Fans of the 2005 feature length Wallace and Gromit outing, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, may experience pangs of déjà vu when encountering this new Aardman animated feature, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. It seems that the lads down at the beloved British animation house has deemed that two decades is enough time passed to justify retooling their old properties, rehashing the story nearly beat-for-beat while relocating the action to the sunny rural outpost of Mossy Bottom Farm.
This sense of familiarity, plus the feeling that the largely delightful world of Shaun the Sheep may be running out of creative road, means that this new work unfortunately doesn’t hold a candle to the superb 2015 Shaun the Sheep movie. But that’s not to say it’s a complete write-off: there’s enough slapstick invention to keep the knee-highs happy, a couple of cheerful set-pieces, plus it runs at a commendably curt 80 minutes.
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It sees Shaun and his flock tending to a secret pumpkin patch in the run up to Halloween, but the accident-prone farmer is dragged across it by a rampaging goat and ruins the entire crop. Our hero decides that he needs to think of a way to grow pumpkins in less than two days, and so turns mad scientist to invent a growth serum. Yet when the glowing pink ooze is accidentally contained in a bottle of hair restoring lotion, and then liberally applied by the balding farmer, everything goes awry. The farmer is mistaken for Bigfoot, efforts are made to post him to a secluded island in the middle of the ocean, and Shuan and the gang must do all they can to amend this mistake.
There’s lots of the trademark Aardman character work, with emotion and communication deriving entirely from facial expressions and body language. And it’s also packed with gentle parochial humour, taking an equal opportunities approach to mocking both the fusty oldsters and the jaded youth. There’s a lovely scene where the “Beast” goes wild along the village highstreet, and the denizens arm themselves with items from a fancy dress shop. And there are scads of references to classic genre movies, ranging from the original Universal Frankenstein, to more modern fantasy fare such as Back to the Future. It’s a charming outing, albeit one that never quite justifies its existence beyond being an easy go-to for parents during the school holidays.