PLOT: Shaun’s latest misadventure sees the residents of Mossy Bottom Farm looking forward to Halloween – until the clumsy Farmer trashes the Flock’s beloved pumpkin patch! When Shaun turns MAD SCIENTIST to fix the problem, things rapidly spiral out of control.
REVIEW: Just in time for the best and spookiest season of the year to begin, Shaun and his flock are back to cause the type of chaos at Mossy Bottom Farm that makes you grin from ear to ear. The latest stop-motion animated feature from the geniuses at Aardman leans into classic horror tropes, paying homage to works like Frankenstein, The Shining, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and more.
Directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker from a screenplay by Mark Burton and Giles Pilbrow, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a pillow sack filled with treats, adorable character interactions, and some of the silliest slapstick you’ll see this Halloween holiday. When the clumsy Farmer accidentally destroys the flock’s prized pumpkin patch mere days before Halloween, Shaun decides to take matters into his own hooves. With the help of a shockingly informative home science manual, Shaun channels his inner “mad scientist” to develop a growth serum with radical side effects.
Soon after Shaun uses his invention to grow new pumpkins overnight, the Farmer goes missing, and a mysterious, orange-haired creature starts roaming the nearby woods. To fix the hair-raising mess he helped create, Shaun, Bitzer, and the rest of the flock engage in a race against time to stop a pitchfork-wielding mob from lynching the Farmer and ruining the upcoming Halloween festivities.
Much like Aardman‘s Wallace & Gromit movies, the latest Shaun movie is a brilliant example of hand-crafted animation that, by its very nature, is leagues more impressive than any CGI-animated outing. Using stop-motion and time-lapse trickery, Aardman shares a hilarious and spirited holiday-themed adventure that’s got as much heart as it does unforgettable set pieces and side-splitting comedic sequences.
Using almost no dialogue, except for a series of grunts, bleats, and the occasional scream, Aardman lets the animation speak for itself with expressive characters, intricate details throughout the world, and gestures that let an audience easily fill in the blanks. It’s incredible what this studio can convey with no spoken dialogue to guide us through the story. The world and characters in The Beast of Mossy Bottom are so alive and well-represented that there’s no need to pump the brakes by telling the audience what’s happening through text or narration.
In addition to the film’s delightful animation, The Beast of Mossy Bottom features a delightful score by Natalie Holt (Loki, Obi-Wan Kenobi), and a selection of needle drops that made me pause the movie and shout to my wife, “The soundtrack in this movie is incredible! We need to watch this with the kids!” (meaning our niece and nephew, as we don’t have little ones of our own).
Another charming aspect of the film is the burgeoning relationship between the Farmer and the local vet. They’re clearly interested in one another, but act like ships passing in the night for most of the film. I hung on their every interaction, desperately wanting the Farmer to get his act together long enough to express his affection properly. His consistent bumbling is a tad maddening, I admit, but he’s a good dude. Plus, he comes by his clumsiness and self-consciousness earnestly, making him sympathetic, if a little frustrating.
Meanwhile, the vet is a total package. She’s intelligent, kind to animals, and dabbles in the field of cryptozoology! What’s not to love? I admire her patience with the Farmer’s antics. She’s a woman who knows what she likes, and apparently, the Farmer’s got more game than he gives himself credit for. People say there’s a lid for every pot. I’m rooting for them. It would be amazing if they appear in the next Shaun movie as an established couple. I’d like that.
The Beast at Mossy Bottom is a fantastic addition to Shaun’s library of feature films, with visual gags, outrageous mishaps, and shockingly sweet attempts at saving the day, more so than ever before in the franchise’s history. Halloween specials are rare in this day and age, making The Beast of Mossy Bottom a nostalgia-inducing romp that’s as exciting as trick-or-treating in a neighborhood that only passes out full candy bars. I could see this movie becoming a Halloween tradition for families who enjoy the painstaking artistry of stop-motion animation, barnyard buffoonery, and horror-coded Easter eggs that are fun for everyone to discover.
The post Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom Review: Aardman’s Stop-Motion Horror Parody Is a Halloween Classic in the Making appeared first on JoBlo.