How baaarmy! Shaun the Sheep’s adventures with a purple-nosed alien are out of this world
THOSE clever people at the Aardman factory in Bristol haven’t been idle in the four years since the first Shaun The Sheep movie, which was 85 minutes of pure cinematic joy.
It has taken all that time for them to craft Farmageddon — and no wonder.
Most of us know that stop-motion animation is a painstaking business, but it’s always worth being reminded of the numbers: four seconds of action takes a week to produce. That’s progress Brexit-style.
But apologies for mentioning the B-word because, if ever there was a film to distract us from the political brouhaha, here it is.
On Mossy Bottom Farm, Shaun and his friends have ordered pizzas. Meanwhile, a spaceship has landed nearby and, when its sole occupant — blue, with pink ears, a purple nose and a rare talent for mimicry — stows away on a pizza-delivery bike . . . well, I’d say you can guess the rest, but I bet you can’t. Government spooks from the Ministry of Alien Detection (which has an entirely apt acronym) are determined to prove the existence of extra-terrestrials — just like Tommy Lee Jones in the recent Ad Astra, come to think of it.
But Shaun is determined to keep his playful new friend out of their clutches and help her rejoin her family on their distant planet.
The farmer is similarly determined to cash in on public hysteria by turning his land into a theme park.
All this cues up some glorious slapstick and wry sight gags, with lovely
best of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. In fact, there’s a sequence here that reminded me strongly of Chaplin’s Modern Times.
However, Farmageddon is not quite on a par with the 2015 film. The belly-laughs aren’t as plentiful and it’s not as guilelessly joyful, even a little over-elaborate in parts. Which makes it a notch below comedy genius, yet still a must-see.
I WOULD be more circumspect about Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil, especially if you’re taking children. It could easily scare the living daylights out of them, because Disney has bewilderingly made this less of a Sleeping Beauty spin-off and more of a Lord Of The Rings knock-off.
A sequel to 2014’s Maleficent, which was a blockbuster hit, it gets into a narrative mess developing the idea that, as vamped up by Angelina Jolie, the title character only appears to be the incarnation of evil. But she is actually a bit of a softie beneath those alarming cheekbones.
The real villainess here is Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer), whose son, Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson), has proposed to Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning).
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville and Warwick Davis help to nudge the convoluted plot along, and Norwegian director Joachim Ronning certainly choreographs some impressive battle scenes, so there is plenty of class on show.
But, if it’s too scary for kids, then — as I kept scribbling in my notes — who is this primarily for?
Disney’s accountants, probably.