YNMS: Shaun the Sheep Movie (and more from Aardman)
Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 8:00PM Tim here. If it’s possible for a little boutique studio with the most self-selecting audience imaginable to engage in a “media blitz” Aardman Animations (creators of Chicken Run and the Wallace & Gromit shorts) is having a very media-blitz sort of a day.
First, they’ve released the first image from Early Man, director Nick Park’s upcoming caveman adventure that’s currently pre-selling distribution rights at Cannes (it will be Park’s first directorial effort since the Oscar-nominated 2008 short A Matter of Loaf and Death; I imagine that I’m not alone in finding his return to filmmaking something of a religious event).
Next up, Lionsgate has released the poster and trailer for their release of Aardman’s impending feature, Shaun the Sheep Movie (yes, that’s its actual, grammatically disastrous title). After the jump we break the trailer down using TFE's famed and authoritative Yes No Maybe So system.
Yes
- New Aardman picture. We can be sophisticated about this, but let’s not. New Aardman picture.
- If, like me, you regard Aardman’s greatest achievement to date to be the beleaguered, unspeaking dog Gromit, the promise of a whole film full of silent quadrupedal animals who communicate exclusively in sarcastic reaction shots feels like paradise.
- This guy is set to be the cutest thing in a feature film this year:
No
- “Shaun the sheep... and his flock... know every trick” is the kind of trailer voice-over that sounds more like a parody than an actual good-faith attempt to sell a motion picture that anybody would be interested in seeing.
- A Hannibal Lecter parody in a children’s movie released in 2015? That’s a bold choice.
- And, of course, the evergreen “it looks like the giant fake animal is crapping out a man” sight gag
Maybe So
- Important to remember: this is a kids’ film, in the very strictest sense. It’s hard to tell from an ad what the “feel” of the movie is going to be, or whether there’s going to be anything for grown-ups to latch onto. Given Aardman’s track record, it’s easy to be optimistic, but from here it’s tough to tell.
Are you a Yes, a No, or a Maybe So? I'm such an easy "Yes" it's not funny. Again, it's an Aardman picture.
Reader Comments (9)
Tim. the return of Nick Park is to directing is wonderful news. I'm not a religious person but let's give thanks & pop open some champagne.
Shaun the Sheep has already been released in the UK and overseas, where it did quite well at the box office. So there is every chance it will do well over here.
I am a YES for this, and anything Aardman releases. I love their films the way Wallace loves cheese.
Shaun the Sheep Movie (yes, that title is grammatically horrendous!) is *excellent*. It has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes for a reason. It's hilarious, so well animated, kind-hearted but with a warped edge every now and then for the adults (the aforementioned Lecter reference). Inspired by slapstick and silent movies, I hope people go and see it.
(You also have a doubled paragraph above and below the EARLY MAN artwork.
I'm a yes on anything aardman related, and this has the added benefit of looking totally delightful
I also just noticed that the Shaun the sheep series is on amazon prime now. Has anyone watched it?
I will vouch for the greatness of "Shaun the Sheep". It is FANTASTIC.
On the final title card of the trailer, the title is listed as "SHAUN THE SHEEP THE MOVIE," but I concur that the poster doesn't make that title clear at all.
I've always really wanted to like Aardman particularly because of their stop motion style, but the studio's work has never really clicked with me humor-wise. Wallace and Gromit are by far the best, but even with that duo I don't find myself all that enthralled.
That said, I found the trailer mildly amusing so a rental may be in this one's future...
Aardman is so effortlessly endearing. Love them.
I am a very easy yes. What you wrote about a movie full of sarcastic reaction shots from silent animals sounds like heaven
Yes! Not quite as good as the Wallace and Gromit movies but as "laugh out loud" and as good as the first two seasons of the TV series. Saw it in a small arthouse late afternoon and I think there was just one person under 15 and everyone had a ball. Definitely not just for kids.
I like Shaun the sheep :) because is ferry funny hihihi :)
do you have poster shoun the sheep? i like this image shaund :)