Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom review

SHAUN THE SHEEP: THE BEAST OF MOSSY BOTTOM: 

A SPOOKY TREAT FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

GKIDS

Shaun and friends are back in Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom.

 

            The lovable sheep returns for a new adventure in Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, the latest film from Aardman Animations and the third movie based on the Shaun the Sheep franchise. For those of you who don’t know, Shaun the Sheep actually originated from the 1995 Wallace & Gromit short film, A Close Shave, which saw the titular characters rescuing a herd of sheep from a sheep-rustling operation. 

            This led to the character getting his own spin-off show in 2007 and three feature films, with Shaun the Sheep Movie being released in 2015. I really like the first Shaun the Sheep movie, though I wouldn’t say it’s on the same pedestal as Wallace & Gromit or the first Chicken Run, but it’s a very charming movie for both kids and adults with a ton of visual humor that appeals to both and plenty of heart. 

            The second Shaun the Sheep movie, Farmageddon,n which had a difficult release history, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ic I finally watched for the first time on Netflix and found it hilarious, with a lot of callbacks to science fiction and alien invasion movies and shows like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Doctor Who. It might actually be my favorite of the Shaun the Sheep movies; it made me laugh hard. 

            Now we have this third movie released in theaters, making it the first Aardman feature to get a wide theatrical release since Early Man in 2018. I didn’t really have any expectations going into this one and only saw the trailer once in theaters, but I found the first film very charming and the second one after finally watching that one, s, I gave it a shot and…yeah, it’s really good. 

            I personally consider this the weakest of the Shaun the Sheep movies in terms of story, as it is very derivative of other movies,s even another Aardman film, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which I’ll get into in a moment. But I was still laughing often and charmed by the characters even if the dialogue just consisted of animal noises and gibberish from the humans. 

            The film follows Shaun (voiced by Justin Fletcher) and his sheep friends at the Mossy Bottom farm getting their pumpkins ready for Halloween. But when the pumpkin patch is accidentally destroyed by their clumsy Farmer (voiced by John Sparkes), they turn to mad science in hopes of regrowing them via a growth potion inside a Hair Growth bottle. 

            However, the Farmer obtains the bottle containing the potion and lathers it over his bald spot; Shaun and the animals unintentionally transform him into a giant, hairy monster and have to race through the town to change him back with the help of a veterinarian (voiced by Nina Sosanya-Teachers, Last Tango in Halifax, Good Omens) whom the Farmer has a crush on. 

            Overall, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom isn’t giving Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit a run for its money anytime soon, but it’s a spooky Halloween treat in its own right that both kids and adults will find something to enjoy. The movie is essentially a satire of classic Universal Monster movies, most notably Frankenstein and The Wolf Man, with some nods to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho among a few others, and they’re all done well and get big laughs. 

            The plot is very derivative of the first Wallace & Gromit movie where the main human character accidentally transforms into a monster, the townsfolk want to catch him, and the animal(s) have to race to turn him back. There’s even a big event that said human is trying to attend; in Wallace & Gromit’s case, it was a vegetable competition, and in this movie, it’s a Halloween Hoedown, but the humor and heart are what carry it. 

            As mentioned before, the film continues the trend of not having any of the characters speak actual dialogue, with it consisting of animal noises, grunts, and gibberish, so the characters and their personalities come out through the animation, which is very unique, especially for a modern animated movie aimed at children. The Shaun the Sheep movies are almost like a return to silent cinema à la Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, with a lot of reliance on visual storytelling and slapstick,k and in these films’ case, done with stop-motion animation. 

            Speaking of which, the comedy is very funny, with solid comedic timing and humor that ranges from visual gags to slapstick. For a movie that’s mostly for kids, I found myself laughing hard quite a bit,t with some of my favorites being a scene where the Vet thinks the transformed Farmer is Bigfoot and looks on a map to find Bigfoot Island, which is literally in the shape of a giant foot that’s also across from another island shaped like a hand pointing,g called Big Hand Island; another scene where a car on a foggy road accidentally hits a sign that reads “Fog”, and the climax where an angry mob uses Halloween props from a costume store to chase the Beast.

            The silliness is also balanced out with a ton of heart, with a cute little romance between the Farmer and the Vet and,d of course, the family dynamic between the Farmer and his sheep. The characters are as simple as you could get, but there is a lot of sweetness to them amidst all the wacky chaos. 

            Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is an entertaining Aardman feature and a good entry point for children to get into horror without it ever trying to actively scare them. It’s spooky, silly, and bursting with charm,r m and not once does it feel like it’s pandering or talking down to its audience;ce, definitely a good family watch for Halloween if the wee ones are too young for Resident Evil.