Today's Review: Shaun The Sheep The Movie

I can't say I've watched many episodes of Shaun The Sheep, but I certainly have a soft spot for Aardman, so while I didn't jump at the chance to catch the Shaun The Sheep movie, I certainly didn't mind giving it a go. The movie follows the eponymous Shaun, who is fed up of his daily routine on the farm and fancies a holiday. After lulling the farmer to sleep, an unfortunate turn of events sees the head of the farm hurtling towards town trapped in a caravan, as you do. So it's up to Shaun to head off and rescue the farmer, with some help from Bitzer the dog and the rest of the flock.

The plot is pretty thin on the ground, and this movie does rely on several wedged in scenes to pad out the running time and provide some slapstick comedy. For the most part it works quite well, but it's pretty obvious that the storyline isn't all that. Still, I didn't leave the cinema feeling cheated, there was enough content to keep me interested, and it's certainly not overly long, so I didn't get bored.

The thing that might put some people off is the fact that there's no dialogue at all, much like the TV series. But hey, when Wall-E didn't have dialogue for its entire first act critics were singing from the rooftops, so surely an entire movie like that is even better? Well, actually, it's all done very well. There are a good many bleats from the sheep, and mumbles from the human characters, and while they do go someway to establishing emotions and plot points, the movie relies a lot on its visuals, which are impeccably presented. This is done in the good old traditional Aardman style, and everything looks great. The movie relies a lot on visual gags, which are present in spades, and they certainly gave me a good few chuckles while watching.

Shaun The Sheep is a solid family movie. Kids of all ages should be able to enjoy it, with its striking visuals that clearly communicate the plot and provide some pretty decent comedy. It may not be the best movie on this half term (*cough* Big Hero 6 *cough*) but you can't go wrong with this one.

My rating: 4/5