Today's Review: Shaun the Sheep Movie

Another review up!:

Shaun het Schaap: de Film - recensie

A great stop motion film for the whole family this turned out to be. Would you have expected anything different from Aardman? I certainly didn't and I'm glad the finest stop motion studio in the world once again hit its mark. I'm ashamed to admit I've never seen any of the episodes from Shaun's own television show, so all I knew him from was his debut in the terrific original Wallace & Gromuit short A Close Shave (1995). It's amazing how little Shaun appears to have changed since we first met him 20 years ago. He looks largely the same, doesn't talk and is still the smartest sheep around. I like how Aardman sticks to its all too British roots and knows beter than to needlessly update their own characters to modern times. Both the studio's characters and its masterful level of craftsmanship and the quality that comes with it, remain a beacon of stability and tranquility in this troubled world of ours. And if that isn't enough to convince young and old alike to take the trip to theaters, the lack of dialogue which prohibits the usual exasperatingly obnoxious Dutch dubbing process is thrown in as a bonus. I just wish they could have dropped that annoying rap song that runs over the end credits. And yes, there's some bonus footage shown after those.

Now for Shaun's TV show. All 130 episodes... It's Aardman, so I don't mind at all!

Chicken Run

 Rating: ****/*****, or 8/10

First full length feature film from the much beloved and critically acclaimed British Aardman Animations studio, which specializes in traditional claymation and stop motion animation (though the studio has since also made a foray into digital animation, to lesser appeal). Applying an otherwise rather grim story concerning the horrors of the bio-industry with the much needed levity via typical British humor, as Aardman did to great success before on their various Wallace & Gromit shorts, Chicken Run is both an hommage to classic escape films like Stalag 17 and The Great Escape and a very fun family film all ages can easily enjoy. On Mrs. Tweedy's chicken farm, a brutal regime rules the lives of a group of chicks who desperately want out and keep coming up with one bizarre escape attempt after another. All of these fail, but things brighten up when an American rooster (voiced by Mel Gibson) from a circus crashes the place one day. However, the opportunist cock may not be the much desired ticket out of the chicks' dreadful confinement. Though Chicken Run won a fair amount of prizes it was sadly snubbed at the Academy Awards. Aardman made sure this blatant oversight was corrected when the even funnier Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit took home the much deserved trophy five years later.

Starring: Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Miranda Richardson

Directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park

UK: Aardman Animations, 2000