'Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom' Is Officially an Instant Halloween Classic | Review

Published Sep 13, 2026, 7:00 AM EDT

Charlie Ridgely is a writer from Maryland, currently residing in Nashville, Tennessee. He may be new to Collider, but he's been writing, editing, conducting interviews, and podcasting around the industry for 10 years. From 2016 to the start of 2026, Charlie was a full time writer and critic at ComicBook.com. A lifelong movie fan, avid reader, and renowned (fictional) dungeon explorer/dragonslayer, Charlie is a jack-of-all-trades throughout the fandom multiverse and has covered everything under the sun. 

Fans of Aardman Animation's groundbreaking and iconic animation have been witnessing the hilarious antics of one Shaun the Sheep for more than 30 years now, if you can believe it. The wool-covered hero first appeared in Wallace & Gromit's A Close Shave back in 1995, before going on to become something of a cultural behemoth in his own right. Two feature films and nearly 200 television episodes later, Shaun is an animation mainstay, which you'd think would make creating fresh adventures for the character a real challenge. Luckily, the folks at Aardman didn't get that particular memo, because Shaun the Sheep remains as captivating and hilarious as he's ever been.

The character's new feature film, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, is an absolute delight from start to finish, which probably isn't surprising to anyone who has been a fan of Aardman pictures for any length of time. The studio regularly knocks it out of the park, and The Beast of Mossy Bottom is no exception. The breezy — and almost entirely dialogue-free — 80-minute picture is getting released in theaters this week (thankfully missing the straight-to-Netflix fate of the recent Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run movies), and that alone feels like a small miracle. That Shaun is bringing with him to the big screen an honest-to-goodness family Halloween classic is the enormous cherry (or, if you prefer, pumpkin) on top.

'Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom' Is Halloween Hilarity at Its Finest

GKIDS/ Sky UK

Directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom begins just a couple of days before Halloween, as Shaun, Timmy, and the rest of the herd revel in their hidden pumpkin patch. Their spooky season oasis is meant to be kwpt a secret from The Farmer and Blitzer, but a big accident by the former leads to its destruction. In order to have new pumpkins before Halloween arrives, Shaun goes full-on mad scientist and concocts a serum that will have the seeds growing at ridiculous speeds — which he stores in an empty bottle of hair-growth formula that the Farmer threw out.

As Shaun works on his experiment, the Farmer is trying to get back to his former glory days, where he would dance the night away at Mossy Bottom's Halloween bash. Hoping to take his friend and crush, the Vet, to the party with him, the Farmer attempts to grow his hair back to the beautiful locks he had in his youth. Of course, he mistakenly uses Shaun's entirely-too-successful science experiment to get the job done, turning him into what appears to be a fur-covered Bigfoot, rather than a mild-mannered farmer.

This movie gets to the heart of the classic monster movies, with some very obvious (but extremely well-crafted nods) to the likes of Frankenstein and The Wolf Man. There's also an entire "Thriller" sequence that absolutely nails Michael Jackson's iconic dance. From beginning to end, The Beast of Mossy Bottom is jam-packed with loving homages to the best parts of Halloween media over the years. It feels like a love letter to the Halloween season itself, while still being something that stands completely on its own and feels quite singular in the holiday space.

'Shaun the Sheep' Mixes Monsters With Mossy Bottom

GKIDS/ Sky UK

The latest Shaun the Sheep feature is as fully Aardman as you can get in its style and tone, which is all anyone is asking for —and it goes to great lengths to highlight just how well the animation from that studio continues to age and evolve with immense poise. It has the Aardman signature style, of course, but every frame looks a little bit better than other recent Aardman adventures. These pioneers are still perfecting their craft over three decades later, and we're all better for it. It's gorgeous and, perhaps more importantly, undeniably human.

Surprisingly, though, The Beast of Mossy Bottom's superpower might lie in how flawlessly it executes the tightrope walk of making a true-blue, hit-all-the-right-notes monster movie, while also delivering a silent comedy for kids. As wild as it sounds, the combination works tremendously well, though it's difficult to think it would have the same success in other hands.

Part of the fun of some monster movies is the mystery at the center of who or what the monster could be. But when telling a story to young audiences, you don't want to leave too much of the monster to the imagination, because the idea of "what could be" is where so much fear can be created. In that regard, The Beast of Mossy Bottom has its cake and eats it, too.

We know from the jump exactly who the beast is and how he took on this frightful form, but the town around him has no idea, which is where much of both the drama and comedy come from. It takes the core theme of Frankenstein, and how an angry mob is created to destroy something they simply don't understand, then makes it even more black and white. Just another fantastic nod to the monsters of yore, molded into magnificent clay.

And speaking of the angry mob: there's a running joke in The Beast of Mossy Bottom in which the mob chasing after the Farmer is led by the guy running the Halloween costume store, so all of the weapons the townsfolk use in their chase are ridiculous dress-up props. There is no shortage of laughs from that single bit, which is one of dozens of hysterical set-ups throughout the movie.

Great comedies are in short order these days, as are impeccably-crafted kids movies and nostalgic monster tales. This goes double for the movies actually going to theaters. Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom manages to be all three, which makes it a future Halloween mainstay for audiences of every age.

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom

9 10

Cast

• 

  Justin Fletcher

  Shaun / Timmy (voice)

• 

  John Sparkes

  The Farmer / Bitzer (voice)

Pros & Cons

• The film incorporates classic Halloween tropes while still being unique.
• It crafts a charming monster tale that works for the entire family, and won't frighten young children.
• Aardman's animation is even more skillful than it has been in the past.