The directors of the new Shaun the Sheep movie have told RTÉ Entertainment that his latest big screen adventure is not an immigration allegory but is all about friendship.
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, which opens in cinemas this week, sees Shaun's world at Mossy Bottom Farm turned upside down when the woolly favourite has a "close encounter of the furred kind" with an uninvited guest - an extraterrestrial called Lu-La.
"It's about making friends and making best friends and looking out for your friends is the idea - the core of it," explained co-director Richard Phelan.
"Shaun and [sheepdog] Bitzer are brothers and Shaun is slightly younger than Bitzer so he's always pushing boundaries and getting Bitzer in trouble.
"We thought, 'Let's give Shaun a taste of the medicine he puts Bitzer through'. So he would meet someone he thinks is super-cool - like a hundred times better than him - and then she would run him ragged and he would learn that he has to grow up a little bit and take responsibility."
"I guess on paper it looks like an alien who's lost and needs to find her way home, so there's obviously that connection with E.T.," continued co-director Will Becher.
"But the story is less about E.T. - it's more about the feeling, the emotion that we got from that film when we watched it. We wanted to try and create a really genuine relationship between Shaun and the alien."
Shaun fans of all ages can judge whether they've succeeded when A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon opens in cinemas this Friday, October 18.
