It’s a big year for Aardman Animation Studios. It will celebrate its 40th anniversary, Shaun the Sheep Movie was released and was critically well received, and Shaun’s special The Farmer’s Llamas has been released just in time for Christmas.
The runtime is substantially longer than the shows usual seven-minute length, allowing for a much fuller story for the whole family to enjoy. The plot is as follows:
When the Farmer and Bitzer go to a Country Fair, Shaun steals away with them intent on causing mischief. Shaun spies an auction where he sees three exotic and very crafty Llamas going under the hammer. Instantly besotted by their fantastic pranks Shaun cleverly gets the unwitting Farmer to buy them.
Alix Wiseman, head of sales and acquisitions at Aardman, said: ‟We’re all truly excited to be seeing the story of The Farmer’s Llamas come to life and we hope our global fans will enjoy this fun new adventure as we delve deeper into Shaun’s world.”
A documentary celebrating Aardman’s 40th anniversary will be titled A Grand Night In and will star The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Martin Freeman and Hugh Grant. More information about the documentary can be found here.
David Sproxton, Aardman co-founder, explains the beginnings: “When we arrived in Bristol in 1976 with our clockwork cine camera there was a total of three television channels for the British audience to watch. Although we were lucky enough to have a small contract with BBC Children’s Television we never imagined our two man outfit would develop into a major studio of international repute. It’s been an extraordinary journey, even if it is one we’ve taken one frame at a time.”
Peter Lord, Aardman co-founder, added: “The last forty years has been an amazing adventure. When we arrived in Bristol forty years ago, our only ambition was to find a niche, if we possibly could, in the world of animation. Our friends and colleagues thought we were pretty well barmy to start up anywhere outside London. So it’s amazing now to find that Aardman has become this huge community of superbly talented people, making films and telling stories that travel all round the world.”
While UK viewers have to wait until Boxing Day for The Farmer’s Llamas to air on BBC at 6:15pm, US Amazon Prime viewers can watch it now here. All Shaun the Sheep episodes and the movie are also available on Amazon Prime along with Aardman’s classic Wallace & Gromit series.
What do you think of The Farmer’s Llamas? Will you watch this Christmas special?
Edited by: Hannah wilkes
