Shaun the Sheep

There is something magical about clay-mation and the best studio in the world is UK based Aardman Animation.  They started producing the Shaun the Sheep TV series in 2007 and by 2015 it was popular enough that they made a movie.



Shaun the sheep is the clever leader of a rag-tag flock of sheep on a farm in the rolling countryside of rural England.  Through a series of mishaps the sheep cause their farmer to end up in the big city with amnesia and they take it upon themselves to rescue him. 

Like all Aardman productions the animation is incredible and the gadgets are outrageous.  The plot is pretty simple but it moves at a good pace and there are moments of humour throughout to keep things fun.


Rating: Although we enjoyed Shaun the Sheep we probably won't watch the movie again.  But it did wet our appetite for the TV series and other Aardman movies (The Curse of the Were-Rabbit). 

Naughty bits: Shaun the Sheep was as clean as the farmers house BEFORE the pigs got in and suitable for even younger viewers.  The animal catcher is a bit scary but only if you are a pre-schooler.

Snacks: Candy Floss

Family In-quotes: Ummm there is no dialog in this movie!!!!!

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Wallace and Gromit

The Flintstones

Who here in internet land has fond memories of the TV show The Flintsones?  Yabadabadoo!  All of us, that's who!  The classic 1960's series was re-run well into our childhoods so why not watch the live action movie and introduce the fun to our kids?  Well, the idea was a good one...

Lets start with the casting: John Goodman as Fred and Rick Moranis (see our previous post) as Barney.  Great.  The set: A whole town set built to look prehistoric with "mod-cons" and dinosaur puppets.  Excellent stuff.  The costumes:  Authentic to the TV show and outrageous.  Good, good.  The plot:  Here's where things go horribly wrong.  The writers turn what was a fun, happy go lucky cartoon into a serious story about a corporate takeover and the ramifications.  They even split apart the Fred and Barney bromance!  But worst of all, it was B.O.R.I.N.G.  So boring in fact that the kid fell asleep and we fast forwarded through much of the last third.

Rating: Needless to say we did not enjoy The Flintstones and will be happy for it to be lost to history.  This was so sad because visually there was so much we liked about it but ultimately it was not worth our time.


Naughty bits: The Flintstones is as clean as Wilma's lil' white dress.

Snacks: Bronto Burgers

Family In-quotes: "Yabadabado!"

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Get Smart

My dad loved the TV series Get Smart and I remember catching bits and pieces of it while he chortled away on the sofa but I really only remember Max's distinctive nasal voice, the famous door sequence and 99's sharp wit and bob.




In Get Smart, the movie, Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway attempt to re-imagine the series and make it relevant for today's audiences and we think they succeeded.  Sure it's a little slow getting started and Max is pretty annoying in the beginning but once things get going it's a fun ride and the Carell/Hathaway chemistry is surprisingly great.  This movie also features one of my faves, The Rock, as the superstar spy and when he and his megawatt smile enter the room it's truly fabulous.  The director hams this up too which makes it even better.

We watched some of the clips of the old show on YouTube after the movie and we all agreed the updated humour was much better than the original. The finale scene made us all laugh out loud so hard but I can't give it away, the reveal is just too good.

Rating:We were all highly entertained by Get Smart and there was enough plot that the kid had fun trying to figure out who the bad guy was.  We will definitely watch this again some time.

Naughty bits: There is some cartoon violence, some mild language and a couple of mild sexual innuendos but for the most part it is as clean as Agent 23's white shirt (how does he keep it soooo clean?)

Snacks: Ice cream cone of silence

Family In-quotes: "Missed it by that much"

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