Silence is Golden! Shaun the Sheep’s Slapstick Origins
When Shaun the Sheep The Movie was released earlier this year it was the first time that an animated feature film has been produced in the UK with so little dialogue in it. With the issue of presenting an entire 70 minute long film without any words when animated features rely so heavily upon wise cracking characters and zingy one liners was quite a risky move for Aardman and StudioCanal but as we shall see, they managed to deliver it perfectly thanks to comic tradition.
There was never any doubt that Shaun the Sheep would make a fine leading man, although his range is limited to a series of emotive bleating (delivered by CBBC favourite Justin Fletcher) silent stars have quite a history in feature animation. Disney saved the trouble of writing any lines for the title star of Dumbo way back in 1941, though with the over enthusiastic commentary from his trusty companion Timothy Q. Mouse and a cast of other noisy characters the film was far from silent. Out of the mainstream we look towards the work of Sylvain Chomet creator of the wonderfully quirky The Triplets of Belleville and his tribute to french cinemas finest silent actor Jacques Tati, The Illusionist that use very little dialogue indeed and apart from the odd musical interlude and gaelic chit chat the audience is left relying on the characters actions to decipher the script. Chomet isn’t the only animator making silent features, no stranger to the silent form is the king of indie animation himself, Bill Plympton who masters in the silent short form but also shys away from dialogue in his features, most prominently in his latest two Idiots and Angels and Cheatin’.
But Shaun the Sheep The Movie is unique in that it doesn’t rely on dialogue for one second of its screen time thanks to an understanding of pantomime, something the team at Aardman are very familiar with. Aardman co-founder Peter Lord has appeared at the Slapstick Comedy Festival with Morph, another advocate of amusing actions rather than words. Pantomime has it’s obvious benefits, if the character doesn’t speak they don’t have a language barrier and gain universal appeal and long established fan bases, something silent stars have in common from cheeky tramp Charlie Chaplin right the way through to mumbling Mr Bean.
The influence of these comedy greats is demonstrated throughout Shaun the Sheep The Movie but perhaps most prominently when the flock settle down for something to eat in “Le Chou Brûlé”.
It seems bad enough that Shaun and the gang are trying to blend in to the city but when they end up undercover in the posh restaurant they find themselves involved in a classic comedy caper. Restaurants and the social scale play a huge role in comedy, both silent and speaking. Chaplin’s little tramp found his way into a restaurant in The Immigrant much to the annoyance of the waiter and fellow dinner guests as did Mr. Bean who famously worked his way around a posh dinner, perhaps the only person in the world who would find themselves more out of place swanky surroundings than a flock of sheep.
The films directors Richard “Golly” Starzak and Mark Burton freely talk of the perfect marriage of silent slapstick and animation with Burton saying “You can watch a good film with the sound turned down” and Starzak confirms that the studio has a long history with the style “Its an Aardman tradition, if you look at Nick Park’s early films he would storyboard them before adding dialogue”. Whilst Shaun the Sheep has had most of his outings as a children’s television show the team behind Shaun are keen not to dumb anything down for a children’s audience “One thing we never do at Aardman is think of anything as a kids movie, me and Richard only ever did what makes us laugh.”
The beauty of slapstick and pantomime is that anyone can enjoy it. What Aardman have created by expanding this wooly wonders screen time is an instant classic for all ages to enjoy.
We’ve got four copies of the DVD to giveaway. To be in with a chance of winning one simply answer the following question.
What is the name of the young Lamb that accompanies Shaun and the rest of the flock on their adventure?
[contact-form-7 id=”18540″ title=”Competition: Shaun the Sheep”]
Terms and Conditions:
- Competition closes at 5pm, Friday 5th June.
- This competition is only open to residents of the UK.
- Winners with the correct answer will be picked at random.
- We will contact the lucky winners via email for their postal address.
Shaun the Sheep: The Movie is out to buy on DVD sand Blu-Ray now. You can listen to Shaun Directors Richard “Golly” Starzak and Mark Burton in conversation on the Skwigly Animation Podcast below.
Items mentioned in this article:
![Shaun The Sheep - The Movie [DVD]](https://www.skwigly.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Shaun-the-Sheep-DVD-cover.jpg)