Shaun the Sheep started his animated life in Wallace and Gromit’s A Close Shave, only to then find super stardom in his own right, with spin-off TV series accurately titled Shaun the Sheep, which became a multi-award winning global TV sensation. In 170 countries worldwide, Shaun the Sheep has become the most popular Aardman character internationally, out stripping his popular predecessors, Wallace and Gromit. So it would seem unsurprising then that the team at Aardman decided to bring the adorable sheep to the big screen in this much-anticipated feature film. Unsurprisingly, this picture is beautiful, clever and a great new addition to the prestigious Aardman catalogue. It really is a wonder then that ‘Trust in Aardman’ is not yet a celebrated British motto and in Latin no less, because they’re classy like that.

Shaun the Sheep Movie centres around Shaun (surprise, surprise) who lives on Mossy Bottom Farm with the Flock, the Farmer and Bitzer the sheepdog. Tired of sticking to the same old schedule, mischievous Shaun decides to trick the Farmer into doing things his way for a day, with unexpected consequences that ultimately lead to a trip to the Big City to relocate a misplaced Farmer.

If you, or more likely your child enjoyed Shaun the Sheep the TV series, then this film will be a sure fire hit with them as well. It’s similar to the series, with the same classic silent comedy and hilarious, idiosyncratic characters, but super-sized by its trip to the city and a whole new world for the Flock to explore (as well as a couple of cute new characters). Rejigging the age-old tale of you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, this no dialogue film is slapstick comedy at its best with some clever film references and humour thrown in for the adult chaperones. Never before seen home movies of the flock are delightful and although the film does play young, there are some great jokes for the grown ups with a couple of hilarious nods to other films thrown in for good measure.

While there’s not a huge amount of complex narrative, let alone dialogue, this adds to Shaun the Sheep Movie’s charm and universality, certainly making it appealing to a younger audience, while children of six or seven upwards may find themselves a little fidgety with some possibly struggling to understand the lack of words in communication, and scribbles instead of legible words. Nonetheless, with a real Buster Keaton, deadpan approach to comedy, this timeless story has a whole lot of heart. There’s no bleating about the bush – this truly is another instant, Aardman classic.