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Overall
The kind folks at Amazon Prime Instant Video invited me and Georgia down to the European Première of the Shaun the Sheep Movie to strut down the green carpet and watch Shaun’s first big screen outing. G bought one of her school friends along for the experience, and I dragged my big/little sister Laura there too for a bit of adult company.
Hosted by Vue on Leicester Square in the heart of London, Shaun and his flock came to the Big City to spread a little country charm across one of London’s landmarks, along with a massive Shaun the Sheep branded double-decker. Before the doors opened we had plenty of time to take some pictures and mess around on the Green Carpet, Georgia and her friend were particularly star-struck to see Rizzle Kicks belting out a few tunes. According to the Daily Mail a whole host of celebs were in attendance, including Ed Sheeran and Andy Serkis (off of Gollum), it was also lovely to bump into the lovely Vicki from Honest Mum who we’d met at the Paddington Première last year.
After a short introduction from some of the team behind the movie, the film kicked off.
The story behind the film is pretty simple, Shaun’s owner (The Farmer) ends up with amnesia in the Big City and Shaun, Timmy, Bitzer and the rest of the crew venture out of the safety of the farm to rescue him. Along the way they meet the evil ‘Trumper’ who is desperate to capture the farmyard friends.
I love Aardman animations – I really do – they’ve made me smile for years, and I’m a massive nerd of their output – it’s all so wonderfully British and kitch – I love seeing the little imperfections in the clay, fingerprints flashing in the finely crafted models. There’s nothing flash and whizzy about how it looks, it’s all so simple and fun.
Thankfully the Shaun the Sheep Movie sticks with the classic Aardman claymation formula, and is a fun packed 85 minutes. The film is voiced by a range of people, including Justin Fletcher and Omid Djalili, there’s actually very little in the way of ‘speaking’, it’s all noises and grunts. Despite this you can actually ‘hear’ what is being said – I guess a bit like Sweep from The Sooty Show.
The plot is fairly simple and predictable, and simple enough for even the tiniest of children to follow and enjoy, with a few little visual gags to make the grown ups smile. I’m not entirely sure if it would hold James’ for the whole time, and thankfully the elements of ‘peril’ in the film aren’t so perilous that it would upset a little one.
It’s probably not my favourite Aardman big screen outing that I’ve seen, but it really is worth a watch if you’ve got little ones, it possibly doesn’t have the ‘grown up’ appeal that Wallace and Gromit have, but it’s all good fun nevertheless. With half term fast approaching, I’d thoroughly recommend taking your flock to see the Shaun the Sheep Movie.
NB – Amazon Prime Instant Video gifted me tickets to the European Première of the Shaun the Sheep Movie, I’ve not been asked to review it, or write about it, but thought I’d share my experience!
