A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon Review

Aardman Animations is a studio that flies the flag for British animation. One of the most famous and popular characters is Shaun the Sheep and the woolly creature gets a second feature film. This time his adventure has an extra-terrestrial twist.

There are strange events happening in the small English town of Mossy Bottom. A UFO has been sited, resulting in tourists coming in their droves and the Ministry of Alien Detection starting an investigate. Shaun the Sheep finds the alien, Lu-La on the farm. After some hijacks Shaun sets out to help Lu-La find her spaceship and return. Farmer John uses the influx of tourists as part of a get rich quick scheme.

Shaun the Sheep first appeared in the third Wallace and Gromit short A Close Shave. Wallace and Gromit was a series combining quaint British sense-of-humour with wacky adventures. A Close Shave was a story featuring an automated wool machine and an evil robot dog. Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon returns to this combination because the film was basically E.T. set in a small English town.

Aardman are masters at mixing subtle and shy humour with a big story and an emotional core. They are the British version of Pixar. Farmageddon continues this tread for the animation house. The film opens with light-hearted shenanigans, both with Shaun and his flock trying to have fun whilst Bitzer the Dog tries the stop. And Shaun and Lu-La get up to mischief on the farm and in the town. Then there was a gut punch when it’s revealed who Lu-La really was, giving the film both its heart and urgency.

When Shaun the Sheep got his own TV show it was a series of seven minutes shorts. Due to the characters not speaking the show released on physical and visual humour that worked in short sharp bursts. It would be a challenge to extend this style of humour for a feature film, let alone two, but the makers of Shaun the Sheep manage this. Farmageddon was really charming because of the visual and slapstick humour – I personally laughed quite a bit at the film. And since the film was non-verbal means that the film could be understood by non-English speaking audiences. It’s the same reason why silent comedy films were universally loved.

This non-verbal approach did have some risks. It’s hard to tell a story without dialogue, hence why it’s usually reserved for short stories. Even though Farmageddon was only 86 minutes it felt stretched at time with the film relying sometimes on pop-songs and montages.

As fans would expect from an Aardman production there were a lot of subtle jokes in the background and Easter Eggs. It showed great attention to detail by the animators and would make future viewings rewarding just so you can see what jokes you missed the first time around.

For the adults in the audience, there were references to some big sci-fi properties. The most obvious was E.T. As well as Farmageddon‘s story being like E.T. the early interactions between the Shaun and Lu-La were like what happened between Elliott and E.T. Shaun draws Lu-La out with throwing bits of food and Lu-La and E.T. both had a love for junk food.

2001: A Space Odyssey was also referenced heavily with more of the big laugh out moments was how Farmageddon was able to turn a small event into something epic. There were also a few references to Doctor Who which were fun to see.

Farmageddon was a short and sweet film that the whole family can enjoy.