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SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE
Justin Fletcher as Shaun (voice) / John B. Sparkes as Bitzer and Farmer (voice) / Omid Djalili as Trumper (voice) / Richard Webber as Shirley (voice) / Kate Harbour as Timmy's Mum and Meryl (voice) / Tim Hands as Slip (voice) / Simon Greenall as Twins (voice) Written and directed by Mark Burton and Richard Starzack |
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When it comes to animation…I’ll take stop motion any day of the week and twice on Sunday. The
meticulously hand crafted nature of these films have something that even
the ultra-high tech look and sheen of Pixar films lack: A truly immersive
tactile quality. Not to take
away anything from the finest of computer animated films that have
graced the silver screen for decades, but stop motion's rich
multi-dimensional aura is something that even the finest computers can’t
duplicate. Obviously, this
has a considerable amount to do with the fact that actual clay puppets and
physical objects are actually manipulated in front of the camera, but
I’m nevertheless left with a tremendous admiration for these artists
rendering their Plasticine creations.
There’s just a refreshingly old fashioned aura to this work
that’s so endlessly quirky and inviting. For
these reasons – and many more – I smiled the widest of smiles all the
way through SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE, yet another rousingly triumphant and
aesthetically masterful stop motion animated film from Aardman, the same
animation studio that produced the brilliant WALLACE
AND GROMIT shorts and feature film from 10 years ago.
The film takes its inspiration from a TV series of the same name
that aired 130 episodes, all involving the titular character (a sheep) and
his madcap and wacky adventures on a small farm.
The most wonderful accolade I could bestow upon SHAUN THE SHEEP
MOVIE is that it lovingly preserves the sensation and feel of human
artists crafting every solitary minute of the film, something that can
certainly be felt in many animated films, to be sure.
Yet, here it’s just…different.
In SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE directors Richard Starzack and Mark Burton
not only intuitively understand how to mix the quintessential subversive
humor alongside some spirited tomfoolery that typifies Aardman’s past
work, but they also create a wondrous feast for the eyes that revels in
pure visual dynamism and innovation.
The more I became transfixed in the universe of this film the less
conscious I become of its impeccable artifice.
The world of the movie became my world for 85 minutes. SHAUN
THE SHEEP is about, yes, a sheep named Shaun.
He lives at the Mossy Bottom Farm in rural England, a farm that’s
populated by many an animal that exhibits some truly peculiar behavior…mostly
that they frequently behave – and even walk – like human beings.
Of course, most of these eccentric animal quirks are never noticed
by the farmer – known only as "Farmer" in the film – who takes great
pride in tending after every need of his beloved flock.
Farmer is assisted by Bitzer, a sheepdog that spends most of his
days keeping law and order on the farm, which is sometimes tricky, seeing
as the sometimes boisterous and inquisitive nature of the sheep is
complicated by also dealing with the farm's partying and unruly Naughty
Pigs and one opportunistic and shameless duck that will stop at nothing to
make a quick buck. Farmer and
Bitzer definitely have their hands full on a daily basis. Shaun
seems fairly happy with life on the farm…but something just feels off
about his daily grind there. He yearns for a life beyond the pastoral setting he seems
unavoidably stuck in, so he and some of his pals decide to break free of the
farm – utilizing a staggeringly complex escape plan, at least as far as
sheep are concerned – and leave without the Farmer or Bitzer being none
the wiser. Shaun and his
brethren do indeed bust out of the farm and end up in the “Big City",
but remaining incognito in a strange urban world populated by humans
proves to be daunting. Hilariously donning disguises that seem to miraculously allow
them to pass for humans, Shaun and his mates embark on a series of
adventures in the city, all while Farmer attempts to pursue and
reclaim them. Oh, he
accidentally develops amnesia in his pursuit, making his mission all the
more difficult. Making matters especially difficult for everyone is an
obsessively diehard animal containment officer that will do anything to
capture Shaun and his woolly friends. SHAUN
THE SHEEP is so wickedly absurd that it almost defies description.
Complimenting the endearing daftness of the whole enterprise is that
Starzack and Burton have ostensibly crafted a silent film. No human or animal characters speak English or any
discernable human language at all. They
essentially enunciate in a combination of mumbles, growls, and outright
gibberish, which provides the film with a whole added layer of comic
pathos. Now, maintaining a
sense of narrative momentum and pacing is decidedly difficult considering
that no one verbally communicates to one another in the film with
understandable or relatable words, but the makers here still manage to
evoke superbly rendered personalities for all of their respective
characters. They also do this
through some exemplarily executed physical comedy that neither feels forced nor too laid back. A large part of the enterprising creativity in SHAUN THE
SHEEP is how rich the character dynamics are here despite the utter lack
of dialogue. The
film’s overall humor is also quite sophisticated as far as family
animated films go, with plenty of individual scenes that reference films
that only adults will cheerfully understand and acknowledge (there’s
amusing visual odes to films as far ranging as THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS -
pun intended? - to CAPE FEAR). Beyond
the cinematic referencing, SHAUN THE SHEEP creates multiple moments of
sidesplitting merriment. I howled during one sequence as the sheep –
somewhat pathetically disguised as humans – attempt to dine at a posh
restaurant, but they fail to blend in when they begin munching on the
menus instead of the food. There’s
also a hysterical moment when Bitzer inadvertently finds himself in
surgical garb at a local hospital (don’t ask why or how) and nearly has
to perform surgery on a patient…that is until he’s distracted by
the delicious looking bones on a skeleton in the operating room.
Equally droll are a series of scenes inside an animal rescue
shelter, which comes off as a depraved prison filled with lunatic
animals that deeply disturb Shaun and company while incarcerated there.
One of the film’s best recurring sight gags involves one locked
up dog in a cell adjacent to Shaun that gives perhaps one of the most
disturbingly unflinching and funny staredowns I’ve seen in a movie.
He’s clearly been in there too long. Of course, SHAUN THE SHEEP lives and breathes on a level of its visual invention. The film’s technical artifice is staggering to behold. Starzack and Burton are not simply content with crafting adorably relatable creatures made out of clay here. They also fully realize a vast and sprawling metropolis that surrounds the film’s animal heroes that has an extraordinary level of minute detail. There’s something occurring in every corner of every frame in SHAUN THE SHEEP, leaving me in a state of perpetual awe and wonder as to the countless hours and sleepless nights that the film’s crackerjack artisans went through to see this film through to final fruition. I’ve read that WALLACE AND GROMIT: CURSE OF THE WERE RABBIT took over five years to make; when I watched that film I believed it. SHAUN THE SHEEP sort of astonishingly and improbably ups the ante of that film in terms of scale and scope. The film was not unconverted and presented in distracting 3D…a wise choice, to be sure. And why would it need to be? It’s essentially an animated film manufactured with three dimensional puppets and props. The sheer unlimited audacity of stop motion animation is in pondering the Herculean effort employed by the artists to achieve their end results. This can be felt all throughout SHAUN THE SHEEP, which joyously and enthusiastically mixes slapstick silliness, a gentle sentimentality, snappy pacing, and scrupulous artistic flair through and through. The film does careen towards an inevitable – if somewhat overlong and overdone – climax pitting Farmer and his flock against the seemingly unstoppable animal control agent that never seems to know when to quit, but by this point in the film I couldn’t care less. SHAUN THE SHEEP is so warm hearted, so playful, so wickedly funny, and so intrepid on a level of its technical artifice that nitpicky criticisms go away really fast. I’ve seen comedies featuring all human casts with less inspired laughs and unbridled creativity than what’s on display here. That’s what makes SHAUN THE SHEEP one of the more entertaining and enchanting animated films to emerge in a long time. |
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