Shaun the Sheep Movie

Mark Burton and Richard Starzak wrote and directed it together, from the television series by Nick Park and Bob Baker, itself a spin-off of the 1995 Wallace and Gromit short A Close Shave. The film being largely silent did not begin as a style choice: on the series the absence of dialogue came from limited resources. Burton and Starzak kept it, Starzak citing his disappointment as a child when cartoon voices were changed. Ilan Eshkeri wrote the score, and the title song Feels Like Summer with Ash’s Tim Wheeler and former Kaiser Chief Nick Hodgson. Chopin’s Grande valse brillante plays in the restaurant scene but was left off the album. It premiered in the children’s strand at Sundance. The American posters spoofed that year’s bigger releases, turning Ant-Man into Ant-Lamb, Minions into Muttons and Mission: Impossible into Mutton: Impossible. The Academy nominated it for best animated feature and Inside Out won; BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations followed, with 5 Annie nominations. It took less in North America than in the United Kingdom alone. A good fit if you want a story carried by animal noises, sound effects and sight gags, information delivered by cutting rather than lines. Not for a parent unwilling to explain the mild threat and rude humour the BBFC listed in passing the film U.