By now we’ve all heard how the attempt to reboot a superhero
series that was pretty bad to begin with, has failed so spectacularly no amount
of black magic can revive it. So besides Fant4stic,
what else is playing this week? Ricki and
the Flash may be decent but I’m still recovering from the last time I heard
Meryl Streep sing. How about that British animated movie that’s surprisingly
playing in North America?
Shaun the Sheep: The Movie is based on
the British series of the same name, and like that series is from Aardman
animation. I’m a fan of the studio, most famous for its stop motion like Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run. But it’s also turned out
some really great CG animated films like Flushed
Away and Arthur Christmas. This
film was of the former technique and you can really tell. The stop-motion lends
itself very well to the tone of the film and as always shows immense effort and
makes the whole story look real. The film also looks like it accurately
represents the TV show which I never watched, but I can get a feel for its
simplistic style.
The
story is about Shaun a clever troublemaking sheep on a farm somewhere in
northern England. Sick of routine, he and the other sheep trick their farmer
into falling asleep so they can have free range of the farm. Through a series
of shenanigans the farmer winds up in the Big City. Shaun, Bitzer the sheepdog,
and the other sheep embark on a trek into the City to recover the farmer who’s
having a few adventures of his own.
One
interesting thing about this film is that it has no dialogue. Very much like Mr. Bean and a number of other
Claymation shorts, there is some garbled gibberish, but nothing resembling
words. This allows not only for the film to be accessible in any market, but
also for pure action and expression to move the story along. And the film does
that very well for the most part. There are some slow sections and at times the
lack of dialogue seems like a crutch making me feel they weren’t taking
advantage of opportunities as much as they could have. The film is also
structured like a TV show in its use of an A and B-plot. We’re following the
farm animals along for most of it, but we also see the farmer’s pretty bizarre
experience in the city. The story is predictable at times and there’s a subplot
with a villainous animal catcher who’s entertaining to watch, but only really
comes together in the final act where we get a lot of heightened energy and
laughs.
The
movie is funny in that terrific clever British way. The best jokes are spaced
out pretty evenly and while a few bomb, others soar pretty well with their
ingenuity. The physical gags are great and there are some unexpected pop
culture references from the likes of Taxi
Driver to Weekend at Bernie’s!
The film also gets some mileage out of the cuteness factor for one of its
characters, which I’m still surprised Aardman was able to convey.
Shaun the Sheep may be the least of
Aardman’s features but it’s still a very entertaining and highly under-endorsed
film! It’s got charming animation, some good humour, and even some tenderness
and a subtle moral about not taking things for granted. Which is far better for
kids and adults than a video game movie rip-off of a Futurama episode.
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