User reviews

I considered Aardmans last stop motion effort 'Pirates - in an adventures with scientists' to be a bit of a let down when it was released three years ago and wondered if they had gone off the boil a little bit by trying to appeal to the mass market and thus diluting their witty humour as a result. However after 80 odd minutes of Shaun the Sheep I am happy to report that they are back on track.

Shaun is extremely well animated and manages to keep the story ticking along and funny enough to keep your interest without really feeling stretched. Considering as the film has no real dialogue to speak of that is no mean feat, and is reliant on top notch production design, expressive animation and a script that is entertaining and funny without being overly ridiculous. Whilst the Shaun the Sheep/Timmy Time TV shorts are aimed at young viewers, there is a decent amount of underlying humour here that adults will also engage with and thus it doesn't insult your intelligence the way some films do.

After Aardmans infamous falling out with DreamWorks (who wanted them to Americanize Wallace & Gromit) I did wonder if Aardman had sold out for the mass market after feeling the Sony Pictures distributed Pirates had a whiff of compromise to it, and that's partly why I felt Pirates fell a bit flat. However Aardman have teamed up with an independent European distributor for Shaun and as a result it seems they were allowed to make the film they wanted to make this time round. In effect I was not disappointed with Shaun, the simple but hilarious premise of the TV show is expanded successfully to the big screen with no noticeable compromises for the mass market. That the film is also dialogue free should make it an easy sell abroad too and I'm glad to see the film has been well received.

So well done to Aardman for making one of 2015's most enjoyable, entertaining and amusing films so far.

13 February 2015 Film of Choice at The Plaza Dorchester This Aftenoon - Shaun The Sheep. I would just like to point out that I was the only adult there without a child.....or maybe I was the only child without an adult!!!!!! Nick Park and his team have done it again. This was classic Aardman animation, with our old pal Shaun. Bored with his mundane life Shaun and his sheepy friends engineer a way to have a day off but all goes drastically wrong when the farmer ends up in the big city with memory loss. It's up to the animals to save him and what follows is a madcap series of events where nobody questions sheep dressed as humans or any of the antics that occur. Completely without dialogue the story is carried along by the excellent score and gesticulations and a gaggle of bleats, grunts and other indiscriminate noises. As we know animation these days caters for all ages and with various movie references included the adults were definitely laughing at different times to the children. Watching some good old stop motion animation is a very pleasant way to pass the time.

For 'Shaun the Sheep' Aardman Animations gracefully goes back to its roots. If you are not familiar with the character of Shaun, then perhaps I should elaborate. He was first seen in the third Wallace & Gromit short 'A Close Shave'. The world he inhabits has no characters that speak an audible line of dialogue. It is all silent, save for the odd sound effect and the musical score. This is Aardman's sixth feature length film or third if you just count stop-motion.

The plot is of course very basic. But that suits the film just fine, it is not trying to be the next 'Inception' and it doesn't need to be. With silent films the simpler the better. Shaun decides that he wants some well deserved time off from his work on the farm. The group or flock want a day off, but they instead end up in rather a mess. Which eventually leads them to the Big City aka London. Meanwhile, through a misunderstanding their farmer is hospitalized with no recollection of whom he is and Shaun. It is up to Shaun and the gang to set the farmer free and return home, before further trouble is had.

Queue great scenes that are funny, referential and light hearted. The first factor being the most unexpected, considering that there is no dialogue at all. Meaning that Shaun relies heavily upon visual humour, which works a treat. It never forays into dark territory and thankfully keeps the tone consistently light hearted with good intentions. It would be impossible to list all the references one could find when viewing it, but let me bring up a few. They are, The Shawshank Redemption, The Silence of the Lambs and The Wolverine. So even the adults will get a chuckle out of it. This film really is for all ages.

The stop motion animation is fabulous and showcases how far Aardman have come along since 1989's A Grand Day Out. It is even well paced and runs little over seventy-five brief minutes. Meaning it never gets tiresome. But the length proves to still be part of the problem. The film is far too short and I wanted I needed so much more. I would not have minded watching this film even if its running time was in fact doubled. I know this is not a big issue, considering the film is silent and still has warmth, heart and a soul. But, some character development would not have gone amiss.

If you are curious as to where 'Shaun' places amongst the other feature length stop motion pictures, then it follows thus; it is greater than 'Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were- Rabbit', but lacks the shear enthusiasm of 'Chicken Run'. But, could the woolly fella ever compete with such grand competition? Probably not, but there is less than a feather between the overall quality of the two.

'Shaun the Sheep' to the cynical will no doubt appear to be a cash grab from Aardman. (As the gang already have a television show to its name). This could not be further from the truth. Shaun is warm, heartfelt, moving, exciting and soulful. No matter what age you are, you will be in for a delight provided by this excellent film from Aardman, further proving that they can do no wrong. I urge anyone to come forward and say they were bored; the mere thought of which is inconceivable!

The very notion of Shaun The Sheep Movie sounds faintly ridiculous, as if the universe were playing a joke on movie-going audiences around the world. A hyper-intelligent sheep embarking on an epic adventure to save the farmer who shears off his wool every year? What utter claptrap. The film has next to no lines of intelligible dialogue and is based on a long-running TV show for kids? How ludicrous. Is anyone above the age of three actually expected to want to watch this film? And yet, there's plenty to recommend this charming, full-hearted gem from Aardman Animation - a studio so passionate and dedicated to its craft and characters that it literally animates entire worlds in exhaustingly tiny increments.

Everyone in Mossy Bottom Farm, including our titular hero (given 'voice' by Justin Fletcher), has settled into a dreary routine. One day, Shaun decides to shake things up a little. So he distracts sheepdog Bitzer and traps the Farmer (both voiced by John Sparkes) in a caravan, all in aid of allowing his entire flock to take a day off from their boring lives. But Shaun didn't account for a steep hill, a runaway caravan and a bout of amnesia. Soon, he and his buddies - with the help of Bitzer and stray pooch Slip (Tim Hands) - must hunt for the Farmer in the Big City, even as they try to keep out of the clutches of Trumper (Omid Djalili), a fearsome agent tasked with Animal Control.

It's easy to gripe about Shaun The Sheep's simple plot: this is hardly a complex film. Indeed, it lingers obstinately in the realm of entertainment for kids, even packing in the requisite learning points about friendship and not taking things for granted. The film can sometimes feel simplistic too, given its persistent lack of dialogue and its cheerfully frequent descent into slapstick comedy. There's very little of the cheeky satire here that makes Aardman's Wallace & Gromit franchise such a blast.

But Shaun The Sheep Movie is delightful in so many ways that it's just easier for everyone above a certain age to give in to their inner child. The characters may be fashioned out of clay and wood and painstakingly animated at an extremely slow speed, but the film itself positively crackles with energy. The narrative pokes fun at the concepts of fashion, incarceration and going viral, even as it bounces merrily through a host of hilarious gags. The soporific effect of sheep leaping over fences is mined for plenty of laughs, while the camera checks in with a particularly crazed inmate of Animal Control and an utterly charming Baa-bershop Quintet.

Quite a bit of thought has evidently been devoted to the development of the film's main characters - certainly more than you'd get in some Hollywood blockbusters. Shaun is a sweetly determined hero, refusing to leave any sheep - or human, or dog - behind, even as he cleans up a mess that is (strictly speaking) of his own making. The Farmer, too, gets a storyline that spices the comedy up with a hint of drama, as he stumbles into a new career through his forgotten but deeply-ingrained skill with shearing sheep. The lack of dialogue in the film also proves to be, quite frequently, a plus. Not only does it push the story in inventive directions, it allows the incredibly expressive characters to take centre stage - their hopes, dreams and fears communicated with barely a word spoken.

This all makes for a thoroughly charming experience at the cinema - Shaun The Sheep Movie isn't likely to make you dig deep or ponder long and hard about life, but it will almost certainly entertain you in breathtaking (and breathless!) fashion. In almost every aspect - from the deft character design to its incredibly catchy soundtrack, the film radiates a sweet, optimistic charm that will win over just about everybody who gives it a chance.

I never ever go to the cinema (I rather wait for the Blu-ray to be released and just paying once but yet I went to London from Spain just to see this movie. I didn't wanna wait for it to be released here.

Shaun the Sheep is a brilliant TV show so when I found out a movie was being made I was totally thrilled. Even though going from the 7-minute episode to a full length movie was a big step, I was confident in Aardman to made the transition easily. They didn't disappoint. First, let me say that I love stop-motion; it's such an "intimate" technique due to the fact that you always have to literally be on top of the character to change it every time he makes the slightest movement. But not only is the technique beautiful, the story doesn't disappoint either. This doesn't feel like a dragged out episode of the show, it feels like a story that goes beyond the usual surroundings of the show while still maintaining how everything works. This movie made me laugh a lot. If there's something that Shaun the Sheep always achieved was the ability to create humor of the most simplest situations. But I also cried a lot. Tears of sadness and happiness. And truthfully, I never expected Shaun the Sheep to reach me so deeply. There's a scene where you can see so much pain in Shaun eyes. And that's just clay! My God, congratulations to whoever did that, it was so moving. And I also had a sweet spot about Slip, the dog that Shaun meets early in the movie and come along for the adventure. She was a new character but she felt like and old member of the gang.

I haven't enjoyed a movie so much in a long time. And I haven't felt so many thing with a movie in a long time either. So thank you, Aardman, for giving a fan such a great gift.

I know the title of this review sounds cliché and somewhat pandering, but this film truly is a delight for all well mannered (perhaps even ill tempered) audiences of all ages.

As other reviews have stated, the main character, Shaun the Sheep, is from the Wallace and Gromit short "A Close Shave", where in Shaun helps the duo overcome a mechanical threat of canine sorts.

This film propels Shaun (a star in his own series) into the biggest adventure he's ever had since "A Close Shave" way back in the mid 90s. Shaun leads his flock through a series of very funny misadventures to rescue a member of their farm-family, so to speak.

Everything here is pantomime, and hearkens back to the days of old before sound was added to film. This is, in spirit, a silent film in the sense that there's no dialogue, and all the communication is primarily done with showing the audience the story as opposed to telling it to us through dialogue. The gags are the usual clever Aardman offerings, but there's also some very witty use of classic silent era gags, yet with a very British flavor of understatement, which makes the comedy in this film all that much funnier.

Truly I hadn't laughed out loud at a comedy film in who knows how long, and it was something that was much welcome in our day and age of low brow humor. Regrettably there are a couple of flatulence gags (I'm guessing primarily for the kiddies) that didn't need to be. But most of the other humor is keen, dextrous in execution and inventive in concept, and very British in overall gist.

Finally, as with most of Aardman productions, there's a knack for demonstrating the villain who has more tech wizardry as an expression of brawn to make up for brain, or lack thereof. It is a running theme in some of Aardman Production's films, notably the Wallace and Gromit series, and should serve as a nice little, almost subliminal, message to young minds as they mature into full adults.

Again, very delightful and very fun.

Give it a shot. You won't be disappointed.

Excuse the pun in the title, i had to do it because this latest Aardman outing isn't a baaad film at all (sorry :P).

I am a huge fan of stop-motion, the way these types of films are animated fascinate me. I grew up loving Wallace and Gromit and I always loved the character of Shaun The Sheep so I was looking forward to this in some ways, although I wasn't sure the character could carry a film by himself but not to worry because he really can!

This type of film has been seen a lot, a group of characters end up in a situation that isn't within their comfort zone, in this case from farm to city. It isn't an original plot sure but it is handled so well that i was entertained throughout. The start was beginning to be a little slow, but started off so well that by the time it started to drag and feel slow something else happened which made the film entertaining again. From the moment the farmer ends up in the big city the jokes fly at you and these are as much for adults than they are for kids. I found myself laughing waaay more than i expected. Very simple jokes and laughs, but in a way that worked almost flawlessly. And this was all handled with no dialogue whatsoever, only the occasional baa or mumble from the human characters.

I highly recommend this to anybody who is looking for a film that will entertain the whole family and if you are planning on seeing Fifty Shades of Grey over this then don't.. you will be wasting your time. At 85 minutes this is the perfect length to keep young ones entertained and also before any of the jokes got stale or before interest is lost. A very simple and very English feeling film that left me feeling great. I hope to see more stop-motion animated films because I am a huge fan of these and this one looks absolutely beautiful. I hope this gets a nomination for best animated picture just for the style because i would back it up all the way. You will not regret seeing this one i promise

I am a grown male and got the timings wrong to see The Interview and could not be bothered to wait for the next screening so I selected the next film starting.

I have never seen the series, so cant judge if this is a good or bad adaptation all I can say this is a truly funny film though aimed at children is funny enough to keep me entertained.

The animation is uniformly excellent and honestly kept me guessing from the start to the end whether it was CGI or stop motion, I am still not sure even after reading all the credits. Maybe I didn't read them properly because the theme tune is very catchy and bounces round the head even now.

The story is easy to follow, the characters are likable and there is no trite wince inducing dialogue, everything is mumbled by the humans and the sheep communicate in a variations of bahs. There are some cracking running gags and a smattering of fart jokes. The sheep in disguise have to be seen to believed and the viewer would be surprised what goes on with a horse.

The closing credits though long are a fun roll with a funny bit at the end.

Watch it. I bet The Interview wont be as much fun.

In my opinion, Shaun the Sheep, the TV show, is the best thing Aardman have ever done. Fiendishly funny, inventive and almost surreal in its enjoyment levels, adults will be able to enjoy it too. Shaun isn't Gromit, but he's a good character and here he stars in his own movie. He, the flock and the sheepdog go into the city to rescue their Farmer. This is an old premise for a film of this type, although new things are done with it and the city rendered in glorious Claymation never stops being fun to look at. Visually it's a very clever film and as it's stop motion it never feels artificial. Shaun the Sheep Movie isn't a profound film and it's all about the humour, which it delivers on. With unpredictable and bitingly effective jokes, clever slapstick and an atmosphere of unrestrained glee, this offers charm in spades and the laughs don't really stop flowing. A scene which occurs in a restaurant is one of those moments where you wish they could pause the film for a moment so that you can stop laughing and regain your composure.

It's not flawless though. While this won't bother many, some poor continuity to the TV show, such as there being fewer sheep than normal and the Farmer being fond of the sheep in an overly sentimental manner can be irritating. The music is a bit jarring, and some of the jokes are a little broad and some of the set pieces are too threatening. The truth is, short TV shows being stretched to fit a feature length running time often stretches a simple premise beyond breaking point. This doesn't quite happen here, but the film runs out of gas before the end and it's not quite as inventive as say, The Wrong Trousers or A Close Shave. There are plenty of laughs, but they rarely reach the levels of hilarity the TV series would often produce. STSM is a good animated film and certainly worth seeing over many of the other films currently in cinemas and it's a good laugh for the whole family. However, it's not quite what it could have been, but it strikes an 8 on the laugh o meter.

7/10

For a while, I've held a belief that Aardman can do no wrong, and thankfully this latest example has kept up that belief and then some. It's actually rather difficult to write a review of this movie, because there's not a whole lot one can actually comment on. For instance, I can't say anything about voice acting, or script, because there is literally no dialogue. I mean, there are voice actors (for example Omid Djalili as Tramper the villain) but all they do is mumble (and in the case of the sheep actors, bleat) and stuff. I suppose this, then, serves as a testament to the sheer quality of Aardman's animation. In addition to it being fantastic that claymation can still find its way onto the screen today, it's also brilliant that such a film has found such capable animators; the animation is beautiful, and though you may think they may not be able to convey so much emotion with just facial expressions and mumbles, lo and behold, they do; from glee, to terror, to sadness, to panic, and many more, the characters they've created are absolutely brimming with emotion, and immensely watchable at the same time, and that just makes this movie all the more effective. Lack of a proper script also doesn't seem to trouble Aardman either; this movie is really goddamn funny. The physical comedy sequences, the highlight of which has to be the gleefully chaotic scene in a restaurant, are done to a tee, quite possibly the best Aardman has done them since Flushed Away, while Aardman's trademark sight gags, though not quite as strong as they were in previous offering The Pirates! (the Brian Blessed gag comes to mind), are ever-present and really quite amusing, however obvious or subtle they may be (for instance, "The Big City - twinned with Le Grande Ville, La Ciudad Grande"). My main gripe was that towards the end, which I won't spoil, things do get a bit too cheesy for my tastes, but the rest of the movie, and indeed most of the climactic sequences, more than make up for that. Shaun The Sheep: The Movie only serves to reinforce why I am such a huge fan of the Bristol lads to begin with, and while it is nowhere near as good as their first two features, it is definitely a worthy addition to their fine repertoire of work. If you're looking for some great entertainment on an afternoon, you could do a lot worse than this.

I knew nothing about Shaun the Sheep going into this movie, but if the reactions of my six and four year olds were any indication, this film is a hit.

It's pretty remarkable that the filmmakers could create a movie that retains the interest of its audience, many of them small children, no less, without a word of dialogue being spoken. It's a cute and cheeky film, and if you like Wallace and Gromit, you will like this. It's got that unique brand of British humor that you either take to or not, but either way you'd have to be pretty determined not to have a good time to watch this movie without a smile breaking out on your face at least a couple of times.

Grade: B+

This was, for me anyway, the usual Saturday afternoon flick with my partner and son to pass an hour or two.

To be honest could have been any movie.

The movie started sedately enough but gathered pace and complexity with every minute ,throughout the audience was laughing out loud , adults and children alike (including me).

It had everything for kids and adults, some rude jokes, great references to adult movies. A multi-layered villain, heroes and comedic characters.

The animation was stunning but i stopped looking at the animation and got hooked on the story and characters, maybe that's the way it should be.

Definitely worth a hour or so of anybody's time.

"Shaun the Sheep the Movie" is a very enjoyable and completely inconsequential film that was also, interestingly enough, Oscar- nominated for Best Animated Feature. When I say inconsequential I am not insulting it but am talking more about the plot....as there really isn't a lot of it. Instead, it's more just an excuse for the animators to have fun and throw in 1001 cute little jokes.

When the film begins, the animals on the farm are happy and nothing unusual appears to be in the future. However, when the sheep all conspire to work together to give themselves a day off, things go haywire and their farmer, amazingly, gets taken to the big city. The guy ends up getting a head injury and has amnesia* and the sheep and sheepdog hurry to the city to rescue him. Unfortunately, there's a totally insane animal control officer who insists of getting them...even once they've arrived safely back at the farm.

So is the film any good? Yes. The Aardman folks did their usual terrific stop-motion work and the writers did a wonderful job keeping the jokes coming and the viewer interested. Kids and adults should like it. However, it's also something that is nice but not especially life-changing or amazing. Well done and cute.

A below standard Aardman production only redeemed by excellent prison (animal control) scenes, Breaking Bad references and bold indie soundtrack which suggests the Music Director is a similar age to myself.

Shaun the Sheep Movie is a spin off from the TV series (which I am not familiar with) which itself is a spin off of Wallace and Gromit's Close Shave and it appears that the magic of the 1995 animated short has been wrung out of it after so many spins. At first glance the film contains everything you'd expect from an Aardman animation (charming animation, popular culture references and crazy action) however this feels like a case of ticking boxes rather than being the genuine heart of the movie.

However, the younger audience at the cinema enjoyed the movie and really empathised with Shaun and his plight towards the end so a success based on that however you wish they could see early Aardman material then that really would be a grand day out.

I use to say that a good animation or puppet movie can be seen with profit by children and adults as well. And this is the case. This is a crazy and funny movie with well chosen and depicted characters. The puppets, either human or animal have got full expressive human features and very suggestive and impressive countenance. It's the story of a farmer who lives in a caravan at the countryside where he has got a lot of farm animals including Shaun The Sheep the main character. He is most of the time asleep and the caravan starts rolling by accident and gets into the nearby town where he wakes up very astonished and ends up by turning into hairdresser profiting from his experience as a shearer. Shaun The Sheep and a few other animals go to the town trying to find him and bring him back to the farm. This leads to a series of funny gags and complications. You will spend about two hours having fun by watching this movie.

I don't usually write reviews. I'm not that type...definitely not but when I saw this movie, something sparkled within me. I felt something...something which I haven't felt for a long time since I last saw the LOTR trilogy, something which made me wanna write this review.

Shaun is an excellent character!! Even in simple scenes, that sheep will literally, make you laugh & at the same time, make you cry & not only him. Even his compatriots' actions prove that,"True friends will always stick with you, even in tricky situations" What made me super-excited was the Music! It's been so long since I heard good music being played in an animated film (For me & last time it was the Spongebob film - TERRIBLE!) When you got comedy & large amounts of it combined with a little dose of tragedy plus the right music playing in all these scenes, then I really don't see why this movie doesn't deserve less than 10 stars. Matter of fact that's the secret combination behind a successful animated film. This movie left me satisfied...thoroughly satisfied!

No dialogue films have been around since the beginning of cinema. The best could tell a thousand words through the mere glance of a character's eyes. But how does one do that with clay puppets? Very very slowly, with great detail, and with insurmountable patience. Each minute in this film must have taken days / weeks to complete. Were the camera anchored in position, perhaps it would have been easier. The camera in Shaun the Sheep never stays still. It pans, zooms, shifts focus -- while the claymation is MOVING! While not the first film to do so (Nightmare before Christmas is an excellent claymation film that did the same), it is done so seamlessly that you almost forget about the technical prowess in making it. All of this, of course, takes a back seat to the solid story and character development.

How does one take 5 minute serial cartoons and stretch them out to a full length movie? By expanding the backstory to the characters, of course. All cartoon serials made into feature length films have done this, but never as effectively as here. I think the answer is simplicity. They don't go for wackiness as much as for tenderness. The farmer is shown to be more of a father figure to the sheep. The entire farm is portrayed as a family. That raises the emotional stakes in the film which makes the simple funny moments funnier and the tender moments more heart warming. In essence, the simplicity and lean running time elevate the whole production. It rises beyond its origins and leaves the audience exhilarated. This is a movie you feel good you've seen. There is a purity about it which is lacking in most movies. Appropriate for absolutely any age, check this one out!

I never really watched the show as a kid, but whenever I did I was certainly amused. So this movie wouldn't have struck a childhood chord with me, yet I still managed to enjoy it.

Clay-mation/stop-motion never gets old, and really adds to the experience of viewing a movie, such as this one. The stop-motion was all very well done, but that's to be expected, considering the creators have (hopefully) spent years making the show and playing with the models already.

Shaun the Sheep Movie was it's own thing, which was really nice. Whether it was loaded with references to the show or not, it wasn't required to watch it to still enjoy or understand the movie. Unlike a lot of other movies I've seen these days (like Marvel movies) it's harder to enjoy and understand without reading the original material. Shaun the Sheep Movie manages to stand on its own as a great movie still, which is nice to see.

The movie was rather funny at points, and the 'Silence of the Lambs' reference was a nice touch.

Overall, Shaun the Sheep Movie is great. It's enjoyable, entertaining, and definitely one I recommend watching with your kids/family, because it's got something that everyone can enjoy. I'd definitely recommend this movie if your just looking for some good, entertaining fun.

Being a fan of Aardman, I was very excited to see this movie. And I was not disappointed. Shaun the Sheep is a charming, funny, and entertaining movie that continues the tradition of good movies by Aardman.

The animation is beautiful. Claymation is my favorite type of animation because of how off-beat it makes everything look, so I'm already partially biased on the cinematography. That is a huge reason I love Aardman.

But, the backbone of any and every Aardman film, including this one, is the screenplay. Shaun the Sheep has a wonderful screenplay - full of wit, cleverness and humor. I can't tell you how hard I laughed at the Silence of the Lambs' reference (the only one in my theater who did laugh at it). There is a restaurant named "Moon," and, in the film, a cow jumps over it…get it? It's the little things like that make this film so great. Without dialogue, this movie is still more intelligent than many. That isn't to say it's a silent film, but it doesn't have any talking. It doesn't need it. The saying, "A picture is worth 1000 words" applies to motion pictures as well. The way the movie uses images to convey messages or to tell jokes and to advance the story is impressive and entertaining. It makes us feel smart, that we're able to put the pieces together and not have to be told everything. I'd even say it's refreshing.

I wish I could say more about the movie, but it's excellence was so expected and it's formula is so familiar, that I can't elaborate too much. It's vintage Aardman, basically. Fortunately, that is a fantastic thing. So I give this movie 4.5 out of 5 stars, and recommend it for ages 10 to 18.

Reviewed by Willie J, KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, age 16. For more reviews by youth, go to kidsfirst dot org.

If you love Claymation and the work of Wallace and Gromit, you won't need my confirmation to watch this. But for those uninitiated, let me tell you that this movie while aimed at kids, will bring the inner child out of every adult who goes and enjoys that ride too. And all that virtual without dialog.

It is cute when animals talk, but for that there are other movies to watch. It's not that this is realistic or anything (there are some really crazy action set pieces, especially towards the end), but the power of mimic/facial expressions is back again. And words are not always needed, in this case none at all. There's a lot of ways to have fun then, and this can be one of them

The sheep on a small farm hatch a clever plan to have a day off, but things turn awry as their farmer ends up in the city with amnesia in this animated comedy from Aardman. While based on a television series of the same name, the film works remarkably well even with limited knowledge of the show and characters, though the most remarkable aspect of 'Shaun the Sheep Movie' is the complete absence of dialogue. There are some awkward bits in which the human characters mutter incomprehensibly to one another, but for the most part, the film spins an incredibly involving story without the need for spoken words throughout. Not of all the humour is slapstick either, which would have been an easy trap to fall into here. There are some neat visual puns, like a cow literally jumping over the moon, while the funniest moments come from the claymation humans reacting to all the chaos around them (look out for one foreground character's reaction when the animal catcher becomes stuck inside a horse!). There is also an amazingly funny part in which the sheepdog is mistaken for a surgeon and the patient being operated on is heavily anesthetised after trying to point out his tail to the operating room nurses. Not all of the gags work and the climax is more than a little over-the-top, but this is otherwise a surprising delight from start to finish.

I am a fan of the majority of Aardman animations and, in the case of Shaun the Sheep, have even found them to be great across cultures – watching one episode in the family section of a typically grey airport in Russia, laughing at Shaun with my German boss and some random Russian old men. However hearing of this film did make me wonder if a show with 5-minute story arcs aimed at young children, could really be extended to fill a movie. In some ways the plot does play with very old chestnuts to make this happen (amnesia) but to be fair it works because it produces something to rise above that.

The film is many things, and it does them all consistently. It is first and foremost kind-hearted and without malice; there are a few jokes in there that maybe are a bit off-color, but even then it is not really crude in the way some things can be. It uses this as a bed of charm to have plenty of good laughs, great set-pieces, and a good handful of moments of quite surprising emotional impact. The film takes a lot from the old silent comedy, with a plot structured on moments rather than a huge narrative arc (albeit the "get the farmer back" is the overall sweep of it). As such the film pleases in almost every scene, as it is charmingly funny, and also pretty trusting with the viewer to get the jokes – whether it not overly explaining things, or trusting us to remember something as a callback. The film has one or two cultural references in there that probably will not travel too well, but mostly it is universal in its appeal – and a man in his late 30's such as I, a young child, or a group of Russian men in an airport, will all find it very easy to love. The stop-motion animation looks effortless (which it most certainly is not), and of course it brings with it that sense of the realness of the characters and material that CGI can never seem to reproduce.

The Shaun the Sheep Movie is a great piece of work – funny, charming, touching, clever, and totally universal; hard to imagine many people who do not get won over by it – it even has the courtesy to leave its only misstep (that awful Rizzle Kicks version of the theme song) until late in the closing credits so that few will actually see it (presumably they did it to make the cinema clear quicker).

Shaun the Sheep first appeared in the Oscar winning Wallace & Gromit cartoon, A Close Shave. Subsequently Aardman Animations spun out the character for a series of shorts for the BBC.

This feature length film sees Shaun, Bitzer the dog and the flock end up losing the farmer after they get into mischief and head for the big city to look for him. The Farmer becomes amnesic after a blow to the head but still manages to become a sensational hairdresser in the big city. Shaun is captured by Animal Control and thrown behind bars. Shaun must escape and find the farmer and get home, however Animal Control is determined to get them.

Like other Aardman films the film is well constructed which the kids will enjoy. The animation looks basic but its been painstakingly done. There are pop cultural references which adults might understand more than the kids and there is plenty of zany action.

However the film's lack of dialogue does not lend itself easily for a feature length animation, it cannot sustain its longer running time, it is not up to the standard of other Aardman cartoons. You get an inkling that you have seen a lot of it before in other of their animations.