There’s nothing hugely ambitious about this feature-length take on the stop-motion television series from Aardman Animations, but there is no denying the silly pleasures of its modest offerings (or the painstaking, dollhouse detail that went into each frame). Borrowing a well-worn, children’s-literature narrative, Shaun the Sheep follows the troublesome title puffball and his sheep friends on an adventure from Mossy Bottom Farm to The Big City (Bitzer the sheepdog and their clueless farmer also get involved). What follows is essentially a series of interconnected shorts, tied to the Wizard of Oz theme of coming to learn that there’s no place like home. There’s a good gag about every three seconds, as well as tiny touches that make the movie a constant delight. I love how the rooster holding the title sign chases a tracking shot to keep it in the frame, and I’ll never tire of the nonchalant way Aardman’s animators negotiate the naturalism versus anthropomorphism question. Case in point: when Bitzer trots toward a bench on all fours, like the dog he is, then hops up to sit in an upright position and calmly checks his watch.
