Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Steve Cox directs. Sam Morris behind the camera. Tom Howe scores. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in No Language.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Tight 30-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
• 2Released 5 years ago.
• 3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 4Directed by Steve Cox, shot by Sam Morris. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Original score by Tom Howe. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 6Justin Fletcher and John Sparkes and Kate Harbour carry the top of the cast.
• 7IMDB entry: tt15857304 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 8Classified under 10 themes, including "sheep", "technology", "holiday", "gadget".
• 9Released under 10 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography

Sam Morris

Original score

Tom Howe

Runtime

30 min · 0h 30m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Box office

$2,061,406

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

G

IMDB

Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas (2021) ↗

Also by

Steve Cox

• 
  Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom

  2026 · ★ 7.1
• 
  L'Incroyable Noël de Shaun le Mouton et de Timmy

  2023 · ★ 5.0

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas Trailer (Shaun Christmas Special)

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• CinemaSerf2024-12-15
  ★ 7/10

  It's Christmas Eve and all was still - except, well it wasn't. The flock wanted bigger stockings and so the enthusiastic young "Timmy" has snuck out to procure some. Needless to say, these best laid plans don't quite work and so "Shaun" has to find a way of repatriating their lost sheep. Fortunately, the rather hapless farmer is going into town to try his hand at selling lemonade and so the germ of plan is devised that sees them rally round to rescue their pal before "Timmy" is, quite literally, presented gift-wrapped. Naturally, all of this has to be meticulously planned as their guardian sheep-dog "Bitzer" won't be playing along if he catches on. This is good fun, this, with plenty of silly antics in the snow, some exploding soft drinks and even them managing to interfere - in the friendliest possible way - with the work of Santa himself. The lack of dialogue allows the jolly score from Tom Howe to keep the pace rollicking along and the amiable and detailed stop-motion animation, especially of their facial expressions, all contribute enjoyably to a winter's tale that exudes all of the joys of Christmas, as well as it's hassles, and yes - of course there are gadgets.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Aardman

  GB

Key crew

• ProducerRichard Beek
• Executive ProducerMark Burton
• Executive ProducerSara Cox
• Executive ProducerCarla Shelly
• CharactersNick Park

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• sheep
• technology
• holiday
• gadget
• anthropomorphism
• stop motion
• children's story
• christmas
• sheep farm
• 3d animation

Release history · US

When it landed

• Digital2021-12-03G· Netflix

Also known as

International titles

• A Winter’s Tale from Shaun the SheepGB
• Shaun le mouton : Vol avant NoëlFR
• F for Får: Et juleeventyrDK
• F for Faar Et juleeventyrDK
• F for Får Et juleeventyrDK
• Shaun le mouton - L'échappée de NoëlFR
• Ovečka Shaun: Predvianočný letSK
• ひつじのショーン クリスマスの冒険JP
• Shaun das Schaf - Es ist ein Schaf entsprungenDE
• بره ناقلاIR