Shaun das Schaf: Der Film

I know the title of this review sounds cliché and somewhat pandering, but this film truly is a delight for all well mannered (perhaps even ill tempered) audiences of all ages.

As other reviews have stated, the main character, Shaun the Sheep, is from the Wallace and Gromit short "A Close Shave", where in Shaun helps the duo overcome a mechanical threat of canine sorts.

This film propels Shaun (a star in his own series) into the biggest adventure he's ever had since "A Close Shave" way back in the mid 90s. Shaun leads his flock through a series of very funny misadventures to rescue a member of their farm-family, so to speak.

Everything here is pantomime, and hearkens back to the days of old before sound was added to film. This is, in spirit, a silent film in the sense that there's no dialogue, and all the communication is primarily done with showing the audience the story as opposed to telling it to us through dialogue. The gags are the usual clever Aardman offerings, but there's also some very witty use of classic silent era gags, yet with a very British flavor of understatement, which makes the comedy in this film all that much funnier.

Truly I hadn't laughed out loud at a comedy film in who knows how long, and it was something that was much welcome in our day and age of low brow humor. Regrettably there are a couple of flatulence gags (I'm guessing primarily for the kiddies) that didn't need to be. But most of the other humor is keen, dextrous in execution and inventive in concept, and very British in overall gist.

Finally, as with most of Aardman productions, there's a knack for demonstrating the villain who has more tech wizardry as an expression of brawn to make up for brain, or lack thereof. It is a running theme in some of Aardman Production's films, notably the Wallace and Gromit series, and should serve as a nice little, almost subliminal, message to young minds as they mature into full adults.

Again, very delightful and very fun.

Give it a shot. You won't be disappointed.