An Oscar-nominated feature film where nobody speaks a single word
Aardman's 2015 Shaun the Sheep Movie tells an 84-minute story about a flock rescuing their memory-wiped farmer from the city, using only bleats, sound effects and sight gags. Critics adored it, it earned $106.2 million worldwide on a $25 million budget, and it picked up Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations.
Mark Burton and Richard Starzak wrote and directed the stop-motion comedy, spun from the television series Nick Park and Bob Baker created, which itself grew out of the 1995 short A Close Shave. The plot begins with boredom: Shaun wants a day off at Mossy Bottom Farm, so the flock lulls the farmer back to sleep by making him count them over and over. His caravan then rolls away into the city, a knock on the head leaves him with amnesia, and a half-remembered knack for shearing turns him into a celebrity hairdresser known as Mr. X.
Keeping the film wordless was a deliberate choice. The television shorts had no dialogue largely because resources were tight, but the directors wanted to preserve that quality, and Starzak recalled being let down as a child when cartoon voices changed. Writing a whole feature without speech proved hard at first, and the team kept fallback ideas ready, such as adding a talking human or a character who sang the plot. The directors also said they wanted to push the sheep out of their comfort zone, which is why the story moves to a city, and to give the characters real emotional depth.
Aardman co-produced the film with StudioCanal financing. It was in development by January 2011, shooting began on 30 January 2014, and it premiered in the Sundance Kid strand at Sundance on 24 January 2015 before its British release on 6 February. Lionsgate opened it in the United States that August with posters parodying bigger releases, turning Minions into Muttons and Ant-Man into Ant-Lamb. Ilan Eshkeri wrote the score.
On Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 171 reviews are positive. Reviewers compared it with great silent comedy, and one Christian review site praised its energy while grumbling about toilet jokes. North American takings were modest at $19.4 million, well under projections, so most of the money came from abroad, led by the United Kingdom and Germany. Farmageddon followed in 2019, and a third film, The Beast of Mossy Bottom, arrived on 18 September 2026.
Source: Shaun the Sheep Movie
