Shaun, vita da pecora: operazione Z.U.C.C.A.

The cleverest sheep in cinema, even cleverer than the flock in Kyle Balda’s film “Undercover Sheep”. The sheep help solve the case of shepherd Hugh Jackman, who did not die of a heart attack at all (that is what happens when you read crime novels to sheep in the evening). Shaun the clever sheep, his flock, the daft farmer, and the sheepdog who never looks where the action is – they are clay figures from Aardman Studios. The same studio behind Chicken Run, to name a title that broke through the barriers of animated films. Clay, in stop-motion: the puppets are moved by hand. In the early films, viewers could discern the animators’ fingerprints as they moved the four legs. The sheep are often shown standing on their hind legs, for example when they are pottering about in a laboratory reminiscent of Frankenstein’s in James Whale’s classic film. There was also a Were-Rabbit, who munched on prize-winning carrots. Here we have Halloween pumpkins; unfortunately, the field is immediately ravaged. To make them grow back, the clever little sheep concocts a magic potion, which the daft farmer mistakes for the lotion that makes the few hairs on his head grow back. He’s dug out his rocker outfit and invited the pretty vet to the dance. The pumpkins grow gigantic. The shepherd looks like the Abominable Snowman, hairy and carrot-coloured. Fifty years on, from Bristol, the plasticine wizards are still sensational.