A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon is a 2019 stop-motion animated science fiction comedy film produced by Aardman Animations. The film is directed by Richard Phelan and Will Becher (in their feature directorial debuts) and written by Mark Burton and Jon Brown, based on an idea by Richard Starzak. It is a stand-alone sequel to Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015) and is based on the claymation television series Shaun the Sheep, a spinoff from the Wallace and Gromit short film A Close Shave. It is the first sequel ever made by Aardman and in stop-motion in general. The film stars Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, Kate Harbour, and Rich Webber reprising their voice roles from the series and the previous film, whilst new cast members include Amalia Vitale, David Holt and Chris Morrell. In the film, Shaun and the flock encounter a cute alien with extraordinary powers, who crash-lands near Mossy Bottom Farm. They have to find a way to return her home in order to prevent her falling into the hands of the Ministry for Alien Detection.
Plans for a sequel began in 2015, following the release of the first film. The film officially began production following the end of production of Early Man (2018). Richard Starzak was announced to return as director, however, in November 2018, the film was later announced to be directed by Becher and Phelan.
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon was released in cinemas on 18 October 2019 in the United Kingdom, and on Netflix in the United States on 14 February 2020. The film received generally positive reviews from critics who praised its animation, humour, and charm, and grossed $43.1 million against a $25 million budget. It was nominated at the British Academy Film Awards for Best Animated Film and at the Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film.
== Plot ==
In the town of Mossingham, The Farmer and his dog, Bitzer, discover the landing of a UFO. On nearby Mossy Bottom Farm, Shaun and the flock attempt to pass time with several dangerous activities, only for Bitzer to stop them. After being banned from having a barbecue for dinner, Shaun decides to order three pizzas, but when the pizzas arrive, both Bitzer—who intercepts two-thirds of the delivery—and the flock discover the pizza boxes are completely empty.
The next morning, Shaun discovers a trail of pizza crusts and encounters the visitor. The visitor introduces herself as Lu-La, an impish alien from the planet To-Pa who can mimic sounds and levitate objects. When Shaun introduces her to the flock, she causes mischief with a combine harvester, damaging it while transforming a field behind the farm house into unintentional crop circles. Taking advantage of the recent news of alien sightings, the Farmer decides to create an alien-based theme park, "Farmageddon", in which he can earn money to afford a new harvester.
The Ministry of Alien Detection's (M.A.D.) leader, Agent Red, who has been obsessed with proving the existence of aliens since seeing two of them as a child, investigates the UFO claims. Meanwhile, Lu-La and Shaun track down the UFO, followed by Bitzer, who spots them while posting flyers for "Farmageddon" in an alien costume. On board the UFO, Lu-La transmits her memories to Shaun, revealing that she is actually a child and accidentally launched her parents' spaceship while playing on it. They realise they need an egg-shaped sphere device, dropped by Lu-La when leaving the UFO, to activate it. M.A.D. mistakes Bitzer for an alien and follows him to the UFO, capturing it with Shaun, Lu-La, and Bitzer still on board. They also find the device and take both it and the UFO back to their secret base.
At the base, Shaun and Lu-La slip out and manage to retrieve the device, successfully restarting the ship and escaping the base. They set a course for To-Pa; en route, Shaun ignores Bitzer's instructions not to press the ship's buttons and causes it to crash-land back at the farm. With the UFO destroyed, Lu-La is left heartbroken. Feeling guilty, Shaun discovers that the device can be used to send a distress signal if he reaches a high enough point. Shaun suggests that he and Lu-La attempt to reach the top of the Farmer's "Farmageddon" theme park tower to make contact.
With the help of the flock and Bitzer, Shaun and Lu-La climb the tower while the Farmer launches a show at the theme park. Meanwhile, Red arrives and chases Shaun and Lu-La up the tower with a mecha. Shaun manages to knock Red off the tower and successfully sends a distress signal to To-Pa. Lu-La's parents, Ub-Do and Me-Ma, quickly arrive and reunite with their daughter. Red eventually welcomes the aliens, recognizing them as the aliens she saw as a child. Shaun, Bitzer and the flock bid the aliens farewell, while the "Farmageddon" theme park and show receive rave reviews as the entire incident is regarded as part of the show's special effects. On their way back to To-Pa, the aliens discover the Farmer has accidentally boarded their UFO, prompting them to take him back to Earth.
In a mid-credits scene, Shaun, Bitzer, and the flock play with a frisbee, while the Farmer tries out his new harvester; the frisbee gets caught in the harvester's machinery and causes it to explode.
In a post-credits scene, one of the hazmat-suited M.A.D. agents enters a black room with a keyboard. He then removes his suit and reveals himself to be Professor Brian Cox. He proceeds to play "Things Can Only Get Better" on the keyboard, only to be interrupted by Timmy, who unplugs the keyboard.
== Production ==
On 14 September 2015, StudioCanal announced it was working with Aardman on a sequel to Shaun the Sheep Movie. On 25 October 2016, under the working title, Shaun the Sheep Movie 2, Aardman confirmed a sequel would go into pre-production in January 2017 with Richard Starzak, co-director of the first film, returning.
In November 2018, it was announced that Aardman employees Richard Phelan and Will Becher would be co-directing the film, with Starzak still attached as director, due to Peter Lord and David Sproxton giving majority ownership of the company to employees to keep it independent. However, Phelan and Becher ended up being the directors of the final cut, while Starzak received both an executive producer and story by credit. Principal photography and production officially began in November 2017 and ended in June 2019.
== Music ==
The music for the film is composed by Tom Howe. It was initially believed Ilan Eshkeri, who composed the music for Shaun the Sheep Movie, would return, but these rumours were false.
The theme tune for the film is titled "Lazy" and is written by Justin Hayward-Young, Yoann Intonti, Timothy Lanham, Freddie Cowan, Arni Hjorvar Arnason and Cole Marsden Greif-Neill and performed by The Vaccines and Kylie Minogue. Furthermore, like the previous film, the film incorporates a remix of the series theme tune "Life's a Treat". Both Mark Thomas and Vic Reeves return to perform the remix and are joined by Nadia Rose.
== Release ==
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon was first released in Germany on 26 September 2019 and in the UK on 18 October 2019. It was intended to be theatrically released in the US on 13 December 2019 by Lionsgate, but due to the box office failure of Early Man, the film was acquired by Netflix, who released it digitally on 14 February 2020.
=== Home media ===
In the United States, it was released on Blu-ray and DVD on 18 October 2022 by Shout! Factory. In the United Kingdom, the film was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray by Studio Canal.
=== Marketing ===
In January 2018, it was announced that the teaser of the film would play theatrically in front of another Aardman film, Early Man, worldwide, revealing the film's new title and synopsis. On 7 December 2018, Aardman announced through on social media that the teaser trailer for the film along with release dates would be arriving the following week. The teaser trailer was released online on 11 December 2018, followed by the first official trailer released on 1 April 2019. On 3 July 2019 the second trailer was released.
== Reception ==
=== Box office ===
As of 29 December 2019, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon has made $43.1 million against a $25 million budget, with the top-grossing countries being the UK ($9.2 million), Germany ($6.7 million) and France ($5.4 million). It currently ranks as the 16th highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time.
=== Critical response ===
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes records 96% positive reviews based on 78 critics and an average rating of 7.5/10. The critical consensus reads, "A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon retains the charm of its small-screen source material while engagingly expanding the title character's world." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 79 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Guy Lodge of Variety, who reviewed the previous film, gave the film a positive review, saying, "The great pleasure of these films' bright, largely wordless slapstick is that it plays universally whilst accommodating all manner of obsessive, idiosyncratic detailing at the edges."
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times who also reviewed the previous film, gave the film a positive review, saying "That all these characters and then some have distinct personalities is all the more remarkable because no one uses actual words, instead making do quite nicely with assorted grunts, groans and indefinable grumbles."
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave 3.5/4 stars to the movie, saying "If you like anything Aardman, or anything funny really, you should make an effort to find it."
Carlos Aguilar of The Wrap gave the film a positive review, saying, "A quick-witted and uproarious homage to the sci-fi genre like only the stop-motion geniuses at Aardman Animations could imagine and handcraft."
Category:Aardman
Category:Netflix
Category:2019
Category:October
Category:PG
Category:Stop-Motion
Category:StudioCanal
Category:Comedy
Category:Shaun the Sheep