Sheep and Wolves


Sheep and Wolves is a 2016 Russian computer-animated fantasy-comedy film with anthropomorphic animals; a story containing elements of the fairy tale The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids; and the concepts of a wolf in sheep's clothing. Directed by Andrey Galat and Maksim Volkov, the movie stars Alexander Petrov as Grey. Wizart Animation and CTB Film Company became joint production partners.
In addition to Alexander Petrov, the original Russian version of the film also features the voices of Elizaveta Boyarskaya, Sergey Bezrukov, Andrey Barkhudarov, Ekaterina Ivanchikova, Yuriy Galtsev, Diomid Vinogradov, Andrey Rozhkov, :ru:Семёнов-Прозоровский,_Никита_Юрьевич|Nikita Prozorovskiy, :ru:Шитова,_Татьяна_Игоревна|Tatyana Shitova, Aleksandr Noskov, Ekaterina Semyonova, Irina Vilenkina, Oleg Morozov, Eduard Dvinskikh, :ru:Тарасов,_Юрий_Германович|Yuriy Tarasov, and :ru:Филимонов,_Дмитрий_Фёдорович|Dmitriy Filimonov. The English dub of the film, released as Sheep & Wolves, stars Harry Potter actor Tom Felton as the voice of Grey and also includes the talents of Ruby Rose, Jim Cummings, Rich Orlow, China Anne McClain, Ross Marquand, Peter Linz, Tyler Bunch, Jennie Grace, Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld, Sarah Natochenny, Marc Thompson, Thomas Ian Nicholas, and JB Blanc. The film was Wizart's first original story. In a land where animals walk on two legs the central character, Grey is a carefree wolf who likes hunting sheep and is afraid of responsibility as his pack sets up camp in a ravine. A misadventure with a fortune teller suddenly changes everything magically when in the morning, Grey wakes up in the skin of a ram and finds himself in a flock of sheep.
Sheep and Wolves released in Russian theaters on April 28, 2016. Later, the movie had a successful international roll-out. Although critical reaction were mostly positive in its native country, the film received generally negative reviews elsewhere, with the script, plot, characterizations and lore being heavily criticized, though the animation received some praise. It has won the Golden Unicorn Award for best animation film, the Grand Prix from Seoul Guro International Kids Films Festival, and the Catalina Crystal Trophy. A sequel tilted was released in Russian theaters on January 24, 2019.

Summary

A sheep named Ziko is attempting to document the outdoor wildlife, when he stumbles upon the wolf Grey, and flees screaming back to his village of sheep, located near a newly arrived pack of wolves in the rocky mountains. The wise leader of the wolf pack, Magra, announces that he'll retire soon, and that two candidates must fight for the rite of succession. One is Ragear, a bad-tempered, selfish wolf who disregards Magra's values for all life, including prey. The other is Grey, who is in love with the beautiful she-wolf Bianca. However, he acts like a joker, never taking anything seriously, much to Bianca's chagrin. After Grey humiliates Ragear for disobeying Magra's orders, he then encounters the little lamb Shia, who disobeyed his older sister Lyra by wandering into the meadow. Grey nevertheless lets Shia go unharmed.
During a celebration at the wolf pack, Grey humiliates Ragear further, which causes Bianca to end her relationship with him, citing that he's still too immature to be the next leader. Grey visits a gypsy camp celebration, and meets the eccentric hare Mami. She gives Grey a transmutation potion, which he hopes will make him change so Bianca will love him again. However, he transforms into a ram. Fleeing from his former pack mates, Grey gets knocked out, only to wake up in the sheep village under Lyra's care.
Grey struggles to cope with being a ram. At first, he tries to convince himself that he's only dreaming, but accepts the truth, until he remembers that it was Mami who gave him a potion. Finding the gypsy camp deserted, he returns to the sheep village. The wolf pack believes that Grey ran away, scared to fight Ragear.
The next morning, Grey is invited by Shia and the talkative Moz to attend the tournament. When Grey finds himself fighting the champion Louis the Fierce, he resorts to biting, which angers everyone. Grey soon earns the friendship of the herd afterwards when he protects Lyra and Shia from two wolves. At a welcome party, Grey foolishly inspires Shia to go fight wolves, but the lamb is captured by Ragear, but after witnessing him murder Magra and take over the wolf pack. Grey and Moz rescue Shia, but Ragear is informed that Grey has been turned into a ram. He incites the pack to kill all the sheep in the village.
Feeling lonely, Grey returns to the mountains, where he encounters Bianca, who tells him of Ragear's takeover and Magra's death. He is photographed by Ziko, who then informs the village that Grey is a spy for the wolves. Grey furiously leaves the village, but Shia recognises him as the wolf who spared his life in the meadow. Grey nevertheless leaves, until he is discovered by Mami. The hare informs him that the wolf pack will attack the village, but Grey can transform back to a wolf if he reaches a certain tree by noon the following day. Grey nevertheless returns to the village to warn the flock. He encourages them to fight back.
The next morning, the wolf pack is thwarted by various traps and defences, until they chase the sheep into a cave, only to be sealed inside with water flooding in. Not wishing his pack to drown, Grey saves the pack, only for Ragear to seize Shia. The lamb reveals that Ragear was responsible for Magra's death, and Grey challenges Ragear to a fight for leadership. Mami and Bianca arrives to give Grey the potion to turn him back to a wolf, but nothing happens. Continuing to fight Ragear, Grey is brutally attacked and buried under a pile of rocks, only to emerge as a wolf, sending Ragear falling over a waterfall.
Humbled and having learned maturity while as a ram, Grey proposes to Bianca and they are married in the sheep village, the wolf pack and the sheep herd living together in peace. Nearby, Mami explains that the potion she and Bianca gave Grey was just spring water, and his transformation came from having learned responsibility. She looks on as the village of sheep and wolves celebrate their new united community.

Cast

The wolves

The story of Sheep and Wolves was inspired by elements of the German fairy tale The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids and the concepts of a wolf in sheep's clothing. Director Maksim Volkov explained that the staff at Wizart conceived a film of showcasing these ideas using a body-exchange story formula used in many popular comedy stories, describing it as a "funny and kind" idea to show to all viewers. The film features messages about friendship and how to properly deal with another group of people who are against a certain group. Volkov described the sheep in the film as elves or hobbits and the wolves as warlike nomads: "It was important for us to create a contrast, since the protagonist turns from a wolf into a ram, and therefore acquires the qualities of another "person" and loses traits peculiar to wolves."
According to a writer for Expert magazine, many film viewers noticed similarities between the plots of Sheep and Wolves and another Russian animated film that was released in Russian theaters in March 2016 named Kikoriki. :ru:Смешарики._Легенда_о_золотом_драконе|Legend of the Golden Dragon. Kikoriki. Legend of the Golden Dragon involves its protagonist Barash transforming into a caterpillar by wearing a helmet invented by a scientist at Kikoriki Island. The Expert journalist both noted identical messages between the two films about a person not being himself to the point of not recognizing who he really is. The only difference these two films was the relationship aspects between characters. As the journalist analyzed, "Unlike the Smeshariki, where the personal relationships between the almost sexless heroes have already been established, the Romantic line is clearly drawn in the Wolves and Sheep: the main character-Grey the wolf is not very clever trying to attract the attention of the wolf Bianca - this is one of the obstacles that he has to overcome in a duel with himself."
The main characters in the film-wolves and sheep aren't completely animals. Instead the animators humanized them into anthropomorphic characters. The civilized animal characters live in a utopian forest society where they walk on hind legs. In this film the sheep are the at the highest rung in the civilization ladder where they use industrial society items and live in houses. The animators presented the setting as a typical evergreen forest in Central Russia although there are exotic elements added such as elephants as a reference to The Elephants by Salvador Dalí.

Production

Development

Wizart began working on the Sheep and Wolves movie ever since 2012. This was Wizart's original story concept and first parallel project alongside its other series, The Snow Queen. The movie became a joint venture between Wizart and St.Petersburg's CTB Film Company. :ru:Сельянов,_Сергей_Михайлович|Sergey Selyanov of acclaimed studio, Melnitsa Animation Studio took part in producing the film. The film was the directorial debut of Andrey Galat and Maksim Volkov. American scriptwriter Neil Landau joined the script-writing team including "Sugar, 1 kg" as well as :ru:Свешников,_Максим|Maksim Sveshnikov who adapted the classic story of a wolf in sheep's clothing theme into a full-fledged family comedy movie.
The screenplay took more than two years to write. The writers presented an innovative new approach when drawing inspiration from the source material. This time they presented the big bad wolf as a protagonist. The unfamiliar settings the protagonist gets himself into is explored in an additional well known idiom, fish out of water. The writers tried to convey the themes of trust and the addage, "a friend among strangers, a stranger among his own" to the audience. The movie's slogan was, "You can be anything you want. The main thing is to remain yourself!", which evoked Grey trying to overcome his identity crisis and regain the trust of the pack and his former self. Wolves and sheep are irreconcilable enemies. Therefore the writers presented how warring factions must find common ground with each other evoking another theme of friendship especially when it comes to how the characters of Bianca and Lyra are presented. The peaceful sheep society resembles a civilization similar to the Roman civilization. The society suddenly finds themselves confronting a barbaric wolf clan. The idea is similar to the plot in the Franco-Belgian comic book series Asterix. Despite the film being a cartoon, the script played with philosophical arguments such as sanctity of life. The spokesperson for the philosophy are the wolf leaders of the wolf pack whose emotional rhetorical speeches parallels the rhetoric of politicians in human history that aligns with modern realities. Magra the wise leader of the wolf pack defends the laws of his ancestors and teaches other wolves to live in harmony with nature: "We do not hunt for sport. We catch only what we need to survive. Every life is sacred. A leader that doesn't respect the laws of our ancestors will bring death to the pack." The inviolability of life, "only taking as much food as they need to eat and never killing for the sake of killing alone" does not seem to affect Ragear, the new successor of the wolf pack who wants to hunt the sheep with a laissez-faire mentality making the sacrosanct laws of Magra and the ancestors void. It is now up to Grey the second in command to persuade the wolf clan to follow the principles of democracy instead of following the dictatorship of Ragear.
Sheep and Wolves took five years to make. It was produced on a budget of 230 million rubles by around 200 people from several countries.The film went through around three months of pre-production and was noteworthy for its international collaboration from several nations such as New Zealand, India, and United States production companies. On November 5, 2014, the American Film Market hosted the movie's exhibition. There the movie was negotiated to be released to the cinema box office in Australia. The largest international market for audiovisual content, MIPCOM, held in Cannes from 5 to 8 October 2015 also was host to the presentation of the movie. Russian newspapers TASS and Izvestia included the Voronezh cartoon in the top 10 most anticipated films of 2016. Cartoon Brew labelled the movie in its catalog of "Animated Feature Films to Look for in 2016."
An acclaimed cast was announced from both Russian and international versions. The movie starred Alexander Petrov as Grey, Elizaveta Boyarskaya as Bianca, Sergey Bezrukov as Magra, Andrey Rozhkov as Seagull, Yuri Galtsev as Zico, and singer Katia Iowa as Lyra. Todd Resnick of The Voice Company, in Burbank, California. was announced as voice director who picked a noteworthy international cast that included Tom Felton as Grey the wolf, Ruby Rose as Bianca, and China Anne McClain as Lyra. For the Bulgarian voice cast singers and actors performed including Raffi Boghosian, Michael Filev, :bg:Йоанна_Драгнева|Joanna Dragneva, and Nencho Balabanov. A Russian trailer for the cartoon was released on March 29, 2016. An Engish teaser trailer was launched on October 20,2015.

Animation

Animators used 3D stereoscopy art to describe the iconic animal transformation of Grey as his sharp fangs and claws of a wolf turn to horns and hooves of a sheep. The film went through several redraws and rewrites in terms of animation style and story. The animation department's most complex assignment was having to deal with controlling the wool for the characters the most. Volkov explained that "working with wool took a lot of time and became a serious test of the professionalism of our animators." The characters with "straight" hair had only two layers of fur, while figures with woolly hair was made up of many layers. Thus, the scenes that regard the wolf pack were produced first. How much wool a character had in a certain shot was determined by how far he or she was away from the camera in order to achieve an "organic" look. Volkov described the tournament scene, with consisted of 1,300 sheep figures, as the most difficult to animate. The smoothness of Cliff's feather was another part of the animation labeled by the Volkov as hard to work with. All of the animators watched animal behavior and nature as reference to make the film look realistic. Programmers from Ireland were hired to watch how plants and trees grow and program those movements for the film.The lip movements of the characters were animated based on the English dub of the film. This was noticed and praised in a review of the film by Russian publication Weburg.Translations also presented a challenge because jokes had the potential to be misinterpreted in the process of translation.

Soundtrack

Alexandre Lessertisseur, a French composer who has previously worked on such films as Glacé and :fr:Manon_20_ans|Manon, 20 Years orchestrated the original score. As with Wizart's Snow Queen 2, work on the film's audio took place in New Zealand and Scotland. The theme song Оставаться собой were performed by Lyra's voice: Katia Iowa for the Russian release and by China Anne McClain for the international release. On July 2016, the score was nominated for the Jerry Goldsmith Awards in the category 'best score for a full-length film.'

Cultural references

Sheep and Wolves features references to several films and media:

Distribution

Shooting Stars acquired the rights to show Sheep and Wolves in the Middle East in the cinemas of United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. At the May 2014, 67th Cannes Film Festival the film was shown to the international film market. The expected premiere was around late 2015 - early 2016. At the 2016 European Film Market, BirFilm agreed to distribute the film in Turkey. Later Wizart revealed the opening of the film will be in April 2016, with contracts been signed for cinema distribution in the Baltics and Bulgaria followed up with summer releases in Poland, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo, and Albania. In 2017, in Greece, Wizart Animation films were seen for the first time as Spentzos Films agreed to distribute the film. KLB distributed in France. French TV channel Gulli featured the movie. Gravel Road Distribution Group agreed to distribute the Sheep and Wolves series to Africa in 2020 during the Key Buyers Event.

Theatrical

Sheep and Wolves had a pre-release on April 22, 2016 in Romania. A pre-screening of Sheep and Wolves took place in the Voronezh-based theater Star & Mlad on April 23, 2016. The government of Voronezh assisted in having children from eight boarding schools to attend. Sheep and Wolves was one of the most anticipated films in Russian cinema in 2016 according to Russia-24. Sheep and Wolves made its official Russian theatrical premiere on April 28, 2016. Simultaneously with Russia, the cartoon released in seven countries-Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, the United Arab Emirates, Mongolia, and Turkey. In the summer and autumn of 2016, the film released in more than 40 countries, including Poland, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Albania. The film ran at the 2016 Russian Film Week in London. Festival director Filip Perkon said that animated films like Sheep and Wolves would be the easiest Russian films to reach audiences from across the globe. The cartoon was launched in cinemas in Italy on November 17, 2016. Italian publication Cinetvlandia called the cartoon "high-quality and fun" and noted that it "will appeal to every viewer." In Poland, the film was shown on 140 screens. Sheep and Wolves released in cinemas in Portugal on January 5, 2017. The special premiere was held at the westernmost point in Europe on Cape Rock. Following Portugal in early 2017, the story of Grey the wolf was seen by residents of three Latin American countries, and in spring and summer it was shown in Hungary, Germany, and Denmark. Koch Media issued the film for home media consumption in the nations of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and South Tyrol. ADS Service released the film in Hungary.
Sheep & Wolves had a theatrical run in Norway via the company Storytelling Media and was the first Russian independent animated film to have a Norwegian theatrical release. Flame Node Entertainment and Alibaba Pictures Group released the film in Chinese theaters, and BoXoo Entertainment released it in South Korea. According to producer Yuri Moskvin of Wizart Animation, the Chinese market is key for the rental of Sheep and Wolves, with the show expected to reach the widest audience. In 2018, the movie continued its run in new countries like UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Falkland Islands, English-speaking Gibraltar, and Malta with DVD release set for April 9, 2018.
PRO FILMS released the film in Bulgaria. Company leader Emil Simeonov recalled the marketing campaign that took place in the nation for the film as "massive, we had four of the top 20 most popular singers and actors involved and we covered every channel I know, even a few communication channels I'd heard of for the first time." The film was also played at the Cannes Film Festival, Annecy International Animated Film Festival, and the Oaxaca FilmFest.

Box office

The animated film was one of the most anticipated premieres of Russian cinema in 2016. The movie's budget was $3.4 million. In Russia, with the film opening at 1892 theaters in its first week, Sheep and Wolves debuted at number two, grossing 46,720,975 rubles and attracting more than 234,000 viewers. The film grossed a total of ₽143,789,109 throughout its entire 19-week Russian run. The movie took the leading positions as one of the most successful Russian projects at the international box office in 2016. In Croatia, the movie managed to take second place in premiere week after Bridget Jones 3. The movie attained top-3 status in Bulgaria. In Lithuania, the film made 1,449.39 euros on its first week and began at number 16 in the nation's box office. By the next week, the film topped the Lithuania box office and grossed 19,476,08 more euros. The film also ranked in the top ten of the box offices of other countries such as Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Turkey. Despite this, however, the film grossed a worldwide amount of $4.1 million breaking even its production budget amount of 230 million rubles.

Critical reception

Sheep and Wolves received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie 84% from a general consensus of 134 audience ratings. Russian-speaking critics note the cartoon has a straightforward, but clearly structured plot; a thorough study of the characters; and the comparative identity of the project. Boris Ivanov of film.ru praised the picture for a decent level for Russian cinema, its graphics and animation, although there were some shortcomings in directing, expressed in a lack of dimensionality in the narrative. Ivanov also refers to the weaknesses of the animated film with frequent borrowings, secondary characters, and some jokes: the triviality of the main scripted idea of the friendship of herbivores with carnivores. The development of the action is rapid, because of which it is not always possible to feel important scenes that are not given due attention in terms of emotional saturation, the narrative is crumpled, which is especially felt at the beginning of the picture.
"A slightly understated, but mostly decent Russian comedy cartoon about a sloppy wolf who turned into a ram. The charming main character demonstrates mental immaturity, gets into a mess, experiences adventures, realizes his mistakes, shows heroism, demonstrates that he has corrected himself… And the reward is a well-deserved happy end. Nothing particularly new or unusual, but against the background of what some other Russian studios are doing, it's nice to see the work of professionals."
Susanna Alperina for Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta says the movie is a "a well-constructed drama." In some segments the reviewer mistakes it for a foreign movie which is a compliment, "And the most amazing and pleasant thing is that sometimes during viewing there is a feeling that the screen is not a domestic product at all, but a purchased one, only our stars are voicing it. And this is great!" Alexey Mazhaev notes that the cartoon is at the level of Western animation patterns, although the amount of adult humor and drama in the tape is less than in similar films by DreamWorks and Walt Disney Pictures. Mazhaev notes that the animals in the animated film are at a rather high civilized level, and the lack of elaboration by the scriptwriters of the crazy transformations from a wolf into a ram and vice versa “gives the plot a kind of absurd charm." “Wolves and Sheep convincingly show the superiority of good over evil, without slipping into moralizing."
Dmitry Bortnikov gave the movie 8/10 stars stating the movie is revolutionary and almost comes close to the level of Soviet animation: "In fact, it turned out that the cartoon is the best thing that has happened to our animation, short meter does not count, for the last twenty years." The critic commended the movie's various media references such as Star Wars and The Lion King, as well as the apt voice cast. The review ended by stating, "So we are living in an exciting time, and it is possible that projects will be created right before our eyes that will change the industry and create something as strong and original as Soviet animation."
Kino-Teatr gave the movie 8/10 stars with its review, "The cartoon will both make you laugh and touch you. The grass is very green, the sky is very blue, the flowers and butterflies every colour of the rainbow. Even the darker hues used when we visit the wolf pack in its stony camp have a richness, the blue-greys of the rocks muted but still with depth." Olesya Troshina claims that the animation of Wolves and Sheep is not bad, but not without flaws and roughness, and the drawing of animals in the tape, although it does not reach the level of “Zootopia” is attentive to details. The review stated landscapes, however, are colorful and look good especially because of its blue canvas: "To this you can add colorful landscapes consisting of lilac, blue, and other beautiful shades that look very decent." The review continued by stating, "And throughout the cartoon, you can feel the originality, reverent attitude, and painstaking work of its creators." Another review from Кино Mail.ru also commended the film's animated blue sky, "What interiors and landscapes, water streams and trees, clouds of fog, and magic smoke filling the wagon of the Gypsy rabbit Mami! What a sky, and finally, wool on the main characters."
Ovideo gave the movie 3/5 stars who mainly liked the animation rather than the plot or characters itself: "Character types are stereotypical and hackneyed, the plot is predictable. A significant advantage of this project is the animation, not the plot, at a high level and the work of sound engineers." Kirill Ilyukhin also believes the plot of the film is not original, but amusing and interesting to the main target audience - children. Scoring the film a seven out of ten, the review compared the movie to Kung Fu Panda. The reviewer stated, "They really got a cartoon, which has its own zest." The critic said the children would enjoy its humor and story and the adults its references to other films.
Olivier Bachelard, writing for the French source Abus de Ciné, praised the film's visuals, highlighting its "fluid" animation and "impressive" use of colors, and wrote that young viewers would enjoy the story. However, he also disliked its "useless" scenes, "somewhat disappointing" characters, and the character designs, describing them as "dressed in grotesque hairstyles."

Awards

Sequels

Sheep and Wolves in its global coverage has managed to be released in over 40 countries. In an April 2016 interview, Yuri Moskvin revealed that the company began a script for a sequel of the film planned for release in 2018. In April, Wizart revealed that a sequel has been in development since 2016. It will be produced by the same team as the first film and is expected to come out in the spring of 2018.
The sequel was released in Russia in January 2019, and was warmly received by the audience.
In late 2019 to 2020, it was rumored that a third Sheep and Wolves movie is in production and might release in 2021 or 2022.

See Also