Shaun the Sheep: Sheep on the Loose Review

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(More customer reviews)Young and young-at-heart fans of "Shaun the Sheep" are going to love the newest adventures of the little sheep and his friends. With six features, each six minutes long, "Sheep on the Loose" is shorter that the others in the series, but it makes up for it in leaps and bounds with the ten additional minutes (not listed) of great, never before seen bonus features on the making of Shaun.
The adventures include:
* Sheep on the Loose - Shaun tries to keep the farmer from finding out his whole herd has disappeared after hitching a ride to the town fair.
* Saturday Night Shaun - an old record player and disco music are an invitation for party time at the barn.
* Tidy Up - It's cleaning day at the farm. Shaun and the gang have a run in with THE most powerful vacuum cleaner ever.
* Shaun the Farmer - Farmer's sick and his dog is taking care of him and must delegate. Or so he says. See what happens when Shaun takes over the chores at the farm.
* Camping Chaos - Never set up camp and go off hiking when sheep are around.
* If You Can't Stand the Heat - A warm wooly coat and a farmer enjoying a cool dip in the pool are a recipe for mayhem.
The bonus features include "Building a Pig", a 6-minute real-time workshop with children (8 years old or so) on how to make one of the pigs using plasticine (google "home plasticine" to make an easy homemade version or buy a whole set Plasticine Master Crafter). The children all enjoyed it and it was easy to follow along, with pretty good results.
This was followed by "The Mini Making of Shaun", a step by step mini-documentary of how the features are made, including the storyboard phase, using computers, the making of the models with a moveable skeleton inside to let them move, building of the sets, how they get everything to look so real, and the use of stop motion animation.
Don't be put off by the length. At 48 minutes total, it's right up there with other kid DVDs. Moreover, I have newfound respect for this type of labor-intensive clay animation after finding out it took 12 shots, each time moving the figure a tiny bit, to get just 1 second of footage. That's 4,320 pictures to get just one 6 minute feature!
My toddler loved the adventures and kept giggling throughout, but didn't really care for the extras (he's too young but an older child would probably like this). I loved the bonus features and learning all the secrets behind bringing the barnyard gang to life. Funny kid-friendly story lines, great extras, excellent quality overall. Can't get better than that!

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Shaun the Sheep™ and his barnyard gang are back with more chaos in the countryside! The Oscar(r)-winning creators of Wallace and Gromit ™ do it again with sheeptacular new adventures and just shear wackiness. Shaun is a sheep who doesn't follow the flock, and along with the other sheep and those naughty pigs, there's sure to be plenty of mayhem in the meadow.

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Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf or Death (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)Just getting a new Wallace & Gromit short is good news, but "A Matter of Loaf and Death" feels a whole lot like a remake of "A Close Shave." It's still rather entertaining, but it feels rather derivative. It also seems to use a lot more pop-culture gags than the older films did, though admittedly they're old enough that they have become permanent fixtures on the pop-culture landscape and only one isn't funny if you don't know the reference.
I would NOT get this single-disc release, though, because it is a cropped full-frame (1.33:1) when the movie itself was animated in widescreen. The documentary on the making of the movie is in anamorphic widescreen, and often reveals how cramped some of the cropped shots are. It seems that the 4-disc DVD complete collection is in full-frame as well. The Blu-ray of the Complete Collection presents this movie in its proper widescreen format (as well as "A Close Shave"), and should be the one you buy if you have a choice. The Blu-ray remasters the original shorts as well, and they look spectacular.

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Looking for a fast way to earn dough, Wallace decides to make it. Armed with a batch of ovens, an army of robotic kneading arms and an old-fashioned windmill, Wallace & Gromit™ start "Top Bun,” their new bread-baking business. Sales rise quickly and Wallace falls head over buns in love with a seductive bread-industry icon, Piella Bakewell. But when bakers suddenly start disappearing, Gromit realizes that his master is in danger as he follows a twisting, turning trail of crumbs to solve a murder mystery that becomes…A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH!

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Shaun the Sheep: Off the Baa Review

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(More customer reviews)Too good to miss! Ageless humor guaranteed to bring cheer. Watch for the eventual availability of all 40 cartoons in the U.S.
Shaun the Sheep, appearing in the thirty minute feature "A Close Shave" appeared in the UK (and other non-U.S. nations) as seven minute Oscar winning cartoons in 2007. "Off the Baa is a collection of eight of these cartoons from the first season (listed below). Shaun is the star of farm and flock in episodes that fascinate adults and children. There are no speaking parts, but the antics stretch reality and lighten any mood using animal and people sounds.
Disney Channel seems to be the only source for Shaun cartoon broadcasts in the United States, except videos from some foreign Youtube-like sites. If you buy any videos, beware of DVD regional coding, making sure it is zero or one for the U.S. Watch for other collections of eight cartoons each - including "Wash Day", "Sheep on the Loose", "Saturday Night Shaun", and "Abracadabra". "Back in the Ba-a-ath" is also available, but I cannot find the number of episodes it includes.
A little searching will reward you with plenty of Aardman Animations videos including Shaun the sheep exercise video, BBC shorts, as well as Wallace and Grommit features, "Cracking Contraptions", full length films, cartoons, advertisements, and over a dozen new characters.. The new "A Matter of Loaf and Death" will begin to be available in June 2009 in the U.S.
Two further recommendations: First, BEWARE of torrent downloads of Shaun the Sheep series. One is a vicious scam. Second, Wikipedia has a rather complete write up on Shaun.Links too.
Off the Baa includes the following eight episodes from the first season:
Off The Baa!
Timmy In A Tizzy
Buzz Off Bees
Things That Go Bump
Mower Mouth
Fleeced
Shaun Shoots The Sheep
Mountains Out Of Molehills
(episodes 1, 4,13, 20, 7, 14, 15, 18 respectively)
Happy Sheeping. Oh, and you may see clips on Amazon.uk

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SHAUN THE SHEEP OFF THE BAA - DVD Movie

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Wallace & Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Widescreen Edition) (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)When else have I ever been able to write a review where both the words "clever" and "adorable" fit together?
From my perspective as a parent: I just took three boys, ages 3, 7 and 8, to see Wallace and Grommit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit. They all had a great time with it, laughed often and were completely absorbed by the story. There was not one scary or inappropriate thing in this movie for kids. Thumbs up!
From my perspective as an adult: Hilarious, clever, silly, and somehow adorable all at once, just what one would expect from a W&G film but even better, if that's possible. If you haven't been introduced to Nick Park's creations Wallace and Grommit (an uber-inventor and window washer by trade, with his all-too-human dog) before, I urge you to look up the other short movies on Dvd as soon as possible and spend the next few evenings with them. I promise you that you will be surprised and delighted with the quirky Aardman universe, the sly parodies of cinematic clichés, and the perfect attention to little details that went into creating the claymation sets and figures. This is surely the pinnacle of its art form, and a lot of fun for "kids of all ages" to boot.
This new movie, Curse of the Were-Rabbit, continues in the world of W&G, but with a new twist; the pair are now in the business of pest control with the very unique humane policy; they cannot dispose of the marauding garden pests that they capture in the usual manner because Wallace is too soft-hearted, so instead they keep them in cages at their home. Of course this has become a growing problem since the business took off and has been very brisk lately...until Wallace hatches an ingenious plan to change the very nature of rabbitiness, from ravenous vegetable-munchers into...well, we aren't entirely sure. It would seem that something went awry with the latest mind control gadget. Now, there's some kind of giant rabbit monster on the loose and naturally the town is desperate to protect their prize-winning vegetables for the annual Harvest Faire. Can Grommit solve the mystery of the monster's true nature before somebody decides to exact some not-so-humane pest control?
Without a doubt, I am going to rush out and buy this one as soon as it's released on Dvd in order to complete my Nick Park collection.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle

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WALLACE & GROMIT:CURSE OF THE WERE RA - DVD Movie

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Shaun the Sheep: Spring Shena-a-anigans Review

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(More customer reviews)What I like about Shaun the Sheep is that they don't really talk but rather just act goofy and funny. They are mischievous and sneaky, but they always make the whole family laugh! This DVD is great to get out of the winter funk and start thinking about spring and going outside!

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Spring with excitement and jump with joy because Shaun the Sheep is back for more wild adventures from the Oscar®-winning creators of Wallace & Gromit™. Fun on the farm springs to life with Shaun and his barnyard buddies – from bouncing sheep and a supersized Timmy to bagpipe buddies and a shortsighted farmer, there’s no limit to the wild things these animals will do. So hop along with Shaun, Bitzer, Shirley, Timmy, and those Naughty Pigs next door in some sheepherding mayhem that’s sure to give you a lift!

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Flushed Away (Widescreen Edition) (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)Perhaps that's because it's from Aardman Studios, famous for "Wallace And Gromit" and "Chicken Run." Aardman is also well known for their claymation style of animation, which is lovingly preserved, albeit through the use of CGI in "Flushed Away."
The story revolves around Roddy (Hugh Jackman), a family pet who gets flushed into the sewers of London by an unwelcome guest named Sid (Shane Richie). Sid takes over the world "up there" while Roddy is left to fight for his life in the seedy underbelly of London's sewers. In all actuality, though, life in the sewers isn't too terribly bad. When Roddy arrives there, he finds a near replica of London full of busy streets and shops. He decides that he must get home, and seeks out the aid of Rita (Kate Winslet), a female rat who's known for shady dealings. On her tail (pun intended) are the goons of The Toad (Sir Ian McKellan), who says that a ruby he owned which fell from the crown of either Prince Charles or the Queen (I don't remember which) was stolen by her and he wants it back. Of course Roddy thinks that by assisting him in finding the ruby, he'll get help in return to get back home. What he gets instead is more trouble when Rita steals something else from The Toad.
From there, the story becomes a pretty decent action/comic yarn where The Toad's cousin, Le Frog (Jean Reno) and his henchmen try to retrieve the item that Rita has stolen. It's an integral part of a master plan for revenge by The Toad on all of rodent-kind. Along the way, Roddy and Rita become close friends and Roddy decides that he has to help Rita and her family. It's all tied nicely together in the end and is definitely fun to watch.
The voice talents are wonderful. Jackman, Winslet, McKellan and Reno all do wonderful jobs. Andy Serkis, who portrayed Gollum in "Lord of the Rings" and did a lot of the physical movements of Kong in Peter Jackson's "King Kong," plays one of The Toad's henchmen along with Bill Nighy, recent of the latest "Pirate's of the Caribbean" flick.
The humor is, as expected, well grounded in British comedy and uses slapstick at will to enduce laughter from children. There are plenty of crotch injuries, one fart joke, and a few pokes at stereotypical Americans and the French. It's all done with good intentions and there's nothing really offensive here.
It will hold the attention of both young and old, but children will probably enjoy it more than adults. I enjoyed it but I have a tendency to enjoy silly children's flicks like this. I'm also a fan of Aardman's other work, so perhaps I'm a little biased. Rest assured that whenever it leaves the theaters and eventually hits the DVD rack, I'll be one of the first to buy it for myself and my family.

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Set on and beneath the streets of London, Flushed Away is the story of Roddy, an upper-crust "society mouse," who is rather rudely evicted from his Kensington flat when he is flushed down into Ratropolis, the bustling sewer world found under London’s streets. There, he meets Rita, an enterprising scavenger who works the sewers in her faithful boat, the Jammy Dodger. Together they must navigate their way through a busy city filled with dangers for any mouse, including terrifying rapids, treacherous whirlpools and, most of all, the villainous Toad and his hench-rats Spike and Whitey. Though completely out of his element at first, the privileged Roddy finds himself an unlikely hero when he learns that Ratropolis is in danger from the world above.

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Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Collection (4 Disc Set) Review

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(More customer reviews)Update: This film has one big problem. The third film, A Close Shave is in the 16:9 format on this disc while the original was in 4:3. This means the original film has been cropped to fit a widescreen TV. Pretty upsetting that they wouldn't include the three original videos in their original form. The first two, A Grand Day Out and The Wrong Trousers are in their original 4:3 format.
This is a great collection of the Wallace & Gromit films. The films all look excellent in HD and the behind the scenes features and commentary tracks are wonderful to listen to and really provide a lot of insight into the creation of the films.
For example, the commentary track for A Grand Day Out, the first film, talks about its production over about 6 years and the tricks that Nick used to film each shot. I'm pretty sure that these commentary tracks are taken from the DVD release, so they are nothing new if you have that version. The film also has several behind the scenes features which are also a lot of fun to watch and give good insight into the animation process, Nick Parks career, and the growth of the Wallace & Gromit franchise.
The packaging consists of a standard blu-ray case with a paper sleeve that has the same art as the case. There is no booklet with the film, just the disc.
I think the only thing missing from this collection is the full length feature film, but I think Wallace & Gromit works best in this shorter format.
I would recommend this collection to any Wallace & Gromit fan. The noticeable improvement in quality when viewed in HD and the behind the scenes and commentary tracks make it a joy to re-watch these excellent films and notice all the little details in the sets and animations.

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Millions of fans agree – no one makes animated mayhem like crackpot inventor Wallace and his faithful dog, Gromit. Join the Oscar®- winning sensations for four madcap adventures in their cheesiest, breeziest and funniest collection yet! Hang on for an out-of-this-world ride as Wallace’s mad craving for cheese leads to a space rocket adventure in A GRAND DAY OUT. In THE WRONG TROUSERS, Gromit smells something fishy after a penguin moves in and plots to make off with Wallace’s Techno-Trousers. Then it’s time for A CLOSE SHAVE as Wallace & Gromit™ get wrapped up in a sheep-rustling scheme. Finally, trouble rises after Wallace & Gromit start a bread- baking business and are ensnared in a murder mystery that becomes…A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH!

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