Shaun the Sheep

Shaun the Sheep is a British stop-motion animated silent children's television series which is developed by Aardman Animations. A spin-off in the Wallace & Gromit franchise, the series focuses on the adventures of Shaun, the eponymous sheep previously starring in A Close Shave, as the leader of his flock on an English farm. The series premiered on 5 March 2007 on CBBC in the UK, also airing on BBC One and BBC Two. Since 2020, the series is streamed globally on Netflix. In March 2024, it was announced that a seventh series is in development and will premiere in 2025. With 170 episodes over 6 series, Shaun the Sheep is one of the longest-running animated series in British television.
The series inspired the spin-off Timmy Time, a show aimed at younger viewers that follows Timmy, Shaun's younger cousin. A feature-length film, Shaun the Sheep Movie, was released theatrically on 6 February 2015. A 30-minute short film, Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas, was aired in 2015 as a Christmas TV special. A second feature-length film, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, was released theatrically on 18 October 2019. A second short film, Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas, was released on Netflix on 3 December 2021.
Shaun lives with his flock at Mossy Bottom Farm, a small farm in Northern England. Each episode centres around Shaun's attempts to add excitement to their otherwise boring lives. The action snowballs into fantastic sitcom-style escapades, most often because the sheep are fascinated with human technology and culture. This usually brings them into partnership — and sometimes conflict — with the sheepdog Bitzer, while they all are simultaneously trying to avoid having their anthropomorphism discovered by the farmer.
The show was produced by Aardman Animations and was commissioned by the BBC and the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), a member station of German public-broadcasting network ARD. It has aired on BBC channels in the UK since 2007.
Each seven-minute episode is shot in Aardman's stop-motion animation style. The comedic tone is a combination of slapstick and classic silent comedy, similar to that used in the Wallace & Gromit shorts. Unlike other shows made by Aardman Animations, the series was restricted in its ability to carry much-spoken dialogue, not even from the human characters, except for a few simple grunts, bleats, barks, growls, pointing, sighs, mutterings, and similar wordless inflections, which are used to indicate a character's mood or motive. Thus, the series also never uses any readable words in any episode, although "Bitzer" can be seen on a dog bowl, and—in series four--"Mossy Bottom Farm" on a gate, in the original English-language title sequence. All other signage, such as on a pizza box or a bus stop, is replaced by illegible scrawls and pictures.
Shaun the Sheep's first appearance was in Wallace & Gromit's third short feature, the Academy Award-winning A Close Shave. As the youngest member of a flock of sheep, Wallace and Gromit work to save Shaun from being turned into dog food. He was named Shaun as a pun on the word "shorn" after he was accidentally subjected to Wallace's automated sheep shearing machine. This early version of Shaun shows a hint of his characteristic human-like bravado—among other things, wearing a sweater knitted from his own shorn wool, proving to be a major help in saving the day.
At the end of this short, Shaun is seen living with the duo; Shaun later made a brief cameo appearance in the "Shopper 13" episode of Wallace & Gromit's "Cracking Contraptions" web series. No official explanation has been given for the flock's transfer to the farm.
Although the original series is silent aside from sound effects, a Hindi-dubbed version seen on Nickelodeon India was redone with scripts and dialogue.
The sixth series was commissioned by Netflix.
The first two series consisted of 40 seven-minute episodes each, and the third 20 episodes. The fourth series debuted on 3 February 2014. The fifth series has 20 episodes and was first aired in the Netherlands from 1 December 2015 to 1 January 2016 and in Australia on ABC Kids from 16 January 2016 to 1 May 2016. In the United States, Shaun the Sheep would aired episodes as interstitials between commercial breaks on Disney Channel starting on 8 July 2007.
On 19 February 2020, it was reported that the sixth series of Shaun the Sheep, subtitled Adventures from Mossy Bottom, was released on Netflix on 16 March 2020 in Spain, Poland, Turkey, and UAE. Additionally, it was released in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and Latin America on 17 March 2020. Adventures from Mossy Bottom features a new electronic version of the theme song, a brand new intro episode sequence, and introduced new characters including a super-fast squirrel named Stash, a fancy neighbour Farmer Ben and his pet dog Lexi, and Rita the delivery lady.
On 26 March 2024, a 20-episode seventh series was announced for release in 2025.
A series of 15 1-minute 3D shorts were released on Nintendo's Video service for the Nintendo 3DS between March and June 2012. The Nintendo shorts were released in early 2016 on the official Shaun the Sheep YouTube channel under the name "Mossy Bottom Farm Shorts". Another series of 21 1-minute sports-themed shorts, named Championsheeps, aired on CBBC during the Summer of 2012.
A half-hour television special based on the television series, titled Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas, premiered on BBC One on Boxing Day 2015.
A second half-hour special titled Shaun the Sheep: A Winter’s Tale went into production in late 2020 and aired on Christmas 2021 on BBC One. On 23 August 2021, it was revealed to debut on 3 December under the title Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas, which later aired on Christmas Eve on BBC One.
In Germany, Shaun the Sheep is a part of "Die Sendung mit der Maus", a famous children's television series of German Television. The creator of Die Sendung mit der Maus also is one of the production companies of Shaun the Sheep.
Reviews of the series were consistently positive. Harry Venning of The Stage found "characterisation charming and the animation superb. All this before even a mention of how funny and splendidly slapstick the script is." The Guardian noted that the series "hits the four-to-seven-year-old age group smack in the eye." Series producer Gareth Owen said the age range is "four-to-seven, though in reality, the age range is four-to-eighty-seven", as the series is popular among all different age-groups. Charles Arthur wrote "classic Aardman style that leaves me laughing out loud."
Aardman developed a feature film Shaun the Sheep Movie, written and directed by Richard Starzak and Mark Burton, which was financed by French company StudioCanal, and was released on 6 February 2015. The film received very positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 99% of critics have given the film a positive review. The film opened to $3.2 million in the UK and grossed $22 million in the UK and $106 million worldwide.
On 18 October 2019, StudioCanal and Aardman released a sequel titled A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon.
Both films were nominated for an Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film.
There were plans for an anime adaptation in 2008 which got scrapped, Larry Bundy Jr. produced a series of character designs for the spin-off.
In 2009, Aardman Animations released Timmy Time, a CBeebies spin-off series aimed at preschoolers. It centres on Timmy's own adventures as he attends nursery for the first time and learns how to interact and play with a variety of young animal friends.
On 16 June 2008, D3 Publisher of America, which had previously published a game based on Aardman's 2006 film Flushed Away, announced that it would also release a video game based on Shaun's escapades. The Shaun the Sheep game was developed by Art Co., Ltd exclusively for Nintendo DS, and was released in autumn 2008.
A second game for Nintendo DS, titled Shaun the Sheep: Off His Head, was released on 23 October 2009, exclusively in Europe.
The Shaun the Sheep website is also home to several Flash-based games, including Home Sheep Home, which was also made available at the iOS App Store for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad in April 2011. A sequel, Home Sheep Home 2, was released in December 2011 for Windows PCs, iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. It was released on the Steam digital distribution platform for Windows PCs in February 2014. In March 2012 the iOS release was updated with a new chapter titled The Pirates! In an Adventure With Sheep to promote the upcoming Aardman film The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!.
In June 2016, an event course called Shaun's Mossy Mole Mischief, was released on Super Mario Maker, along with Shaun's costume.
A game entitled Home Sheep Home: Farmageddon Party Edition was released in October 2019 for Nintendo Switch and PC, shortly after the similarly titled A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon. It was later released for PlayStation and Xbox consoles in 2023. The game includes multiplayer-supported remasters of Home Sheep Home and Home Sheep Home 2, as well as a selection of new multiplayer minigames loosely based on the events of the movie. The PC version was released as an update to the existing PC port of Home Sheep Home 2.
Shaun the Sheep characters appear in The Sandbox, an NFT-based 3D open world game.
In 2021, Shaun the Sheep was added to RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch.
On 9 March 2011, Shaun the Sheep made its live theatre debut in Shaun's Big Show. The 100-minute (1 hour and 40 minute) long musical/dance show features all the regular characters, including Bitzer, Shirley, and Timmy.
In 2015, Shaun starred in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs pantomime at Bristol Hippodrome.
On 26 September 2013, the International Rugby Board and Aardman Animations announced that Shaun and other characters from the franchise would be used in a merchandising programme to promote the 2015 Rugby World Cup to children.
In 2015, Shaun the Sheep appeared as the face of the "Holidays at Home are Great" initiative. In the advert, seeing the Farmer going away, Shaun and the flock decide to have their own holiday around the UK before the Farmer gets back.
In August 2022, The European Space Agency announced that Shaun would fly aboard the Artemis 1 mission which launched on 16 November 2022. Shaun returned to Earth on December 11 when the Orion capsule reentered the atmosphere and splashed down.
In May 2023, Natural England and Aardman Animations launched a new campaign for the countryside code, with Shaun the Sheep being the face of the campaign that tries to encourage young people and children to "respect, protect and enjoy" the countryside.
In 2015, Shaun the Sheep starred in two public charity art trails to raise money for sick children in hospitals across the UK. Organised by Wallace & Gromit's Children's Foundation in collaboration with Aardman, Shaun in the City saw 50 giant artists and celebrity-decorated sculptures of Shaun appear in London in the spring before a further 70 appeared in Bristol throughout the summer. All 120 sculptures were auctioned in October 2015, raising £1,087,900 for Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal and Wallace & Gromit's Children's Charity.
A Shaun the Sheep ride area, titled Fåret Shaun Land was opened at Skånes Djurpark in Sweden in early Summer 2016.
In 2015, a family attraction based on Shaun the Sheep, called "The Shaun the Sheep Experience" opened at Lands End, rebranded "Lamb's End" for the duration of the attraction. It features original sets, models, and characters from many Aardman productions. Using green screen technology, guests are able to "star" in a scene from the show, as well as meet other characters from the Aardman filmography including Wallace and Gromit and Morph.
In 2021, Aardman announced the launch of a 30-minute immersive game experience to be located at Electric Gamebox venues in London, Manchester Arndale and Lakeside, Essex.
The series is also broadcast in Middle East and North Africa by MBC 3 and Jeem TV.
In the United Kingdom, the DVDs released from 2007 until 2011 were distributed by 2Entertain. DVDs from 2014 until 2018 were distributed by StudioCanal while Dazzler Media released the DVDs of 2024. In the United States, the DVDs were released by HIT Entertainment and distributed by Lionsgate Home Entertainment
In the US, the following DVD compilations were released:
Home Media releases are distributed by Panorama Corporation in Hong Kong, and Walt Disney Studios Japan in Japan, with earlier releases under the latter's Ghibli Museum Library imprint.