Deprecated: mb_convert_encoding(): Handling HTML entities via mbstring is deprecated; use htmlspecialchars, htmlentities, or mb_encode_numericentity/mb_decode_numericentity instead in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/super-cool-ad-inserter/inc/scaip-shortcode-inserter.php on line 37
Starting as a supporting character on Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep is the latest Aardman stop-motion creation to get the feature-length treatment, here co-directed by Mark Burton and Richard Starzak. Like much of the production house’s work, Shaun’s world is a place of bucolic farms, doughy human forms and mild mischief. Cut together as a series of near-silent vignettes, the film follows Shaun and his flock venturing into the big city to find their farmer/owner and bring him home, while eluding a cranky animal-control worker. The film aims for that kids’-movie-with-jokes-for-adults appeal and hits a few of those marks, but it feels like territory better covered by Aardman’s earlier work or any of Pixar’s golden-era output. Save for the entertaining non-verbal communication of all characters both ovine and human, Shaun is a bit too mild for its own good.
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2015.
