One of Aardman Animations’ most popular characters, the intelligent and ever-inquisitive Shaun the Sheep, finally has another trip to the big screen. The Shaun movies have become a franchise of their own, spinning off the iconic Wallace & Gromit shorts and features into a well-loved TV series. Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a breezy and enjoyable ride that takes Shaun into lovably entertaining horror-comedy territory.
Aardman Animations has been one of the most prominent studios in stop-motion history. Oscar-winners like Creature Comforts, Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers, Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave, and Best Animated Feature winner Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and beloved classics including Chicken Run and The Pirates! Band of Misfits have filled Aardman’s catalogue and built a legion of fans. Shaun the Sheep is in good company, and his latest is another winner.
Shaun’s New Shenanigans Create Stop-Mo Magic
The Beast of Mossy Bottom begins with the sheep of Shaun’s flock tending to their beautiful pumpkin patch. The Farmer clumsily destroys the secret patch, prompting Shaun to try and speed up the growth of a new one using a science book. It all goes awry, while the Farmer goes missing. Simultaneously, the locals start to see an oddly hairy beast appear, striking fear into the heart of the countryside. Shaun and his flock need to find the Farmer and get to the bottom of the roving countryside Beast before everything goes awry.
Altogether, The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a fantastic new Halloween stop-motion classic.
The pioneering team at Aardman have long been one of the studios at the forefront of stop-motion animation, and the animation in Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is no exception. The narrative provides myriad characters and setups that look great animated on screen, from mad scientist laboratories to aquatic journeys, monsters to well-dressed sheep. The sets have beautiful details, the characters look great in Aardman’s distinctive style, and the animation is flawless. Family-friendly animation style aside, it showcases an animation studio at the top of its game.
A lot of this points to the strengths of the script, which allows for these opportunities and develops characters further (humans included). Shaun and his fellow sheep are well-developed without speech, and expressive throughout. That said, there are emotive limitations of a film that doesn’t allow speech. It’s a sheep’s-eye view of Mossy Bottom, so human characters speak in ‘mumbles’ that they understand and we don’t, a tried-and-true element of the Shaun material that’s come before. It makes sense, sure, and it’s a fun bit, but there are human moments here between human characters (like the Farmer and the Vet) which would work better and be deeper if characters could talk. That said, the script is loaded with small details and sight gags that still add layers of meaning to a fun outing.
‘Mossy Bottom’ Is A New Halloween Classic
Stop-motion films are effectively synonymous with cool animated monsters. From Willis H. O’Brien’s brilliant King Kong, Ray Harryhausen’s myriad monsters including gorgons, cyclopses, and skeleton warriors, and Rankin and Bass’ Mad Monster Party creations to Phil Tippett’s Star Wars creatures or Henry Selick’s imaginative creations in The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, or Coraline. The Beast of Mossy Bottom contributes well to that tradition with a fun, unique-looking something (no spoilers here as to what’s going on) that’s surrounded by Halloween vibes.
Altogether, The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a fantastic new Halloween stop-motion classic. Shaun gets into some entertaining trouble, the Beast is a fun animated creation, and there are big adventures that look great onscreen. The comedy lands, and the script is loaded with details and subtleties that also work. Some individual emotional beats would be well served by allowing speech at times, though the animation carries significant meaning on its own, but that only underscores the potential power of a small allowance of human speech when it’s only two people talking. That swing-and-a-miss aside, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a great showcase of Aardman’s animation prowess and a guaranteed new Halloween classic.
Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom hits theaters September 18, 2026.
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