Richard Phelan’s shared direction of Farmageddon suggests a film-maker worth following for his clear, wordless comedy. The farmyard jokes are stronger than the science-fiction story, but he and Will Becher make an amiable family adventure that earns its laughs.
Fi1m perspective
In A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019), the farmyard business remains the strongest material even when the sheep have a larger adventure to attend to. We laughed at the small jokes because the stop-motion characters make themselves understood without stopping to explain. Richard Phelan and co-director Will Becher are good at this, and their care makes the film worth an evening despite its familiar science-fiction story. There is enough here to make us interested in what Phelan directs next.
That attention to clear action makes sense given his work in story departments. Before co-directing Farmageddon, his feature debut, Phelan had worked as a storyboard artist and writer on the Shaun the Sheep television series, and as senior storyboard artist on Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015) and Early Man (2018). With no dialogue to explain a character’s intentions, the action has to make those intentions readable. Farmageddon benefits from that discipline even when its story is predictable.
Lu-La, the alien introduced into Shaun’s world, is a useful test of the directors’ judgement. The new character fits in, and the science-fiction references leave room for the gentle comedy of characters trying to understand one another. There are limits to what this care can achieve: the story remains familiar, and the songs sometimes intrude on the fun. At 87 minutes, however, the film has the good sense not to stretch a modest adventure too far.
Phelan subsequently served as head of story on Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023) and story artist on Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024). These are story roles, not further directing credits. We would be cautious about assigning him a solitary style on the strength of a film he made with Becher, though his continuing work on character and physical action gives us something concrete to follow. Start with Farmageddon for its gentle physical comedy; expect good incidental jokes rather than a fresh reason to send sheep into a science-fiction adventure.
Biography
Richard Phelan is a British animator, storyboard artist and film director. He studied animation at the University of Wolverhampton and completed an MA in animation directing at the National Film and Television School. His graduation short film Damned (2011) received awards including from the Royal Television Society.
Phelan began his career at Aardman Animations as a storyboard artist and writer on the Shaun the Sheep television series. He served as head of story on the miniseries Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas (2015) and as a senior storyboard artist on Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015). He co-directed the feature A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (2019) with Will Becher; the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
