OVP: A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2020)

Film: A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2020)

Stars: Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, Amalia Vitale, Kate Harbour, Joe Sugg

Director: Richard Phelan & Well Becher

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Animated Feature Film)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

All week long we'll be taking a peak at the films nominated at this year's 2020-21 Oscars, focusing only on films that I have not reviewed on the blog (and thus that we haven't discussed).  Today we'll finish off the Animated Feature race with Farmageddon, a sequel to the 2015 Shaun the Sheep movie which was nominated for the Oscars that year.  I talked about this a little on social media, but Oscar is weirdly friendly to sequels to animated films it likes, more so than it is in any other category save Visual Effects.  Roughly half of the time if a nominated film has a theatrical sequel, they're getting that nomination, and that was true in 2020, where Shaun the Sheep triumphed in a spot that would've otherwise gone to The Croods: A New Age...a sequel to a film that was previously nominated for an Oscar.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is not silent, but it doesn't contain any traditional spoken dialogue (English or otherwise), even amongst its human characters.  The movie takes place shortly after the last film, with Farmer John and his dog Bingo wrangling sheep & dreaming of striking it rich, while Shaun & his herd get into mischief.  Their shenanigans are cut short, though, when an alien named Lu-La crashes on their land, & suddenly Shaun has to figure out a way to get Lu-La, just a young alien, back to her family.  He's up against a ticking clock, as a federal agent, an alien hunter, is out to capture Lu-La to provide proof of the existence of aliens.

I will admit right now that I didn't remember liking Shaun the Sheep the original film quite as much as I did this time.  I admire Aardman as a rule, but Chicken Run is the only picture I genuinely loved of the films, and it is less reliant on some of the silent humor that makes Shaun the Sheep sing, so it's easy to forget what a charmer the first movie is.  Almost completely silent, the movie had a visual flare & a game presentation, cute without ever being particularly weighty.

As a result of not remembering this, I was once again delighted at how sweet & well-paced Farmageddon was, which despite its silly name is a totally worthy entry in the Oscar Animated Feature canon.  The movie gives more personality to Shaun, and sidelines much of his wooly friends in favor of the adorable Lu-La, but this is the right decision-we want to see more of this world, and while repetitive sight gags might be enjoyable, they don't give us more rich story, which this movie delivers (it's a bit more structured than the last one).  It's all fluff, and the bit with Agent Red who is trying to prove aliens are real feels a bit tacked on at parts (it's hard to believe she doesn't recognize a dog is the red herring alien for much of the film), but it's cotton candy fluff, airy & sweet.