Shaun the Sheep & other festive specials

[notjosh]

I like to keep up with the new Christmas specials for kids (OLD AND YOUNG), and iPlayer has a dedicated section for it at the moment.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/group/m001tkjg

Tried Stick Man. A Julia Donaldson story about what would happen... if sticks could talk. Can't say I was thrilled by the premise, and also very confused about the world. Can all sticks talk? Can animals understand him? It's not always clear. Then at the end they throw in

Spoiler alert

Santa

[close]

as a deus ex machina and it feels like they've given up.

Next I moved on to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, which is about a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse wandering about in the snow and saying instagram quotes at each other. "Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is admit you are afraid" sort of thing. On and on interminably. Absolute dogshit, hated it, didn't finish.

Finally I got to Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas, which was a delight. All the care and attention you'd expect of Aardman at their best, and stocked full of great, silly gags with a clear Chuck Jones influence. Also some fun satire on modern parenting. 8/10 would recommend.

Anyone else got any recent favourites?

[Norton Canes]

(Re-)watched The Flight Before Christmas yesterday, utter bliss. The reveal of the Christmas decor in Bitzer's kennel is exquisite. Also, I realised how much the hybrid snowman the sheep clump together to form in the Christmas market looks like something from a horror movie, with its uneven misplaced eyes.

[thenoise]

Tried Stick Man. A Julia Donaldson story about what would happen... if sticks could talk. Can't say I was thrilled by the premise, and also very confused about the world. Can all sticks talk? Can animals understand him? It's not always clear.

Hes not a stick, he's Stickman.