It’s been seven years since the last Shaun The Sheep movie – the sci-fi riffing Farmageddon, which teamed Aardman Animation’s quiet sheep star with
It’s been seven years since the last Shaun The Sheep movie – the sci-fi riffing Farmageddon, which teamed Aardman Animation’s quiet sheep star with an adorable alien creature. And for his next film, Shaun is switching up genres. Get ready for kid-friendly horror in Shaun The Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom, a Halloween adventure in which Mossy Bottom farm becomes the territory for a hairy marauding monster.
This, of course, isn’t the first time Aardman has done a loving creature-feature homage – see 2005’s Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. But Beast is tackling different reference points to Were-Rabbit, leaning into the acid-bright hues of Scooby-Doo, Goosebumps, and a dash of Ghostbusters too. “If you think about Hammer horror and Universal Monsters and that gothic feel, it’s hard to see that in a child-friendly [film],” says Beast Of Mossy Bottom co-director Steve Cox. “[But] the slightly quirky action-adventures in the ’80s helped us make it more fun and playful.”
The hope is to keep Shaun The Sheep accessible to all ages, right down to the youngest – while still giving them a taste of a genre they’ll hopefully come to love. “We’re trying to find that balance of wanting to be able to enjoy the tropes of horror without scaring the audiences,” co-director Matthew Walker explains. Hence, the titular Beast has a bit of prime ‘80s Tina Turner about it. It’s like “a big walking mullet”, says Cox. “In the story he gets mistaken for Bigfoot,” adds Walker, “but we wanted him to have this unique look.” It’s simply the Beast.
Read _Empire’_s full feature on Aardman Animation and Shaun The Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom in the Rings Of Power Season 3 issue, on sale Thursday July 30. Pre-order a copy online here. The Beast Of Mossy Bottom is in UK cinemas from September 18.
