| Shaun the Sheep Movie | |
|---|---|
 British theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | |
| Written by |
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| Based on | Shaun the Sheep byNick Park and Bob Baker |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography |
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| Edited by | Sim Evan-Jones[1] |
| Music by | Ilan Eshkeri |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | StudioCanal Lionsgate |
Release dates | |
Running time | 85 minutes[5] |
| Countries | |
| Language | English[6] |
| Budget | $25 million[7] |
| Box office | $106.2 million[8] |
Shaun the Sheep Movie (marketed asShaun the Sheep: The Movie) is a 2015 animatedadventurecomedy film produced byAardman Animations. Written and directed byRichard Starzak andMark Burton, it is based on the British television seriesShaun the Sheep byNick Park andBob Baker, in turn aspin-off of theWallace & Gromit filmA Close Shave (1995). Starring the voices ofJustin Fletcher,John Sparkes, andOmid Djalili, the film follows Shaun and his flock navigating the big city to save theiramnesiac farmer, while an overzealous animal control worker pursues the group.
The film premiered on 24 January 2015 at theSundance Film Festival, and was theatrically released in the UK on 6 February 2015 and 5 August 2015 in the US. It made $106.2 million at the box office, and became the9th highest-grossing animated film of 2015.Shaun the Sheep Movie was widely praised by critics, and received nominations for anAcademy Award, aGolden Globe Award, aBAFTA Award, and also garnered five nominations at theAnnie Awards, including Best Animated Feature. A sequel,A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, was released on 18 October 2019, while a third film,Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, is due to be released in 2026.
Shaun, a mischievous sheep living with his flock at Mossy Bottom Farm, is bored with the routine of life on the farm. He concocts a plan to have a day off by tricking the farmer into going back to sleep by counting his sheep repeatedly. However, the caravan in which they put the farmer to bed accidentally rolls away, taking him into a city. Bitzer, the farmer's dog, chases after him. The farmer receives a blow to the head and is taken to a hospital, where he is diagnosed with amnesia. Upon leaving, he wanders into a hair salon and, acting on a vague recollection ofshearing his sheep, cuts a celebrity's hair. The celebrity loves the result and the farmer gains popularity as a hair stylist called "Mr. X".
Meanwhile, the sheep find life impossible without the farmer, so Shaun sneaks onto a bus to the city; to his surprise, the rest of the flock follow him on another bus. They disguise themselves as people and begin looking for the farmer, but Shaun is caught by Trumper, a mean Animal Control worker. Shaun is reunited with Bitzer in the animal lock-up, and with the help of a homeless dog named Slip, they manage to escape while imprisoning Trumper. They find the farmer by a poster, but he does not recognise them because of his amnesia and shoos them away.
Heartbroken, Shaun, Bitzer and the flock take shelter in a dark alleyway, but they find evidence of the farmer's amnesia, lifting their spirits. They devise a plan which involves putting the farmer to sleep again, returning him to the trailer on apantomime horse. They are then attacked by Trumper with a taser, who is then pulled down the alleyway.
At the farm, the group hides in a shed. Trumper uses the farmer's tractor in an attempt to push the shed into a nearby rock quarry. The farmer wakes up, and, seeing his reflection with the animals, regains his memories. The animals and farmer work together to stop Trumper, and he is ultimately when the bull over the hedge attacks Trumper, sending him flying over the quarry and into some manure. Slip leaves, but is adopted by a bus driver who finds her on the road. The farmer and the animals have a renewed appreciation for each other, and the next day, the farmer cancels the day's routine activities for an official day off. The animal-control service is turned into an animal protection centre, Trumper finds work wearing achicken suit to promote a restaurant as a punishment for his crimes, and the farmer sees a news report detailing some of the mayhem he slept through during his rescue from the city, much to his and the animals' shock.
Source of character names unless otherwise noted:[1]
Shaun the Sheep Movie was co-produced byAardman Animations, and financed byStudioCanal in association withAnton Capital Entertainment.[7][9][10] The film was in development by January 2011, with a plan to release the film in 2013/2014.[11] Directors Burton and Starzak said they wanted to "take the sheep out of their comfort zone," which resulted in having the story set in a city.[12] In adapting the television shorts to feature length, the directors sought to give the characters "an emotional life," with Burton noting, "If you get that right, the audience is going to root for those characters [and] laugh more."[12]
The film, in keeping with the television shorts, is largely silent. The lack of dialogue in the television series was a practical decision, as the team had limited resources,[13] but Burton and Starzak sought to keep this element, with Starzak citing his disappointment with voice changes on cartoon shows when he was growing up.[12] Early on, both Burton and Starzak struggled to write an entire film without words. They came up with several contingency plans, which included inserting a speaking human character into the cast, or having a character that performed songs to explain the narrative.[12]
The film had an initial release date of 20 March 2015,[14] which later was moved to 6 February 2015.[4]Principal photography andproduction began on 30 January 2014.[15]
| Shaun the Sheep Movie | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | |
| Released | 1 June 2015 29 June 2015 (CD) |
| Recorded | 2014–2015 |
| Genre | Soundtrack |
| Length | 54:45 |
| Label | Silva Screen Records |
| Producer | Various Artists |
Ilan Eshkeri composed the music for the film.[16] The title song, "Feels Like Summer", was a collaboration betweenTim Wheeler (of rock bandAsh), composer Ilan Eshkeri and former-Kaiser ChiefNick Hodgson.[17] The soundtrack was released in the United Kingdom digitally on 1 June 2015, and on CD on 29 June 2015.[18] TheFrederic Chopin compositionGrand Valse Brillante is heard during the restaurant scene but is not included in the soundtrack.
All music is composed byIlan Eshkeri, except as noted.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Feels Like Summer" (composed byIlan Eshkeri,Nick Hodgson, andTim Wheeler, and performed by Tim Wheeler) | 3:00 |
| 2. | "Humdrum Day" | 2:30 |
| 3. | "Shaun's Plan" | 2:00 |
| 4. | "You’re Mine" (performed by Chad Hobson and Lucille Findlay) | 3:40 |
| 5. | "Shaun's Farm House Party" | 1:17 |
| 6. | "Runaway Caravan" | 3:18 |
| 7. | "Anarchy on the Farm" | 1:17 |
| 8. | "Shaun's Mission" | 1:22 |
| 9. | "Doctor Bitzer" | 2:09 |
| 10. | "Trumper" | 1:32 |
| 11. | "Big City" (composed by Ilan Eshkeri and Nick Hodgson and performed byEliza Doolittle) | 1:40 |
| 12. | "Le Chou Brulé" | 0:53 |
| 13. | "Gaol House Blues" | 1:12 |
| 14. | "Beauty Parade" | 1:49 |
| 15. | "Gaol Break" | 2:53 |
| 16. | "Finding the Farmer" | 2:40 |
| 17. | "Building a Horse" | 2:04 |
| 18. | "Feels Like Summer" (performed by The Baa Baa Shop Quintet) | 1:43 |
| 19. | "Trumper on the Scent" | 1:00 |
| 20. | "Go to Sleep Counting Sheep" | 1:43 |
| 21. | "Panto Horse Chase" | 1:44 |
| 22. | "Caravan Ride Home" | 1:34 |
| 23. | "Showdown at the Quarry" | 4:37 |
| 24. | "Goodbye Slip" | 1:00 |
| 25. | "Feels Like Summer (Instrumental)" | 1:49 |
| 26. | "Life's a Treat (Shaun the Sheep Theme) (Rizzle Kicks Mix)" (composed by Mark Thomas, Jordan Stephens, Harley Alexander-Sule, and Ben Cullum and performed by Mark Thomas,Vic Reeves andRizzle Kicks) | 2:40 |
| Total length: | 54:45 | |
Shaun the Sheep Movie premiered at the 2015Sundance Film Festival, as part of theSundance Kid program on 24 January 2015.[3] The film was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 6 February 2015, byStudioCanal.[4]
The film was released in the United States on August 5, 2015, byLionsgate, and its film posters spoofed some of the higher-budgeted films of that year, includingAnt-Man (renamedAnt-Lamb),Minions (renamedMuttons),Spectre (renamedShaun),Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (renamedMutton: Impossible – Rogue Bacon),Fantastic Four (renamedFantastic Flock), andThe Hunger Games: Mockingjay (renamedThe Hungry Games: Eating Hay).[19]
Shaun the Sheep Movie was released in the United Kingdom on DVD and Blu-ray on 1 June 2015 byStudioCanal.[20]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 99% of 169 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. As of January 2025[update], it is the 21st-highest-rated animated film of all time.[21] The site's consensus reads, "Warm, funny, and brilliantly animated,Shaun the Sheep is yet another stop-motion jewel in Aardman's family-friendly crown."[22]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 81 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[23] OnCinemaScore, audience members gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[24]
Inkoo Kang ofThe Wrap gave the film a positive review, saying, "Refreshingly for children (but especially for adults), there are no lessons to learn and no faults to admonish. Instead, it's an 84-minute, dialogue-free distillation of all the innocent fun we wish childhood could be."[25]
Kenneth Turan of theLos Angeles Times gave the film a positive review, saying "Playful, absurd and endearingly inventive, this unstoppably amusing feature reminds us why Britain's Aardman Animations is a mainstay of the current cartooning golden age."[26] Peter Keough ofThe Boston Globe gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying "Like a great silent movie, it creates its pathos and comedy out of the concrete objects being animated, building elaborate gags involving everyday items transformed into Rube Goldberg devices."[27]
Colin Covert of the MinneapolisStar Tribune gave the film four out of four stars, saying "Sometimes the simplest movies are the best. Case in point:Shaun the Sheep, a dialogue-free, non-digitally designed, plain old stop-motion animated film that is hilarious beyond human measure."[28] Guy Lodge ofVariety gave the film a positive review, saying, "Though realized on a more modest scale than other Aardman features, the film is still an absolute delight in terms of set and character design, with sophisticated blink-and-you'll-miss-it detailing to counterbalance the franchise's cruder visual trademarks."[29]
Joe McGovern ofEntertainment Weekly gave the film an A−, saying, "In a bold move that pays off, the movie jettisons dialogue altogether and tells its whole story through barn-animal noises, goofy sound effects, and sight gags so silly they’d make Benny Hill spin in sped-up ecstasy. The effect is contagiously cute."[30] Jordan Hoffman of the New YorkDaily News gave the film four out of five stars, saying "From the company that gave usChicken Run andWallace and Gromit, this adorable tale about a sheep who leads his comrades on a big-city adventure is some of the most pure visual storytelling you're going to see this year."[31]
Bob Hoose ofPlugged In gave the film a mostly positive review, praising the style and the plot but condemning the overuse ofpotty humor and the childishness of the humor in general, concluding; "Nobody's had this much silent fun sinceHarold Lloyd dangled from a clock face by his fingertips. I must bemoan the passed-gas, sheep-poop and guy-sitting-on-a-commode humor that gets sprayed from the Hollywood honey wagon, and preposterous pratfalls might split the difference at times, but...this pic is as active as it is droll. And it's just a touch sweet and heartfelt, too."[32]
Shaun the Sheep Movie grossed $19.4 million in North America and $86.8 million in other territories (including $22 million in the United Kingdom) for a worldwide gross of $106.2 million against a budget of $25 million.[8]
In North America,Shaun the Sheep Movie grossed $4 million on its three-day opening weekend, and $5.6 million on its five-day opening weekend, ranking 11th at the box office and far below the $7 million projection gross, averaging $1,740 per venue from 2,342 theatres. It dropped by 28.7% with $2.8 million, tipping down to 12th place while averaging $1,220 per theatre.[citation needed]
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The film opened in the UK on February 6, 2015, and opened with $3.1 million, reaching third behindBig Hero 6 andKingsman: The Secret Service. On its second weekend, it dipped by 16.2% with $2.6 million, still in third, and it increased by 39.9% with $3.7 million, despite that, it still stayed at third.
It first opened inUnited Arab Emirates,Lebanon,Serbia,Montenegro,Jordan andEgypt on February 5, 2015, and grossed $182K combined on its opening weekends.
The 10 biggest outside of the North America markets were theUnited Kingdom ($22 million),Germany ($11.7 million),China ($8.7 million),France ($6.7 million),Australia ($5 million),Japan ($4.5 million),Spain ($3.1 million),Italy ($2.6 million),Switzerland ($2.2 million), andNetherlands ($1.4 million)
On 14 September 2015, StudioCanal announced it was working with Aardman on a sequel.[7] On 25 October 2016, Aardman confirmed a sequel would go into pre-production in January 2017 asShaun the Sheep Movie 2, withRichard Starzak, co-director of the first film, returning.[33] The sequel, titledA Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, was released in the United Kingdom on 18 October 2019,[34] whileNetflix released the film in the United States on February 14, 2020.[citation needed]
A third film, titledShaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, was confirmed to be in development on 7 May 2025. The film is to be directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker, and written byMark Burton and Giles Pilbrow. It will be released in 2026, distributed bySky Cinema in the United Kingdom andStudioCanal elsewhere.[35][36]
Not to mention, Shaun The Sheep Movie Farmageddon, is set to flock to theaters in the UK on April 5th, 2019.
| International | |
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| National | |