If you have kids under the age of 10, like I do, the BBC animated series “Shaun The Sheep” is a Netflix streaming favorite. In fact, we’re suppose to get the latest US release, “Spring Shenanigans.” today in the mail. And I’m as excited about its arrival and my children. “Shaun” is a sheep for all ages.
While new series episodes are being produced for BBC One across the great pond, we may be seeing that athletic Shaun kicking a cabbage on the big screen everywhere in future. The feature length theatrical movie is a long time off with a 2013 or 2014 release date. But I’m sure that the popular series based on a character that first appeared in 1995 in the Oscar winning short “Wallace and Gromit” will only build in popularity here in the States leading up to the film’s premiere.
“When we started writing the television series we stuck a picture of Buster Keaton on the studio door,” “Shaun” creative director Richard Goleszowski has said of the show’s origins.
Shaun is a very resourceful sheep who works closely with a sensible sheep dog who is the right hand man of a near-sighted farmer. None of the characters speak “words” or any identifiable language to one another and communicate through a series of grunts and giggles with hand gestures. This silent movie hybrid is extremely inventive and very funny.
With 80 episodes and counting since 2007, there’s plenty of Shaun out there waiting to be discovered. Check out the great website for clips and more information: http://www.shaunthesheep.com/
