Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon

Join Shaun and Lu-La On Their Incredible Adventure

Rated: G
Running Time: 87 minutes

Synopsis: Strange lights over the quiet town of Mossingham herald the arrival of a mystery visitor from far across the galaxy… When the intergalactic visitor, an impish and adorable alien called Lu-La, crash-lands near Mossy Bottom Farm, Shaun soon sees an opportunity for alien-powered fun and adventure and sets off on a mission to shepherd Lu-La home.

Lu-La's magical alien powers, irrepressible mischief and galactic sized burps soon have the flock enchanted. Shaun takes his new extra-terrestrial friend on the road to Mossingham Forest to find her lost spaceship, unaware that a sinister alien-hunting agency is on their trail.

Can Shaun and the flock avert Farmageddon on Mossy Bottom Farm before it's too late? Join Shaun and Lu-La on their incredible adventure in A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon.

A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Release Date: 9th January, 2020

About The Production

Star Power

The creative team behind the world's favourite woolly wonder explain how, in Farmageddon, they've boldly gone where no sheep has gone before...

Shaun the Sheep is already an A-list star, beloved by millions (of all ages) worldwide for his hit TV series and cemented as a movie star in smash spin-off Shaun the Sheep Movie in 2015. But, for his second outing in cinemas, his filmmakers wanted to push the character to places he had genuinely never been. And in ways that were bigger, better – more like an epic, Sci-Fi movie. "That is exactly what we were trying to do," says co-director Will Becher, an alumnus of the TV series and Animation Director on Nick Park's Early Man, who is making his directing debut with A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon. "Trying to make it feel like a very big, cinematic, very much sci-fi extravaganza, and open up Shaun's world in a way that we've never seen before. It really plays to that classic, Steven Spielberg-style sci-fi genre."

In Farmageddon, Shaun the Sheep's blissful – if occasionally mischievous – everyday existence is upended entirely by the arrival of an extra-terrestrial – a cute, crazy, sparkly purple-blue one: LULA. And she's not just an excuse for some hilarious and action-packed set-pieces, but a character who throws Shaun's beloved family dynamic into chaos. Usually the rebel of the stories – straining against the authoritarian rules of the long-suffering sheepdog Bitzer ("Who is effectively his older brother," notes Becher), while always trying to make sure his antics remain unseen by the farmer ("Our father-figure"), Farmageddon sees Shaun discover an all-new, and deeply terrifying, emotional frontier. "For once, Shaun has to be, relatively speaking, the sensible one," laughs co-director Richard Phelan, who also makes his feature-length directing debut here. "He has to start to grow up, to look after her. That's something he's never had to do before."

LU-LA, an astonishing new Aardman creation, is an alien who has crash-landed on Earth and finds herself pursued by the dastardly Agent Red and her hazmat-suited goons, a bunch of secret and sinister government types out to prove the existence of aliens and capture their quarry by any means necessary. "It's up to Shaun to get LU-LA home safely," says Phelan. "But he's going to have to pull off all of his greatest ever tricks if he's going to do it."

In a way, the seeds of Farmageddon were sown almost a decade ago. "I remember when I first moved to Aardman, I said, 'Why don't we do a sci-fi movie?'" says producer Paul Kewley. But it was only when, three years ago, Richard Starzak, the Shaun series overseer who took Nick Park's original "bit-part" character from 1995's 'A Close Shave' and gave him the depth, shade and wit that would expand him out into a star in his own right, came up with the concept for Shaun's big screen sequel that that idea became more fully formed. "When we first started talking about the sequel, it was Richard who drove it, saying we should do something about aliens," remembers Kewley. "I was on board very quickly. We were drawn to this idea that the alien would come to Shaun and it would be set in our world."

The story developed through intensive meetings and relentless questioning, with everyone contributing. Mark Burton, one of the writers and directors of the first Shaun movie, joined the Farmageddon directors in thrashing out ideas, alongside editor Sim Evan-Jones and Kewley. "There are no egos in that room," says Phelan. "There can't be. You are allowed to be wrong because we are looking for the very funniest version, the most entertaining ideas. We are springboarding around a big roundtable thinking, 'Well, what would Shaun do?'"

"I see it from a character point of view," says Evan-Jones, who edited the first Shaun The Sheep Movie, as well as Shrek and its sequel. "Shaun is always naughty – you know he's always going to be skirting the corner of trouble. If you see Shaun walk past the sweet shop and see him stop and look in the window, you think 'Aye-aye! Something is going to go on here!' And LU-LA doubles that jeopardy. She is even cheekier and more out-there than Shaun."

Add to that the fact that Shaun has to keep LU-LA secret from the world at large, hidden from Agent Red and her cohorts, and Farmageddon has a scale and sense of adventure that smashes through the already considerably high ceiling Aardman has always set for its woolly hero. "The stakes are raised in that way," says Evan-Jones. "First you see them [the government agents] just in their sinister black van… then you find out they have a secret base deep under Mossingham."

Not that things ever get too sinister, of course. "It's a greater threat that is done in a very Aardman way," reassures Evan-Jones. "It's not quite life or death, but you know they are out to get her!"

For cinematographer Charles Copping, Farmageddon didn't just represent the chance to shoot Shaun in his most expansive, epic way to date – "Those sets were huge, extraordinary," Copping marvels of production designer Matt Perry's astonishing builds; "Agent Red's underground lair is all very James Bond!" – but saw him come full circle with the character.

"I do feel a lot of affinity with Shaun," smiles Copping, "because 25 years ago, my first ever job at Aardman was as a runner on 'A Close Shave'. That was Shaun's debut and it was my debut, so our paths have been truly in parallel. As Shaun has gone from TV to features, so have I. We have grown together."

Forged from the whole team's long-held love of the genre, Farmageddon is at once a tribute to the classics, and an hilarious, Shaun-shaped reinvention of its many established tropes. "We studied classic sci-fi for ages," says Phelan, "looking at the lenses they use, the frame, Kubrick's compositional shots, Spielberg's way of choreographing movement through the frame. Realising all this is incredibly meticulous in animation. You can't just say, 'the camera pans around', you know?"

It all helped expand the setting from what regular viewers of Shaun are used to – contrasting the everyday, deliberate plainness of his home farm with the colourful and surreal alien world and hardcore military tech. "Shaun's world in the TV series feels quite contained, quite small in a way," says Phelan. "But here we picked at that surface, we said that underneath it are these secret government organisations. And that 10,000 light years away there is another planet. Then his world just gets huge." Or, as Copping has it, "The visual elements become more exciting the bigger the journey he goes on. And this is the biggest adventure Shaun has ever had."

Capturing that spirit of classic sci-fi – and appealing to all ages – was crucial for the Farmageddon team. And, from the reaction the finished film has enjoyed at early screenings, it would seem to have paid off in spades. "The parents saw a really valuable story for their kids about responsibility of relationships. The kids loved meeting a new friend and a new character. It worked on lots of different levels," says Becher of the reactions so far. "Most great animation crosses divides, it reminds people that we're all the same," says Kewley. "This is a story about an alien coming to our world and getting accepted."

But at the heart of it all remains a little sheep with a big naughty streak. "When Nick [Park] created Shaun, he created a perfect character," says Kewley. "And what Richard [Starzak] did when he created the series was figure out how to take that character and build on it." For them, Shaun is always about a spirit of rebelliousness, but always with a good heart. "The thing is that Shaun is not a good kid, and that's great," says Kewley. "I don't want my seven-year-old to be an angel all the time. I want him to have a bit of the Devil in him. Shaun is the guy who will always press the red button, but he'll always know he's done something wrong when he has. That's why we can all relate to him."

Putting that relatable character – that has not just endured but grown exponentially over 25 celebrated, award-winning years – into a sci-fi adventure was a test for everyone involved, from the first-time feature directors to even the experienced Aardman crew. But, ultimately, it was all very much worth all the agonising.

"Shaun the Sheep has always remained a brilliant constant for us," reflects co-executive producer Carla Shelley, who has been with Aardman more than 30 years. "Over the years, when we've talked to American partners, they've often said that they want to put a voice on Shaun, to have him learn things. Sacrilege! That's not Shaun! Not only did we resist that, we turned it on its head. Shaun doesn't talk - that's his USP and it has connected so strongly with people for so long." Shelley pauses, reflecting on his 25 years of hair-brained adventure. "You know, when we first met Shaun, he was just a bit-part character, a pawn in the bigger Wallace and Gromit story." She smiles, proudly. "And just look at him now!"

The DNA Of Lu-La

The key creatives talk this brand-new addition to the Shaun the Sheep universe, his new alien best buddy who is blowing early audiences away…

Her character "When we first sat down to talk about this movie, we knew we wanted to add a new element of nuance, of Shaun growing up. So, we needed a new character, one that he has to grow up to look after. That's LU-LA. She's a young alien who has crash-landed on Earth, and who needs Shaun's help to get back home. She is a puppet unlike any other in the Aardman universe. She's stretchy. She moves at a speed that no other character can. Her eyes bug out." Richard Phelan, co-director.

Her name
Shaun's new, extra-terrestrial visitor and friend was aptly named as a nod to the 50th Anniversary of the Lunar landing in July 2019.

Her charm
"Where LU-LA has ended up [after the lengthy production process] is that she's got such a warmth and charm that she's quite irresistible. It's taken a long time to get her there, but we know we've got her right. For a long time, she looked a bit like a dog, but then we felt that she was maybe a bit too pet-like, not alien enough. We didn't want to go the more obviously 'alien' route and make her ugly, we wanted her to be endearing and charming, but not vulnerable." Carla Shelley, co- executive producer.

Her look
"We had the idea, but we didn't have LU-LA. We knew roughly the things she needed to do. She needed powers to do this or that. The designers went away and did hundreds of designs, crazy versions of her. Then, one of the designers drew a UFO with a little sort of rocket thrust underneath it. It was a silhouette and it was perfect. You've got think about what works in the world of Shaun because she has got to stand next to these characters and feel like she's from that universe. And that was it." Richard Phelan, co-director.

Her voice
"We went through so many iterations of LU-LA. At one point, the conversation turned to her abilities. Highlighting her vulnerability and innocence was key – showing that aliens could be just as scared and sensitive as us. She's voiced by Amalia Vitale and her voice just fits the puppet so well. When we put the two things together, we went, 'Oh, now we're starting to see a character!' That blend of innocence and cheekiness is what we wanted." Mark Burton, writer.

Her abilities
"LU-LA has emerged as this beautiful thing from a beautiful world, who is beautifully designed, by the way. It was decided that she would have certain otherworldly skills and party tricks. But until you put them into the plotting, you don't know how they're going to reveal themselves…" Sim Evan-Jones, editor.

Her sound
"The first thing I wrote [on this movie] was LU-LA's tune. Because, really, she's driving this and her craziness is next level. Where Shaun can, you know, throw a ball and smash a window, she can levitate tractors. She is chaos on another level. For her sound, I used a plug-in, it emulates an old piece of kit called a crystalliser. It adds a bit of chorus fizz and unusualness. She had other sounds but the main one for her melody was a celesta. I added reverbs and all sorts of different things, to up the unusualness. As soon as I heard it, I knew that was it. I sent it to Aardman and they loved it. They put it in [the early temp track] and it stayed all the way in there until the end." Tom Howe, composer.

Her impact
"We did a test screening [of the movie] and the reaction to LU-LA was amazing. It was scary sitting there, because we knew Lu-La was going to appear on screen in about 30 seconds and they were either going to love her or hate her. So, when she came on screen and all the rustling of sweets stopped and the whole room went, 'Ahhhh!' we were like, 'Thank God!'" Will Becher, co-director.

Her future "There are ideas that are knocking around in relation to that [LU-LA reappearing in future Shaun the Sheep adventures]. We have no shortage of ideas..." Paul Kewley, producer.

Code Red

Six steps to creating a truly iconic science fiction villain, by the people who did. Get ready to meet the dastardly Agent Red…

Shades of evil

"The sci-fi genre is famous for its iconic villains, and we really wanted to deliver on that with ours. So, we had various meetings trying to figure out who she was. There were lots of different approaches. But, really, we wanted to have a character that wasn't black and white, who wasn't a villain just for the sake of being a villain. That was Agent Red." Will Becher, co-director.

Double trouble

"Originally [in the script] there were two agents, almost a Men In Black-style thing. The idea was that one of the agents was good, in that she embraced the idea of extra-terrestrials, the other one was bad, quite xenophobic. But it complicated the story too much, so we cut one of the agents.

The thing with a good villain story is that you need to know the 'whys'. You know, they're doing the wrong thing, but maybe for reasons you understand. That's important. We were searching for it, for her reasoning. We needed to figure out what was driving her, beyond just being a badass." Mark Burton, writer.

A shot at redemption

"All the way through we were trying to wrestle with who Agent Red was. We realised that if we were going to redeem her, she had to be misunderstood. It's taken a long time, with no dialogue, to find the right combination of shots and backstory, to make you understand her. She's not cruel, she's driven. She's misunderstood." Richard Phelan, co-director.

Beneath the mask

"It's easier to have someone just be a plain 'baddie' when you have no dialogue. In many ways, we made this way more difficult for ourselves! But we never wanted Agent Red to be that simple. We wanted her to be the best she could be, so it was worth the effort. Her human story makes for a much better resolution." Will Becher, co-director.

What a girl wants

"You know, this is a film for kids. At one point [in pre-production], Agent Red's motivation was that she wanted a promotion, but for kids that doesn't mean anything. What she wants needs to be clear from a child's point of view. Money or promotion doesn't resonate with children. It had to have a deeper emotional connection." Richard Phelan, co-director.

The Hazmats

"And she really is a great villain, even if the people she is surrounded by are useless! In particular, she has a team of guys in bright yellow hazmat suits. They're kind of a comedic troupe that acts almost like a single character. They tend to sort of run around in a little gang, like idiots. Really, when you're editing them, you deal with them like one character. One failed, not very successful, alien detector character! They frustrate Agent Red greatly, but she's not just the 'uptight boss' – she's got much more depth than that." Sim Evan-Jones, editor.

Note perfect

Shaun the Sheep is synonymous with banging tunes, but Farmageddon takes that to all-new heights. Here's why…

The influences rock

"When we are assembling the movie, we just try things out [as temp tracks]. For a long time, The Clash was in there as it had that right anarchic feel. That's great, but what's the modern-day version of The Clash? You know, kids aren't going to be going, 'Yes! The Clash!'" Richard Phelan, co-director.

There are brand-new 'needle-drops' – from Kylie and more

"The music has always been something that has set Shaun [movies] apart from other Aardman films – what Americans call the 'needle-drop' track. The first Shaun [movie] had tracks by Foo Fighters and Primal Scream dropped into the cut. But in this film, we have four bespoke tracks that were actually written for the film. Kylie Minogue and The Vaccines have done a collaboration [for a new track called 'Lazy']. Jorja Smith has done one. My daughter suggested her, so she's getting a signed T-shirt." Sim Evan-Jones, editor.

Famous fans
"We love Kylie and we love Aardman, both [are] national treasures. Collaborating on 'Lazy' was an honour and a dream come true. [It is] maybe an unlikely pairing on the face of it, but [it's] one that makes total sense in a world as wonderful and mischievous as Shaun's." Justin Hayward-Young, singer, The Vaccines.

It was scored at Abbey Road

"Well, it's just exciting to be there, isn't it? A lot of my favourite movies were scored there. It also has a unique sound, as every studio does. Also, most of the time, composing is a very solitary thing, so to be able to go to Abbey Road and work with musicians I like and know and respect is exciting to me, because I get to hang out with them. The music I wrote for this is incredibly hard and fast, but they just nailed it. And it's a big group, too. Including the choir, we had over 100 people in the orchestra." Tom Howe, composer.

It's Shaun, but not as you know him

"Because Shaun is way more than just a 'cheeky chappy' in this, I was able to explore a completely different harmonic language for him, above and beyond what you've heard before. I worked on Early Man, so I've worked with these [Aardman] guys before. But this was an unusual project because it's the first time I've done a project of this length with no dialogue. That makes a big difference in terms of what the music has to do and how you approach it. It has to do a lot more heavy-lifting, but that's a great opportunity because it allows you to explore. I set up a mini-studio at Aardman and we'd just try stuff out on the spot. I took a leaf out of Bernard Herrmann [who did the famous Psycho theme for Alfred Hitchcock] and experimented with the Theremin – which is a really unique sound, a very odd instrument, that instantly says, 'Sci-fi, but funny.'" Tom Howe, composer.

It is a time of heroes

"When you hear the words 'sci-fi' you immediately think John Williams. John Williams is just the best, isn't he? His tunes are nice and simple and hummable, but under the surface they are incredibly complex, rhythmically. Pretty much any film you can hum, he wrote the theme tune, he wrote the score. Jaws, E.T., Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park... I mean, come on – he's been nominated for 52 Oscars! That is a hell of a thing when you think about it. To have that many slam-dunks is unbelievable! I can't remotely put myself in that camp, but I hope I've done something that fits in the sci-fi genre really well. I'm proud of it." Tom Howe, composer.

Higher Concept

Production designer Matt Perry's six reasons why scale, new characters and unlikely Alien riffs mark out this Shaun story as unlike any you've ever seen…

1. The name's Sheep. Shaun the Sheep
"The underground base [the sinister government lair in Farmageddon] is very You Only Live Twice. It's the largest interior we have ever built, and I'm very proud of it. It needed to be that size because at one point we have a spaceship coming down in the middle of it, so we needed that kind of leap in scale on this movie. The agent whose lair it is [Agent Red] has changed in tone a bit in the final movie, but at one stage she was quite 'James Bondy', so that's where the inspiration came from. But even though she changed, we still kept that flavour in the design of the base because that felt like the right kind of language to use. The base is called MAD – the Ministry of Alien Detection. It's been where it is since way, way back, even though they've never actually found a UFO before! That's why the Bond theme fit, because this place was set up around the time of those earlier movies, in the '60s."

2. A Shaun for all seasons
"Shaun's environment on the farm has been so set for so many years. On the first film we did try to make it a bit more cinematic, painted better skies, put more details on the grass, but it didn't make that huge a jump. On this one, one of the first conversations we had was us saying that we really wanted to have crop circles in Farmageddon, so obviously Signs was talked about a lot. Shaun's farm is set up almost like one in the American Midwest, isolated, with an expanse of cornfields around it and a big horizon in the distance, so we can play some great crop circle gags. But in terms of the mood, we wanted this movie to be quite eerie at points. So, we set it at autumn, which we also haven't done before, which let us get really cinematic with the colouring. It's quite cheeky, really [what we do with the seasons here]. It's high summer as far as the corn is concerned, but everywhere else it's autumn. That gives you your misty forest stuff for the scary bits and also some stunning colouration for daytime in the woods. This one has a very different feel, to set the tone right from the beginning."

3. Size does matter
"Because of that scale, the sets that we built were so big on this that one actually had to be built outside the studio, brought in in pieces and actually assembled on their side, with the cameras shooting it sideways. A bit like they used to shoot Batman and Robin climbing up the buildings in the old TV series, but hopefully a bit more convincingly! In the first Shaun [movie], we showed some scale, but on this one we actually had to build Mossingham village! That was a very big build. One of our biggest sets ever. A lot of time went into that. I would say that that set is at least a man-year's worth of work. Maybe a bit more."

4. Let's get cooking
"On this movie, we have around 50-70 sets, altogether. The art department is pretty full-on. It's like an architect's office. We have 35 shooting units [going at once] when it's really cooking. There are maybe 28 animators, so you always have units spare, but you're always getting them ready for the animators to jump onto when they are ready. You try to make sure they are never sat around, waiting. Even though it may seem like it's slow compared to live-action filmmaking, it's actually pretty full-on. The sets also need, of course, to be able to accommodate not just the cameras but the animators themselves. They are like giants in there! We'll sometimes slide panels out to let them get in and then slide them back in behind them."

5. Meet Muggins
"Muggins is a robot I designed for the movie. He's not a high-tech robot; he's sort of an '80s throwback. He's a supposed to be an assistant to Agent Red. But he's really pretty useless! He looks a bit like a security camera mixed with a filing cabinet. And he's a complete idiot."

Shaun: the Stats

With Shaun turning 25 next year, here at the 25 top things you need to know about the planet's favourite sheep

1. Shaun the Sheep first appeared in Nick Park's Wallace & Gromit classic, 'A Close Shave', in 1995
2. Somehow, he is still just in his early teens (in sheep years)
3. He is part of the family for Aardman, the beloved British animation studio that was founded in 1972
4. Farmageddon is Shaun's second blockbuster event, after 2015's Shaun The Sheep Movie
5. That movie scored a cracking $22 million at the UK box office
6. Shaun's follow-up, Farmageddon, is an even more epic adventure, that will seehim journey into space for the first time – 10,000 light years away!
7. For Farmageddon, its makers needed Shaun's biggest sets ever – up to 70 of them, in fact, with up to 35 units shooting on them at any one time
8. No less than 28 animators were tasked with bringing Shaun and his new friend, the magical alien called Lu-La, to life
9. On average, just two seconds of animation is produced, per animator, per day.
10. A typical Shaun the Sheep puppet is 17cm tall and weighs 100g
11. He also has over 5 million Facebook fans
12. Across the world, Shaun's brand has never been more potent, especially in Japan, where he has 100 different commercial partners
13. That's not to say Shaun says yes to everything. Far from it, in fact. "We say no to many, many things," says the man in charge of the Shaun brand, Sean Clarke.
14. In Japan, there are five Shaun the Sheep playparks, two cafes and a new Shaun theSheep dining experience that is just about to launch.
15. The food in those cafes is particularly good, says Clarke. "But there's no lamb on the menu!"
16. Next summer, Shaun the Sheep will travel to Japan as a partner of the GB Olympic Team
17. His theme parks are taking off, too. The first launched in Sweden and he now has ones in Australia and Japan, with one planned in China too
18. Nick Park, Shaun's creator, credits Baby Spice as being a key part of his success, herbeing photographed wearing a Shaun backpack in the '90s skyrocketing his fame
19. To record his score for FARMAGGEDON, at London's iconic Abbey Road, composer Tom Howe enlisted an orchestra of more than 100
20. Shaun's voice (okay, 'baaas') is provided by Justin Fletcher, also known as children's TV favourite, Mr Tumble
21. John Sparkes, who provides Bitzer's grumbles, is also the narrator of Peppa Pig – and was part of the cult '80s sketch show Absolutely (if you're old enough to remember that)
22. To date, Shaun has shot 150 episodes of his TV show, 1 TV special and, now, two featurelength movies
23. The average time it takes to make a Shaun movie is more than three years
24. Farmageddon has two directors – Will Becher and Richard Phelan – who have collaborated closely for those three years to bring Shaun to life on screen. "They get on really well, depending on what time of day it is," laughs writer Mark Burton
25. Shaun the Sheep has a presence in a whopping 170 territories worldwide

A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Release Date: 9th January, 2020