Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom
Mossy Bottom Farm's farmer doesn't know about the secret pumpkin patch his sheep Shaun is hiding behind an artificial backdrop, the flock looking forward to creating Halloween Jack o' Lanterns, but when the local vet pulls a clothesline complete with his leopard skin printed underwear out of his goat, the farmer has to grab it when the goat starts to ingest it again and is pulled right through the backdrop, destroying the entire patch. Ever resourceful, Shaun consults a children's science book and concocts a formula to grow a pumpkin in time for the holiday from the seed little lamb Timmy saved, but a leak from his lab results in "Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom."
Laura's Review: B+
After the repetitive story lines of "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget" and "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Foul," 'Shaun the Sheep' TV series directors Steve Cox and Matthew Walker and screenwriter Giles Pilbrow as well as the writer of those two aforementioned films, Mark Burton, deliver something fresher, so stuffed with sight gags you're barely recovering from one when the next hits. Aardman's Nick Park, the originator of Shaun, is now an executive producer, but the bones of his original 'Wallace and Gromit' short are apparent here in its disruptive inventor Shaun and the farmer's loyal dog Blitzer.
The farmer, who has just received two tickets to the Halloween Hoedown, is anxious to invite the female vet who's arrived to dose his sheep, but is dismayed to discover his bottle of hair growth product is empty. The vet happens to have two tickets to the same dance and the same intention, but these two keep missing opportunities. And of course, just as Shaun's concoction is about to flow out of its vial, he'll pick up that empty bottle the farmer tossed away and we can see where all this is heading. That doesn't make it any less amusing.
The flock is thrilled to find that Shaun's solution worked, beautiful big pumpkins there the next day, but there's only one problem - they keep growing, one becoming so huge it blocks the entry to their barn. Meanwhile the farmer has doused himself with what he thinks is hair product, donned a rhinestone cowboy outfit and made his way to the vet's office prepared to ask for a date when suddenly his hair begins to sprout wildly. Panicking, the farmer heads for home, but his sheep, pigs, goat, chickens and dog have barricaded themselves inside the farmhouse at the sight of him. Eventually Shaun will figure out the mix-up and clue in the vet who thought she'd identified Bigfoot, but by this time, the farmer, mistaken for a load of furry toys, has been crated up and hoisted onto a cargo ship which sails away.
There are so many clever gags here, from the vet frustrating Shaun by stopping their boat on the way to rescue the farmer to help entangled sea creatures only to have them assist the pair on their way back, to a shadow behind a shower curtain evoking "Psycho" complete with shrieking strings revealed to be a sheep flossing on the toilet seat. Some fly by quickly, like the lightning bolt which hits a rooster vane, turning it into a roast chicken. And when a mob from town climbs a hill to a windmill where the farmer hides bearing pitchforks and various other weapons, the Aardman team recycles the sheep-standing-upon-sheep within a raincoat gag to much grander effect, all tricked out for Halloween. And to think all this (and there's so much more) is conveyed with no dialogue.
"Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom" will have you chortling from start to finish. Clearly a labor of love, the filmmakers' affection for these characters is evident in every frame.
GKIDS releases "Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom" in theaters on 9/18/26.
