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” music video and the
massively popular Wallace and Gromit shorts). In 2000, Aardman entered the
world of features with Chicken Run and has steadily built on that success.
The
studio’s latest project, Shaun the Sheep Movie, might be my favorite thing
they’ve ever done. The stop-motion animation is gorgeous, the characters are
simple but endearing, and the constant gags are all visual in nature since
nobody talks. It’s a wonderful throwback to silent film comedians like Charlie
Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
Shaun,
a mischievous sheep who is tired of his monotonous routine at Mossy Bottom
Farm, concocts a plan to trick the farmer into giving the flock a day off. But when the scheme inadvertently sends him
into the big city, where he gets amnesia from a nasty bump on the head, it’s up
to Shaun and his barnyard pals to get the farmer back home where he belongs.
It
won’t be easy though. None of the animals know their way around and they’ve got
a nasty animal control officer on their trail. Fortunately, the gang has a few
inventive tricks up their (nonexistent) sleeves.
Comedy
is subjective, so your opinion of Shaun the Sheep Movie will greatly depend
on how you feel about British humor. Several families, especially those with
toddlers, walked out of the screening about halfway through. (Perhaps they
mistakenly expected kiddie fare of the Disney Junior or Nickelodeon variety.)
My daughter, however, laughed her little head off for 85 minutes straight.
Both
of us cackled at the barrage of animal-related gags, many of which hearken back
to the days of Chuck Jones and Tex Avery. When the animal control agent started
making googly eyes at a sheep disguised as a woman, I thought about all the
times Bugs Bunny pulled that scheme to evade Elmer Fudd’s clutches.
There
are also plenty of jokes that adults, particularly of the movie nerd variety,
will appreciate. My kid didn’t pick up on the flick’s hilarious nods to The
Night of the Hunter and The Silence of the Lambs, but I sure did. And I love
that co-writers/co-directors Mark Burton and Richard Starzak trusted that many
of their viewers would be smart enough to catch them. Best of all, the
multi-layered jokes work even if you don’t know what they’re referencing.
As
summer winds down, the industry seems to be dumping a ton of product at the
same time – I count four new movies hitting theaters this weekend. If you’re
looking for something to do with the kids, don’t let Shaun the Sheep Movie fly under your radar. It’s an incredibly fun, old-school viewing experience.
Sure, it’ll find tons of admirers when the Blu-ray hits shelves in a few
months, but this dazzling, colorful animation deserves to be seen on the big
screen.
Shaun the Sheep Movie is rated PG for rude humor.
Grade:
B+
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