SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE [2015] [Limited Edition SteelBook] [Blu-ray] [UK Release]
A Baa-rilliant Family Adventure! Aardman Animation At Their Best!
From Aardman Animation, and the creators of ‘Wallace & Gromit’ and ‘Chicken Run,’ and now brings us ‘SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE.’
Shaun is a clever, mischievous sheep who lives with his flock on Mossy Bottom Farm, under the nominal supervision of The Farmer. Despite Shaun's best efforts, life on the farm has got into a bit of a rut, and Shaun concocts a cunning plan – to have a day off. Events rapidly escalate out of control and Shaun's mischief inadvertently leads to the hapless farmer being taken away from the farm and into the Big City.
With the flock's help, Shaun must leave the farm for the first time in order to rescue The Farmer. But how will the sheep survive? Can they avoid being recognised as sheep and thus avoid the clutches of a fearsome animal catcher? In the course of an action-packed adventure they experience a host of wild and funny mishaps, as well as meeting new and interesting characters, including a little orphan dog called Slip who makes Shaun realise that having a home and a family is not something to be taken for granted.
Voice Cast: Justin Fletcher [Shaun/Timmy], John Sparkes [The Farmer/Bitzer], Omid Djalili [Trumper], Richard Webber [Shirley], Kate Harbour [Timmy's Mum/Meryl], Tim Hands [Slip], Andy Nyman [Nuts], Simon Greenall [Twins], Emma Tate [Hazel], Jack Paulson [Celebrity with Hair Trouble], Sean Connolly [Maitre D/Golfer/Stylists/Angry Panto Horse /Hospital Characters], Henry Burton [Junior Doctor/Animal Containment Visitor], Dhimant Vyas [Hospital Consultant], Sophie Laughton [Animal Containment Visitor], Nia Medi James [Operatic Sheep], Stanley Unwin [Bus Station Announcer /Hospital Announcer] (archive footage) and Nick Park (voice) (uncredited)
Directors: Mark Burton and Richard Starzak
Producers: Alicia Gold, Carla Shelley, David Sproxton, Julie Lockhart, Kerry Lock, Nick Park, Olivier Courson, Paul Kewley, Peter Lord, Ron Halpern and Sean Clarke
Screenplay: Mark Burton, Richard Starzak and Nick Park (character creations)
Composer: Ilan Eshkeri
Cinematography: Charles Copping and Dave Alex Riddett
Image Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English: 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio
English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Subtitles: English HOH
Running Time: 85 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: STUDIOCANAL / Aardman Animation
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: The big screen debut of Aardman Animations beloved TV character is a gloriously crackpot, silent comedy wonder. Everything is sheep shape in this cleverly off-kilter big-screen debut for Aardman Animations lovable farmyard adventurer. Only Aardman Animations, the British creators of Wallace & Gromit, Morph and other lovable “Claymation” moulded characters, could find an irresistible film in industrial amounts of clay and a story of an amnesiac farmer and his flock at loose in the big city.
Conventional wisdom may have it that sheep are supposedly the dumbest of all livestock, but the woolly ones wits get a collective sharpening in ‘SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE,’ a sweet-natured but cleverly off-kilter feature-length debut film for Aardman Animations and the plucky farmyard heros. Retaining the gentle, non-verbal comedy and daffy sight gags of the popular stop-motion TV series which itself is a loose spinoff from Aardman Animations cherished “Wallace and Gromit” franchise. Here we find Shaun and his flock on an urban “day out” escapade that is more expansive than their usual short-form animation on TV.
Originally introduced 20 years ago in the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit outing in ‘A Close Shave,’ but here the diminutive sheep Shaun has since headlined more than 100 miniature adventures for the small screen, each one cramming a complex degree of farce into a seven-minute running time, before returning affairs to a rustic status quo. In devising a feature narrative 12 times the length of any single episode, writer-directors Mark Burton and Richard Starzak have wisely kept a number of the series formal restrictions intact. Most cannily and crucially, the film remains dialogue-free, with the animals communicating solely through expression and gesture, while for example the human characters in something like the “Peanuts” franchise films and specials, that speak in unintelligible stupid gibberish.
The film opens with a tightly rhythmic montage and shot Super 8-style, illustrating the cheery daily grind at Mossy Bottom Farm, where the flock is tended by a balding, nameless human farmer and his bright, put-upon sheepdog Bitzer. As in every episode, the animals seek an escape from the mundane demands of farm labour, this time ingeniously sending the farmer to sleep via a live chain of fence-jumping. The snowballing sequence of mischief that follows sees him accidentally transported to the big city, London in all but name and losing his memory.
Naturally, it’s Shaun and his bleating entourage, ranging from super-sized ewe Shirley to helpless lamb Timmy to the rescue, though it’s not long before they require rescuing themselves, with their arrival in town triggering unwanted attention from animal containment services. By way of apparent homage, the pic is a happy reminder that the critical rehabilitation of ‘Babe: Pig in the City’ is complete. Meanwhile, their amnesia-afflicted master The Farmer has stumbled into an unlikely new career as a celebrity barber to moneyed urbanites: The current vogue for severely undercut hairstyles isn’t a world away from sheep-shearing, after all. Complete with jabs at social-media marketing, this is one of the film’s few extended jokes likely to go over the collective heads of very young adults, but it’s the kind of absurdly exaggerated everyday detail and complete with the repurposing of familiar gadgetry, on which Aardman Animations comic brand is built upon. Other in-built games for adults include spotting various throwaway references to considerably less family-oriented films, like ‘The Night of the Hunter’ and Scorsese’s ‘Cape Fear’ included.
The animation itself is pleasingly tactile and hand-posed, up to Aardman Animations usual high standards. If anything, the expressivity of the human characters impresses more than the animals', a reverse of the usual state of affairs in most animation. The backgrounds are richly detailed, peppered by the company's trademark shop-sign puns, while an impressive cast of extras wanders about in the street scenes. Visually, it all feels very much of a piece with the old-school, old-fashioned worldview that's part of Aardman Animations signature style, and the film is still an absolute delight in terms of set and character design, with sophisticated blink-and-you’ll-miss-it detailing to counterbalance the franchise’s cruder visual trademarks. For example, every sheep’s mouth still emerges sporadically from the side of its face; no wonder they never speak. Production designer Matt Perry deftly evokes the shifting, half-gentrified streetscape of London without resorting to obvious landmarks. Composer Ilan Eshkeri, taking a breather from scoring the more solemn films like ‘Still Alice’ and ‘The Invisible Woman,’ contributes suitably jangly accompaniment, though assorted pop contributions on the soundtrack don’t quite mesh with the wordless story world at hand. But an exception to the rule of course, is the Vic Reeves sung theme tune, here given a rascally makeover by British hip-hop duo, featuring tunes by Eliza Doolittle and Rizzle Kicks.
In a wider sense, as well as the more specific one of Shaun the sheep originating in the film ‘Wrong Trousers’ spin-off, this film represents Aardman Animations return to Wallace-and-Gromit of old style favourites, and a consolidation of the seemingly homespun wistfulness that the company clearly does so well. It’s just that when we settle down with some “Claymation” animal human shenanigans, finds ourselves marvelling at some intricately constructed contraption, or is momentarily diverted by a snicker-worthy shop sign; it’s the cinematic equivalent of the perfect cup of tea. But the amber glow of nostalgia doesn’t induce backward-looking sentiment on the part of Aardman Animations vision of contemporary England is generous, because it is inclusive and a very fast-moving film about Shaun a smart alec sheep can allow itself such grandiose ambitions and is genuinely very inspiring.
‘SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE’ incidentally, marks the first collaboration between STUDIOCANAL and Aardman Animations, whose past couple of features were financed and distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE MUSIC TRACK LIST
FEELS LIKE SUMMER (Written by Ilan Eshkeri, Nick Hodgson and Tim Wheeler) [Performed by Tim Wheeler]
SHAUN THE SHEEP (Life's A Treat) (Written by Mark Thomas) [Performed by Mark Thomas and Vic Reeves]
SEARCH FOR THE HERO (Written by Paul Heard and Michael Pickering) [Performed by M People]
ROCKS (Written by Bobby Gillespie, Robert Young and Andrew Innes) [Performed by Primal Scream]
MORE WHEELS CHA CHA (Written by Norman Petty, Richard Stephens and Jimmy Torres) [Performed by Kirsty Whalley]
BIG CITY (Written by Ilan Eshkeri and Nick Hodgson) [Performed by Eliza Doolittle]
STRANGE ADAGIO FOR BARBERS (Written by John Matthews & Stuart Bruce) [Performed by John Matthews & Stuart Bruce]
BAD TO THE BONE (Written by George Thorogood) [Performed by George Thorogood & The Destroyers]
I'M A WONDERFUL THING, BABY (Written by Kid Creole and Peter Schott) [Performed by Kid Creole and The Coconuts]
HOME (Written by Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Christopher Shiflett and Nate Mendel) [Performed by Foo Fighters]
AMAZING ADVENTURES OF MORPH (Written by Andy Clark) [Performed by Andy Clark]
HOUSE OF FUN (Written by Michael Barson and Lee Thompson) [Performed by Madness]
SHAUN THE SHEEP (Life's A Treat) (Rizzle Kicks Remix) (Written by Mark Thomas, Jordan Stephens, Harley Sylvester and Ben Cullum) [Performed by Mark Thomas, Vic Reeves and Rizzle Kicks]
Mazurkas, Op.7 in F minor (Written by Frédéric Chopin)
Waltz No.1 Op.18 (Written by Frédéric Chopin) [Performed by Artur Rubinstein]
Blu-ray Image Quality – STUDIOCANAL and Aardman Animations, presents a fantastic 1.85:1 aspect ratio and a brilliant awesome 1080p sparkling image presentation. The film was shot digitally and especially in the brilliant “Claymation” stop motion filming, and the detail is totally incredible and really reveals how intricate the models and sets all look. The characters themselves are extremely well made, and especially the wool of the sheep, the patterns on the clothing, facial expressions, eyes and water for example. The sets are just totally sublime, from the brickwork to foliage, from road paintings to muddy tracks, from caravan interiors to open fields; which makes everything look pin sharp and beautifully textured. The colours are just brilliantly, especially all the primary colours coming off really well and notably the reds are bold, greens are lush and blues really cool. Digitally there were no problems or any edge enhancement, no smearing, or banding and being digital, so all in all it has a totally excellent picture image quality. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – STUDIOCANAL and Aardman Animations, gives you two excellent audio choices, which consist of 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound mix or the 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio, but of course it is best advice is to stick with surround sound mix. The surround sound mix is totally brilliantly and fantastic, especially with all the action where everything matches what you view of the screen action exactly matches the surround field, so making it totally stunning. Stereo effects comes thick and fast, especially with the sheep moving across the screen to wide open areas of the city scape, buses, cars, motorcycles and crowd chatter providing just some of the effects. There is no dialogue to the film, but the various noises that the characters make are quite natural sounding and are given plenty of directionality when called for. The music score is of the very high standard in the mix and gets some very wide separation, so making full use of the surround speakers, which is in near on constant use for ambient effects. Bass is very well integrated into the mix, and there are a few nice low frequency effects, but it never really goes subterranean, not that it needed to. On the whole this is a totally and very satisfying sound track.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Behind The Scenes [2015] [1080p] [1.78:1] [12:14] With this special feature, it is split up into different sections and they are as follows: SCRIPT WRITING; STORY; MODEL MAKING; SET BUILDING; ANIMATING; VOICE RECORDING; MUSIC and FINAL CUT. At the start of this very nice feature, we first meet Richard Starzak [Co-writer/Director] and Mark Burton [Co-writer/Director] who are trying to put together a script and we just have music in the background to set the scene and we also see them on the Aardman Animations studio. Next up is Peter Lord [Executive Producer] who talks about the loveable character of Shaun the Sheep and why everyone loves this cheeky animal. Next up is Nick Park [Creator of Shaun the Sheep] and talks extensively about what happens on the farm, that no one would normally see what the animals get up to when no humans are about, especially the sheep. As you know that we have loved all the short BBC TV episodes of “Shaun the Sheep,” well Aardman Animations thought it would be totally brilliant to expand Shaun the Sheep into a big super movie. Next up is Julie Lockhart [Producer] and talks about the idea of having Shaun the Sheep wanting to get away from the farm, but Julie says, “Be careful what you wish for.” They also say that they feel Shaun the Sheep is like a 12 year old youngster and wanting to really push the boundaries, but we also get people talking about the other characters that appear in the film, especially the stray animals and especially the dog catcher, who acts like he is still in the SAS, and Paul Kewley [Producer] goes into more detail about the character of the dog catcher and why his character acts like a real mean machine, who eventually gets his comeuppence. Next up is Nigel Leach [Senior Model Maker] talks in length about the “Claymation” sheep models and we also get to see some really beautiful colourful sketches of the characters in the film. Next up is Will Becher [Key Character Animator] who talks and demonstrates how they make the models move and is helped with viewing several small film clips of the demo animation of Shaun the Sheep all dressed up. Other contributors we get to see talk about ‘SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE’ and the process that goes into making the film are Lloyd Price [Head of Animation], Matt Perry [Art Director], Helen Javes [Senior Set Dresser], Mathew Healey [Senior Prop Maker], Justin Fletcher [Voice of Shaun the Sheep] and Ilan Eshkeri [Composer]. So all in all, this is a totally brilliant special feature and well worth viewing.
Special Feature: Meet The Characters [2015] [1080p] [1.78:1] [3:51] With this special feature, it is split up into different sections, that are as follows: SHAUN; SLIP; TIMMY and TRUMPER, the main characters in the “Claymation” Aardman Animation film. What is really nice about this feature, is that some of the people who worked on the animation film, talk with great affection about all the “Claymation” characters mentioned above and we get lots of extensive film clips from ‘SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE,’ and especially the four characters in action. Again this is quite a nice little feature and a joy to watch.
Special Feature: Join Shaun Behind The Scenes [2015] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:26] Here we meet two of the crew in a look at behind-the-scenes, and they are Andy Symanowski [Animator] and Ellie Watson [Model Maker] who talk extensively about their particular tasks in dealing with the “Claymation” models. We also get to see some cheeky and very funny animation of Shaun the Sheep in action that is a joy to watch and this is where this nice little special feature ends and is a joy to watch.
Special Feature: Meet The Crew [2015] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:58] With this special feature we get to meet the people who was featured in the previous special feature “Behind The Scene,” but with some very clever extra animation and we get to hear about the premise of the story for the Aardman Animation film ‘SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE.’ Once again we meet Julie Lockhart [Producer] who talks about the cheeky character Shaun the Sheep, but this time you get to see Shaun the Sheep in the background, doing a bit of animation and larking about. Next up is Mark Burton [Co-writer/Director] talks about the introduction of new characters Slip the dog, but this time we get to see Slip the dog wandering around behind Mark Burton. Next up is Paul Kewley [Producer] talking about his contribution of introducing new character to the film in the name of Trumper the containment officer, and talks extensively about the character Trumper, and again in the background we get to see Slip the dog trying to catch a fly. Next up is Richard Starzak [Co-writer/Director] who talks about why the audiences will love to watch the animated film ‘SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE’ and again in the background we get to see The Farmer with his headphones on doing a sort of dance, like Dad’s do at weddings and you know what I mean. Next up is Will Becher [Key Character Animator] talks about why he likes animating Shaun the Sheep, plus of course all the other sheep in the film, because he loves the visuals, especially in making them do random things that would not happen in real life, also the fact there is no dialogue, so can be viewed around the world without subtitles, so has to be visually over the top action and once again we get to see in the background Shaun the Sheep and Bitzer [the famers dog] dancing together, but only in a fleeting appearance and is quite amusing. So to sum up, this particular special feature, what I liked about it, is the addition of the “Claymation” characters being included, a really nice touch and just shows you why Aardman Animations is so professional in their outlook and well worth a view.
Sneak Previews: ‘Paddington’ [2014] [1080p] [2.35:1] [2:28]; ‘The House of Magic’ [2014] [1080p] [1.85:1] [1:46] and ‘The Tale of The Princess Kaguya’ [2013] [1080p] [1.85:1] [1:56].
Finally, anyone who has seen the Shaun the Sheep BBC TV animations will have a very good idea on what to expect from this brilliant “Claymation” Aardman Animations film, because it is totally top notch, the screenplay is really spot on, as well as being extremely funny animated film, and it is also of course very entertaining. What may surprise you is the amount of emotion that these simple stop motion “Claymation” puppets can produce. The story of Shaun and his fellow sheep trying to rescue the Farmer who is trapped in the city with no memory becomes a heart-wrenching struggle for the sheep as they are thwarted at nearly every turn of the situation of their own making or the machinations of Trumper. The jokes come thick and fast, most of them one-gag in style, some of them are slap-stick and others aimed at the adults, making this an extremely enjoyable “Claymation” film on many levels. The emotional core of Shaun’s dependence on the Farmer really pulls on the heartstrings; the climactic scene in the shed when the Farmer's memory is still unclear, cannot fail to bring a lump to your throat. And when Shaun thinks all is lost and those animated eyes well up, you’d need a heart of stone not to feel the same. With the top notch “Claymation,” it is totally witty and a very sharp script full to the brim with gags and an emotional core of love and dependence makes this “Claymation” animation film truly a winner. Aardman Animations have proven time and again they are a unique professional powerhouse in both animation and story-telling and ‘SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE’ is just another in their long line of brilliant successes. As a Blu-ray, the set from STUDIOCANAL and Aardman Animations is pretty decent; the picture is stunning in its representation, especially the bright colours, totally incredible detail and wonderful depth, while the sound is fantastic in its surround sound environment. On the whole the “Claymation” animation film will win your heart and emotions so making it a terrific one to own and I am so happy to add this to my other Aardman Animations Blu-ray Collection, because Nick Park is an absolute total genius, as is also all of the crew who worked behind-the-scene. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
