<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Richard Starzak, Nick Park. Starring the voice talent of Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, Chris Morrell, Andy Nyman, David Holt, Kate Harbour

Running time: 1 hour 26 minutes

From the moment it starts off with its very E.T. The Extraterrestrial plot and even scene stealing, Farmageddon shows us it’s nothing but a copy of sci-fi films we’ve all seen before.

Aardman stop-motion animation films used to be special, but in 2020 it seems dated and there’s nothing new here in terms of CGI or technique. And unfortunately, the story and lots of the scenes are uninspiring and reminiscent of other – better – sci-fi like E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, X-Files, Star Trek and plenty more that are blatantly imitated or referenced in Farmageddon.

The story of an alien that crash lands on Earth and is befriended by a young boy is as cliché as you can expect. Here it’s a cutesy alien that Shaun the Sheep must help evade the authorities and get back to his ‘home’.

And in Aardman style, there is no dialogue in the entire film. Just lots of weird sounds that the characters make to express their feelings. At times, that just makes it even more irritating.

Maybe filmmaking like this had a place in the 90s but considering there is absolutely nothing new here in terms of story, plot, scenes, ‘dialogue’, jokes etc., it’s hard to just say this is cute and simple entertainment that deserves applause. It may have the critics awed but audiences including kids in the theatre were shifting in their seats waiting for it to end.