Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom

When times are tough, it’s always a comfort to know that somewhere in England’s west country a handful of animation geniuses are giving themselves backache crafting another wholesome stop-motion treat. And Aardman’s creations don’t come much more wholesome (or west country) than Shaun the Sheep, the adorable ruminant who first popped up in A Close Shave and is now onto his third – and funniest – big-screen outing. The little fella is on a solo tour that I, for one, hope never ends.   

The Beast of Mossy Bottom has Shaun turning mad professor in the full Young Frankenstein mode. The Farmer has unwittingly stomped all over the flock’s prized pumpkin patch and Shaun has developed a quick-grow potion to return their veggies to their original state. One bottle-swap mix-up later and the Farmer is sprouting hairs in all directions and Mossingham has its own Bigfoot on the loose. 

There’s a real genius to this kind of wordless storytelling

Shaun creator Nick Park has long since vacated the director’s chair, and here the studio’s animators Steve Cox and Matt Walker fling sight gags, car chases, movie references, classic Aardman puns, and obscure references to overcomplicated British parking regulations at the screen almost as fast as you can absorb them. The hit rate is as high as you’d expect, bearing in mind it takes about a week to animate each one of them. Any kids in the audience will be left with the best kind of grounding in classic horror movies, including a Psycho shower-scene reference that will take some explaining afterwards, and a Night of the Living Dead nod that has no business working this well in a U-rated animation. For the oldies in the house, there’s Wombles and baldness jokes to instil joy (and anxiety).

As per Shaun the Sheep’s house style, there’s no dialogue but instead a delightful array of ‘mehehehehe!’s and ‘eeee-hhhh?’s delivered by the OG voice cast of Justin Fletcher (Shaun) and John Sparkes (the Farmer), as well as Paul Whitehouse (the Shopkeeper) and Nina Sosanya (the Vet). There’s a real genius to this kind of wordless storytelling. Aardman makes it look easy.

In UK and Ireland cinemas now.