Sheep thrills for all ages

Little jokes keep delightfully simple frolic fresh

For those who decry the talkies as too — well, talky — feast your ears on Shaun the Sheep Movie, a glorious throwback to pre-computerized stop-motion animation and, even further, to before the dawn of spoken dialogue. Words cannot describe its wonders.

The title, it must be said, needs a little work. Grammarians will expect a movie named Shaun, about a sheep. Needs another “the” in there somewhere. But the latest from Aardman Animations is a delightfully simple frolic that will amuse kids and their minders equally.

It opens with Shaun the sheep going through the motions down at Mossy Bottom Farm. Wake, graze, be shorn, graze, sleep: It’s all becoming routine, both for the ovine flock and the unnamed Farmer and his sheepdog Bitzer, both voiced by John Sparkes.

Fortunately, Shaun can read, and decides to take the advice of a passing bus advertisement and book some time off. Tricking Farmer into taking a nap, he and the other sheep take over the farmhouse, alongside the pigs, who can also read. They’ve been reading Animal Farm.

Farmer, meanwhile, snoozes on blissfully unaware in a camping trailer until it slips its moorings and heads off to the Big City. There, a bump on the head leaves him unaware of his identity until muscle memory kicks in at a hair salon. The former sheep-shearer becomes a celebrity hairstylist, and a one-cut wonder.

The movie’s plot sometimes feels a bit hoary. The memory loss scenario, coupled with an evil dogcatcher and some cross (species) dressing, could have been lifted from mid-century Looney Tunes shorts. But Aardman familiars Mark Burton and Richard Starzak, who share the writing and directing duties, consistently keep things fresh with the little jokes that have become the hallmark of the studio since Wallace and Gromit.

And of course, the characters are adorable as only small mammals clothed in their own woollen sweaters can be. Farmer should look terrifying, as he appears to have no eyes behind his glasses, but even he remains oddly appealing. And the sheep, despite the proven absence of thumbs, manage to hike them in the air when things go well. In rating this movie, I can only follow suit.