Everyone’s favorite ovine returns this month in the third theatrical film for the “Wallace & Gromit” spin-off “Shaun the Sheep.” After three decades, almost 200 episodes of the show, and three features, it’s fair to say that Shaun has escaped the barn of secondary characters to become as prominent as the cheese-loving inventor and his dog. Shaun’s third wacky adventure, “Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom,” continues the tradition of the nearly-perfect track record of Aardman Animation. After the silent comedy wackiness of 2015’s “Shaun the Sheep Movie” and sci-fi inspirations of 2019’s “Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon,” Aardman is back with a film inspired by monster movies like the Universal classics. Believe it or not, Shaun is the Dr. Frankenstein of this clever, funny flick that may not live up to the standards of the first two features, but largely because they set the bar so high.
The action of Mossy Bottom kicks off when The Farmer (John Sparkes, like most voice actors here just doing some well-timed noises in a dialogue-free film) accidentally destroys the flock’s pumpkin patch, which devastates Shaun (Justin Fletcher). When Shaun finds a book hilariously titled “Home-Made Science” (which can be cleverly turned into “Mad Science” with just a few letters removed), he decides to play Gourd God, devising a formula that will replace his potentially prize-winning pumpkin.
Meanwhile, after a flirtation with a local vet (Nina Sosanya), Farmer starts to look solemnly at something else that has died: His hairline. He would do anything to regrow the long locks that once made him so confident, and he stumbles onto Shaun’s Home-Made Science potion. You can see where this is going. Before you know it, a hairy beast is roaming the fields of Mossingham, and only Shaun can reverse his transformation before the townspeople kill him.
Shaun the Sheep has always been shaped by a love of silent comedy, and that sense of unexpected physical humor remains the greatest strength of the franchise. There are such wonderful minor visual gags here, such as the camera swooping past a terrified worm as it burrows through the ground or a dog X-ray at the vet revealing a pair of keys. It’s these little moments that add up to the big joy of watching a Shaun the Sheep movie, and there’s plenty of them here.
That said, this is the first Shaun the Sheep project in film or TV where the pace, which is so essential to a silent comedy, feels ever so slightly off. It’s the first time I felt a bit bored by the repetition, which has always been one of Shaun’s greatest gifts: “Shaun the Sheep Movie” and “Farmageddon” don’t drag for a single second. This one does at times, though one wonders if it would feel the same if it were Shaun’s first movie and not the third. Directors Steve Cox and Matthew Walker haven’t directed a film before, and one can sense a bit of hesitation here that doesn’t exist in the other projects. No one tells an Aardman production what to do, but a movie with the title “The Beast of Mossy Bottom” should actually be a bit weirder, scarier, and stranger. The few nods to classic horror movies, such as a great bit when Farmer goes feral a la the Werewolf, are so great that one wishes there were more of them.
One always wishes for more Shaun. He’s been one of the more resilient characters in children’s animation, around as long as those old men Woody and Buzz, and nearly as successful in terms of children’s fiction. A new Shaun the Sheep movie is a reason to rejoice, even if this one wouldn’t win the pumpkin contest.
