Shaun le mouton : Les aventures à la ferme

I am really happy Netflix didn't ruin Shaun the Sheep. I had my doubts after watching the low grade cheese slapped on to the underlying sheepish antics in the Farmageddon movie. However these updated shorts are done in the classic style of wordless comedy that appeals to an adult audience.

New elements include a mischievous squirrel and human characters who never stop staring at their phones. But mostly the stories stick to the original formula that made Shaun beloved to viewers of all ages over a decade ago.

There are also some noticeable improvement in the color and style of animation, including opening sequence gags.

The magic of Aardman's films and series is that it is quintessentially British. Shaun the sheep, as a spin-off from Wallace and Gromit was built on this heritage. This series, produced fort Netflix, was clearly designed to broaden the appeal to an American audience, and I get the business logic. But in doing so, they have weakened the franchise. It starts with the opening credits, and the incongruous appearance of a squirrel which does not feature as a strong or interesting character later on. Some of the new stories (e.g. turning the farm into some kind of tourist experience) lack the good storytelling infused with insightful social and cultural observations that made earlier series so enjoyable. Instead, the stories attempt to impose US cultural tropes (eg. the halloween episode with the scary snails eating the pumpkins) onto a British rural setting, which doesn't make sense. Either you make it a true American horror story, and it is the pigs next door that steal the pumpkins in order to engage into a scary ritual, or you make it British, and take the premise that the Farmer had been hoping to showcase the pumpkins at a farmers' show, and then his dreams of glory would have been crushed by some series of inept decisions, only to be rescued at the last minute by the ingenuity of the farm animals, led by shaun and bitzer. Instead the script ended half-way in-between with unbelievably dangerous snails, disappointing both cultural expectations: the happy ending with the trick-or-treat scene was piss weak. Lacking creativity and imagination. Not all episodes are as weak as this one, but the standards have been lowered. I don't believe that you have to lower your standards in order to be more successful, but this series seems to go in that direction. Don't get me wrong: this is still a very nicely produced animation series which your kids will enjoy watching. But it now lacks the irony and social commentary of the original, because it seems to have lost its cultural grounding.

The movies were nice but I have missed the Shaun the Sheep TV show. My only problem with the Netflix series is there should be more episodes!

For the fussing people from UK complaining of "lost heritage" about Shaun the Sheep, just stop it. Its characters are known in all the world and beloved by kids and adults, it doesn't matter the 'brand of tea' he is drinking on. The amount of detail in its productions leads to a great and enjoyable show, with fun scripts that appeal to everyone. Watch it!

Smoother animation and decidedly less UK feeling of the settings made this tv series slicker, but with far less originality. It feels like the creators started to distrust their origins and that made the tv series more bland endeavour than one usually expects from Ardman studios.

The great flair for visual gags is there, but they fall on a flat surface of a bland setting.

In the end of the day, there is no single thing, that made Shaun of the Sheep great. It was a mixture of things. And when you remove one item, the whole structure starts to crumble. Don't get me wrong. It is still good. But not exceptional.