Movie Review - A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

This film was released the same weekend as Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), which is most likely a total coincidence. This film has been in production for three years. Sonic the Hedgehog was supposed to be released last year. Yet, due to delays, Sonic the Hedgehog was pushed to now, so the fact that this film and that video-game adaptation happened on the same weekend is purely by chance. However, it doesn't take away the fact that it could be argued that the two are basically the same or could be what's considered twin films. No, they're not identical, but, both incorporate the near-exact same plot and character dynamics. Twin films aren't that uncommon. We get twin films every year, sometimes more than once, and we've gotten them every calendar going back 40 years.

What happens in Sonic the Hedgehog is that an alien creature comes to Earth and specifically to a rural area. Government agents then track and chase this alien with the thought that the agents might kidnap and dissect the creature. The alien has to escape capture with the help of someone on Earth and hope to return to his alien home or get away in some fashion. This exact plot is what happens in this film. The only difference is that Sonic the Hedgehog involves live-action, actual actors interacting with an animated character. Here, the whole thing is animated. Specifically, it's stop-motion, which is the preferred form for Aardman Animations, based in the United Kingdom. Both Sonic and the creature here have special powers and both are blue in color. Sonic is a lot darker blue, but it's just another aspect in how these two films are similar.

The major difference is that this film has no dialogue. Aardman's films like the Wallace and Gromit stories that made Aardman famous typically don't have scripted lines that people speak. Sonic the Hedgehog has most of his humor built around lines of dialogue. Here, however, it's all about body language and facial expressions. The action even more tells the story, as opposed to the voice-over narration that is a significant chunk of Sonic the Hedgehog. Here, the whole thing is totally nonverbal. As such, it's very much like something out of the silent film era of Hollywood. The comedy here is certainly pulled from that silent film era too, meaning a lot of pratfalls.

Directors Will Becher and Richard Phelan definitely lean into that kind of comedy. They perhaps lean into it too much. Some of it gets to be repetitive pretty quickly. There are of course a ton of visual gags. Given the absence of dialogue, arguably it's nothing but visual gags. Most are pretty lame. It's not to say that a dialogue-free narrative couldn't be inventive or engaging. The recent Oscar-nominee, I Lost My Body (2019) proves that inventive and engaging, nonverbal things can be designed and executed. I Lost My Body is half dialogue-free, but that half is the best part of it.

Yet, Becher and Phelan might not be trying to be inventive and engaging. Their goal might simply be to come off as cute. In that, they succeed, but that's all. This film might really be wholly entertaining for children or those under the age of 10. Yes, there are references, mostly sound or music references, to more grown-up titles like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and The X-Files (1993), but, aside from those references, this film doesn't rise to the sophisticated and nuanced level of those more grown-up titles. There's also a reference, a visual reference, to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), which is the more kid-friendly, Steven Spielberg flick. It's obvious that this film aspires to be compared to that Spielberg classic, but it doesn't quite get there either.

There's a robot in this that's reminiscent of the robot in Pixar's Wall-E (2008). That animated feature was also a dialogue-free adventure that still stands as one of the best animated features I've ever seen. It's likely the filmmakers here aspire to that Oscar-winning picture as well, but it doesn't get anywhere near that Pixar masterpiece. I will say that I enjoyed the song featured in this film "I Can't Be My Old Self Forever" by Jorja Smith.

Rated G for all audiences.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 26 mins.

In select theaters like the Laemmle Glendale.
Available on Netflix.