When my kiddos were too young to watch the highfalutin educational stuff we watch now—Nature, Nova, American Ninja Warrior—Shaun the Sheep was my very favorite kid TV. It’s very very funny, clever but not complicated, and things always work out ok. But its most masterful innovation, the reason I loved it so wholly, is that there is no talking. No high-pitched conversations/explications/redundancies. No questionable, quibble-worthy dialog of any kind. Just a pleasant banjo-heavy accompaniment and some occasional semiotic grunting. Story told entirely through action heavenly in a toddler-heavy household.

The Shaun the Sheep spirit survives intact in Shaun the Sheep Movie. Aardman’s signature wit and heart are in full flower, and all you need to know is conveyed through the action and the animal’s expressive eyes. It’s considerably more exciting than a standard episode, and the stakes are higher. Typical farm shenanigans accidentally land the farmer in the Big City with his memory erased, and Bitzer and the sheep have to try and rescue him while evading an insecure and monomaniacal Animal Control officer. That’s a lot more intense than, say, a bunch of douche-y next-door pigs sabotaging a rube goldberg machine designed to get a kite out of a tree. So it may be a bit much for the toddler set. Older kids, based on the sample size of one theater, adored it. My own two (5 and 8) wereincensed that I didn’t rate it a 5.

{Shaun the Sheep Movie screens at SIFF 6/7, 11:00 at SIFF Cinema Uptown.}