When an alien possessing strange powers crash-lands near Mossy Bottom Farm, Shaun the Sheep quickly makes a new friend. Together they must run from a dangerous organisation who wants to capture the intergalactic visitor.
Aardman is one of those great animation companies that you can rest easy with. There is always a consistent level of quality with these animated properties--possibly due to the fact that they can't rush their production and have only made eight films in the last 19 years. This slower production comes down to the fact that Aardman Animation (who have brought us Chicken Run & Wallace & Gromit) is one of the few animation studios that still does stop-motion clay animation.
What is particular about the Shaun the Sheep franchise is that the film doesn't use dialogue. The sheep, the dogs, and the humans, all communicate through other non-verbal noises and grunts. Granted, there are some lyrics during a couple of tracks in the soundtrack, but as far as actual characters in the film? No dialogue at all. This sequel, Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon, follows in this trend of anthropomorphic animals that cannot talk, and it really showcases Aardman's total understanding of the visual medium.
No language means everything must be able to be conveyed through the tone of the grunts and noises, otherwise, everything is all based on movement and gesticulation. Farmageddon manages to execute this really well, and not relying on computer programs means that the animators do have a greater deal of control and more variety in their movement choices.
Because this is a very visual film, the comedy is also very much visual. Slapstick and physical humour with exaggerated movements to appeal to the young children, but also involving a lot of pop culture visual references that will be very recognisable to the more mature audience; references to the likes of X-Files, Doctor Who, Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., 2001: A Space Odyssey, Wall-E (or maybe Short Circuit) and even Jaws. Farmageddon is a love letter to science-fiction.
The opening scenes of the movie emulate much of the relationships that are seen in the Shaun the Sheep TV spots, though it does expand that story later with the inclusion of some new characters. It never goes too far away from what it excels in, and while it certainly isn't breaking any new ground, it is very much an enjoyable piece of cinema. There are some scarier moments that may prove too much for the really young kids, but in the full theatre I was in, only maybe 3 out of 35 children got upset. Not too bad, and they were giggling away after the next example of slapstick humour, so alls well that ends well.
The colour palette and the lighting is gorgeous, and the set design is surprisingly detailed. You can always trust Aardman to provide a strong animated feature, and it puts The Addams Family, Playmobil: The Movie, and The Queen's Corgi to shame.
Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon is in cinemas from January 9th, 2020