Something scary is going on in Mossy Bottom.
Coming on Sept. 18, Shaun the mischievous sheep is heading to the big screen for his third feature-length film, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. It begins with Shaun and his fellow sheep preparing for Halloween. All is going well, except the farm’s pumpkin patch growth is less promising than expected. Shaun, always taking the most extreme measures to help his flock, decides to turn to (mad) science and creates a growth formula which, among other things, includes some hair growth tonic. While it helps the pumpkins, Shaun and the other farm animals suddenly have a much bigger problem as a hairy beast begins terrorizing the farm.
Made by stop-motion studio Aardman, of Wallace and Gromit fame, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom delivers a fun, fast-paced, family-friendly adventure which, just like Shaun’s other adventures, is entirely without dialogue. According to directors Matthew Walker and Steve Cox, both of whom previously worked on the Shaun the Sheep TV series, that is perhaps the biggest challenge in the making of a Shaun the Sheep feature-length movie.
“Because there’s no dialogue, of course, you really have to understand what Shaun’s thinking or what he’s intending to do,” Cox tells Polygon.
Here, Walker and Cox talk about the development of Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom and the unique challenges of putting Shaun on the big screen, versus the small screen.
How did this film come about?
Matthew Walker: It originally started as a half-hour special. This was a while before Steve and I became involved, but I think the original plan was as a Valentine’s Day special. There was this idea around the farmer in this relationship. The monster aspect was there and that monster idea started to grow. At some point it was decided this could be a Halloween special. That was roughly around the time when Steve and I became involved. We immediately had so many ideas, and the story just kept growing. There came a point where we realized this is too much story for a half-hour special. We decided this could really work as a feature.
It felt so well-suited to being Shaun’s next adventure. We did the sci-fi genre in the last film and we wanted to do an entirely different genre this time.
an we talk about the inspirations for the movie? I mean, Frankenstein and Wolfman jump out at me, but are there other ones that helped inform the movie?
Walker: Those were the immediate, initial inspirations — Hammer horror and Universal Monsters — those kinds of classic horror movies. It all started with those classic horror tropes, like, the mad scientist, the monster, the angry mob. As it expanded, so many other influences went into it. We also looked at all the movies we grew up with from the 80s and 90s, like John Carpenter movies, Spielberg movies. Not just horror movies, all these influences kind of ended up in the mix.
Steve Cox: All the tropes that are available throughout the history of horror films, we kind of picked out our favorites. We wanted a home invasion, we wanted like An American Werewolf in London scene, where he kind of goes chaotic in town with cars crashing and stuff. We wanted a jump scare in a mirror, we wanted all these things. It’s like going shopping and picking up all these great ideas.
You guys worked on the television show prior to this. What are the big differences in directing Shaun the Sheep for a seven-minute episode versus an 80-minute movie?
Cox: Holding the whole story in your head is a massive one. The seven-minute episodes are based around a gag, so you know exactly where you’re going with those things. But to weave in these emotional stories, these nice, long, slow-burn arcs for all the characters, and to have them pay off in a satisfying way, that’s one of the trickiest elements of it. We spent a lot of time with the writers, Mark Burton and Giles Pilbrow. We were lucky enough to spend all this time in pre-production getting the story just right, so it felt like it was an authentic, emotional story.
Is there anything different about the animation process itself when dealing with a feature, other than it takes longer?
Cox: The nuanced acting is one of the big ones. We have our real, key animators who really hone those close-up shots, get those eyes just thinking, and because there’s no dialogue, of course, you really have to understand what Shaun’s thinking or what he’s intending to do. Our animators are like top Hollywood actors in our minds. They’re able to deliver a story and deliver those emotions really well. That’s not as important in a series, but here, we’ve got a nice emotional story where you need to feel those feelings of the characters.