Shaun the Sheep review

2015’s 5th (in North America) and 1st (in Europe) film.

http://cinema.solarmovie.ph/link/play/5814484/

My opinion right after watching film

My opinion right after watching the film is eh. I have never been much of a fan of Aardman’s work, so a lot of their product does not really evoke much emotion out of me.

Production

So in early 2011, Aardman decided to greenlit a film based off of the Shaun the Sheep series, for a 2013/2014 release date. It started a majority of its production in 2014, and the release date was pushed back to March 2015 in Britain, only to be pushed forward an extra few weeks. There is nothing else about the production of this film.

Story

To begin this, the story starts with a farmer (John Sparkles) doing his day by day routine with his farm and the animals, which gets tiring for Shauna the Sheep (Justin Fletcher). After seeing an ad on TV, he devises a plan with the other sheep to trick the farmer into going to sleep (the typical trick of countless sheep passing by), so they can all have a day off from the farm. The sheep ended up shipping off the farmer in a trailer, which they easily lose control over.

So as you can see, the main plot is trying to get the farmer back, as he rolls into the city. We will see a bunch of slapstick, chase scenes, and all the other typical stuff. The unnamed farmer wakes up, and is then taken to the hospital, while the other animals are partying. Doctors at the hospital diagnosed the man as suffering from memory loss.

The animals sneak onto a bus to head towards London, but are soon briefly introduced to our antagonist of the film, named Trumper (Omid Djalili), who works for animal control. He sees a sheep hairball, and is determined to find them. He enters the store, only to see the sheep disguised as humans. Unnamed farmer decides to escape the hospital, thinking that the doctor was going to hammer a nail into him, which the disguised sheep see, and causes them to follow him.

I am just going to say it right now. This is going to e an extremely short review because the plot is extremely thin, and the review is even harder to write because none of the characters speak in it whatsoever, outside of a few noises and expressions.

Right when I was about to need a respirator to continue this review, Trumper decides to capture Shaun the Sheep.

We get some filler of the farmer cutting someone’s hair, thinking it was a sheep, and becoming a cult-like hairstylist. He ends up becoming famous, posing for various magazines, while the main animas in jail escape to rejoin the others. The animals return to their farmer (who is now a hairstylist),who not only does not recognize the,, but shoos them off pretty harshly.

The farmer was looking at his paper, only to crunch it, which ended up flying over to where the sheep are. They read it (the medical diagnosis paper), and learn that he is suffering from memory loss.

The sheep kidnap the farmer, and try to revamp the scenario which caused him to lose his memory in the first place. Along the way, Trmper sees the sheep, and is more than determined to kill them, following them to a ridiculous point.

Honestly, I cannot handle this anymore. Trumper turns into a maniac, the farmer somehow regains his memory, and with his help, the sheep defeat Trumper. Trumper is forced to work as a costume chicken for a restaurant, the animal control service turns into an animal protection centre, and the farm returns without a daily schedule.

Oh my goodness, what a chore it was to get through this film. Some might think It is just because it is an Aardman film, but even the others were not this boring and static to sit through. The plot is very basic, there is not much characters, but the message to appreciate what you have is decent enough. This film is literally mediocre. I cannot even care enough to rant about it.

Characters

You know, I usually discuss each major character in depth using pictures and commenting under the captions, with the exception of a packaged film. This film is the exception to that rule I set for my reviews, simply because there is nothing there for me to discuss. I do not feel like it because there is nothing to them either way. Very flat and dull, and not even to the point where I can rip them apart. They were not horrible characters, or great characters. The villain is as basic as he can be, the sheep are optimistic, productive sheep, and the farmer is a blank slate.

Animation

What I will say is that the animation in this film is really well. Sure, it looks like all other Aardman films, but what they do good is what they excel at, which applies to their animation. The backgrounds had a lot more effort put into it than other films I have noticed.

Music

I actually kind of like the music. There is a British theme to it, and it was very optimistic when the scene called for it. It carried through adventure scenes pretty well, and outside of bringing some excitement in the movie, it was not that memorable. Good enough for what it is.

Reception at Release

When the film was released on February 6th, 2015 in the UK, and  in North America, August 5th, it made about $19.1 million domestically (for North America), and about $60 million overseas, it added up to a total of $83,475,982.

It received critical praise upon its release, despite many saying it is not the best of Aaardman’s work. A lot said that it had the good things that Aardman adds toe very film, had goo charm, a nice story, and the typical stuff that is always said.

Final Score

Story: 6.5/10

Characters: 5/10

Animation: 8/10

Music: 7/10

= 26.5/40 =66%

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