Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, the latest feature in the Shaun the Sheep franchise, is going for a scarier theme than previous entries, but don’t let that make you think twice about showing it to the little ones: this one is firmly for younger viewers… and perhaps only for them.

After Shaun’s crop of pumpkins is accidentally destroyed by the farmer, he turns to science to try and regrow them with a rapid-growth serum. This, of course, leads to a series of events that ends with the farmer encountering the serum, mistaking it for hair-growth lotion and suddenly turning into a large creature completely covered in big, bushy hair. As he causes mayhem at every turn and the townspeople try to track him down and get rid of him, Shaun and his fellow sheep attempt to save the day.

As fans of the IP may expect, there’s a paper-thin plot and no actual dialogue, keeping things easy enough for younger kids to follow. The words throughout are basically gibberish, sounding somewhat like the adults in Peanuts. As for the plot, I should mention that there is also a romantic subplot thrown in between the town vet and the farmer, but it’s a tangent that feels a bit out of place. Given it’s aimed primarily at kids, one wonders why they bothered with this story beat at all.

We have the same familiar style of stop-motion animation that has long been a hallmark of Aardman. It’s bound to be a comforting and welcome approach for those who want their Shaun the Sheep adventures to remain visually familiar, and yes, it looks better today than it did in the franchise’s earlier years, but it’s still very much the same clay-animation style. While the colours are more vibrant and there is more detail, there isn’t much new ground being broken.

So, will the key demographic have a good time here? If the screening I attended serves as any indication, I’d say so, with the chaos and lively animation offering plenty of laughs for the little ones. And I will say that there are a few references for the parents, with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Frankenstein among the nods, so there is some attempt to appeal to a wider age group. Whether those references for older viewers, long a staple of the Shaun the Sheep franchise, provide much entertainment is another matter.

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a rather substandard kids flick that does enough to keep the little ones entertained, but unfortunately gives very little to the parents dragged along for the ride.