Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom | Movie Review

The latest Shaun the Sheep movie is a bucolic, Halloween-themed escape from the frenetic pace of modern life.

Review by Carla Caruso

Seeing the new Shaun the Sheep movie at the cinema felt like a nostalgic blast from the past.

My twin boys grew up watching (and loving!) the British stop-motion TV series, which first hit screens in 2007 and ran for seven series before Shaun made the leap to the big screen. There have since been two other feature-length movies and two short films.

The love for Shaun and his flock of stereotype-defying, switched-on sheep at Mossy Bottom Farm obviously remains. In case you’d forgotten about them (which, admittedly, I had, with seven years since the last movie), they’re back to remind us why we loved them in the first place – and offer a charming reminder of a simpler time.

This Shaun the Sheep adventure is Halloween-themed, which was, well, whipped cream on the pumpkin pie. Sign me up! My only wish is that it had leaned a little harder into the spooky vibes. 

I caught a preview at Wallis Mitcham with my family of four.

The first thing that always hits you about Shaun the Sheep is the lack of spoken dialogue. Instead, the creators rely on silent comedy, facial expressions and visual storytelling – a stroke of marketing genius given its instant international appeal.

It can feel a little jarring at first and make you wonder whether a feature-length film can sustain itself without words. And yet, strangely, you soon forget they’re missing.

I don’t know why – when it’s literally in the name! – but I originally thought Shaun was the farmer character. It’s clear by now that Shaun is one of the flock: a clever, slightly cheeky sheep fascinated by technology who likes to inject excitement into their otherwise quiet lives with his hijinks.

In this movie, Shaun’s attempt to fix a ruined pumpkin patch with a science experiment accidentally turns the (unnamed) farmer into a hairy beast just before Halloween.

The premise gave me flashbacks to watching Inspector Gadget as a kid, where young Penny and her dog, Brain, often saved the day while the hapless inspector took the credit. There’s a similar dynamic here: Shaun and the flock may cause the chaos, but they’re also the unlikely heroes who must put things right – all while keeping their antics under wraps from the farmer.

There’s also a poignant message about how humans can perceive animals as inferior, alongside an environmental thread. The vet character, who has a heart of gold, pauses on a mission to rescue the farmer to free a turtle and dolphin tangled in plastic waste.

The movie has a playful, energetic score, topped off by a hip-hop remix of the franchise’s  instantly recognisable Life’s a Treat theme, plus plenty of humour to make you LOL IRL.

It might not be a film you’ll watch again and again, but it makes for a lovely family outing and a nice trip down memory lane – with the added bonus of being a welcome break from smaller screens.

Fun facts about Shaun the Sheep

• The characters are physical puppets made from clay, plastic and silicone, with wire frames inside. Animators move them tiny amounts by hand and take a single photograph each time, repeating the process thousands of times to create the illusion of movement. Can you imagine!?
• I had to ask the internet whether stop-motion animation is still actively used today. It is, although it occupies a much more niche space alongside the CGI that dominates modern animation.
• Produced by Aardman Animations, Shaun the Sheep is a spin-off of the Wallace & Gromit franchise and has become one of the longest-running animated series on British and German television.

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom only in cinemas from 17 September 2026.

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For more information and all enquiries, please visit the Shaun the Sheep website.

All photos by James Elsby for Play & Go Adelaide.

At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.

As per all our Play & Go reviews, this is not a sponsored post and our review is done completely independently. All photos are by Play & Go (unless specified).

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