Shaun the Sheep The Beast of Mossy Bottom: OK for your child?

Story

As Halloween approaches, Shaun (voiced by Justin Fletcher) and his flock of sheep are secretly growing pumpkins to make lanterns. But the pumpkins are destroyed when an excited goat drags the Farmer (voiced by John Sparkes) through the crop.

The little lamb, Timmy (also voiced by Justin Fletcher), is particularly upset, so Shaun must devise a method to make pumpkins grow quickly. He finds a growth formula in a mad scientist’s book, which he applies to a pumpkin seed. Unfortunately, the growth formula also gets into the hands of the Farmer, who’s trying to regrow the hair on his head. This gets out of control, and the Farmer finds himself covered in hair and transformed into the Beast of Mossy Bottom.

The Farmer has a female friend, a vet (voiced by Nina Sosanya). He has been trying to build up courage to ask her on a date, but he goes missing from the farm. He has, in fact, fled the farm because he looks so scary. The Vet believes she has found a Big Foot and gets him shipped to Big Foot Island.

Shaun eventually works out what has happened to the Farmer and, with the help of the Farmer’s beloved dog Bitzer and the Vet, they set out to undo the damage.

Themes

Halloween; farm life; animated comedy

Violence

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom has some comic violence. For example:

Characters get knocked over, have doors slammed in their faces, tumble into each other, and so on.
A bull charges through a shed.
The Farmer gets dragged along the ground, over a cattle grid and through the pumpkin patch, smashing all the pumpkins.
The Farmer crashes his car because he can’t see.
The Farmer screams when he tries to ‘epilate’ the hair.
The sheep set a trap for the Farmer but end up in it themselves.
A sheep is dragged along behind a truck.
A man gets knocked down by a sheep and lands flat on his face in setting concrete.
The villagers all chase after the monster with plastic axes, hammers and pitchforks.
The Vet shoots the monster with a tranquiliser dart.
The ship’s captain is about to shoot the monster with a tranquiliser dart when Shaun sends him flying.
The Vet is stapled to a wall.
The villagers all throw things at the monster.

Sexual references

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom has some sexual references. For example, there’s a romance between the Farmer and the Vet.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom shows some use of substances. For example, Shaun mixes substances to both promote and slow growth.

Nudity and sexual activity

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom has some nudity and sexual activity. For example, the Farmer is shown hairless and naked, apart from a jacket round his neck and underpants.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom.

Coarse language

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom has some very mild coarse language. For example, ‘OMG’ is used in a text message.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is an animated stop-motion comedy horror, based on the well-known Shaun the Sheep character. There’s very little dialogue but, if anything, this makes the movie funnier and more entertaining.

This movie has some scary Halloween images and scenes, so we recommend parental guidance for young children.

These are the main messages from Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom:

It’s important to try to fix your mistakes.
One good turn deserves another.

Values in Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom that you could reinforce with your children include loyalty, friendship, perseverance and willingness to admit mistakes.

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like acting before you think through the consequences. For example, Shaun is quite impulsive, which gets him into trouble sometimes.