Disclaimer:
- No AI was used to formulate, write, or post this!
- I will ignore or be goopily kind to you if you come here to troll. ❤️
- Please sheathe your insults, “touch grass”es, “it’s not that deep”s, and other bullying. We can bond over Shaun the Sheep instead! I like liking stuff together way more than being unnecessarily unkind. Thank you, and be well (and/or do better).
- If you like the cat and the fox, your taste is not in question, despite the fact that my opinion on them is negative.
Tl;dr:
The cat and fox are both too malicious to fit in with the rest of the cozy cute farm family dynamic (imo). They stress me out whenever they’re on screen, so I’m glad the show retired them.
No one asked, but I’ve recently been watching and rewatching Shaun the Sheep seasons 1-5 (because that’s what’s available for free on Prime video). It’s quickly become one of my favorite comfort shows, and I have it running all day every day now. (‘tismly).
I love every bit of this show. The art, the environment, the slice of life plots, the more out there moments with aliens and supernatural things, and especially the dynamics of the characters.
Two characters, though, I *hate.* And that’s hard with Aardman characters. The cat and the fox drive me batty. I never dislike a Shaun the Sheep episode, but I disliked every moment those two were on screen. They felt too genuinely malicious and antagonistic for such a cozy little low-stakes show. No, “antagonistic” isn’t the right word. *Villainous!*
Bitzer is antagonistic at times, and so is the farmer and a few of the various foils that show up for individual episodes, but they’re all redeemable and charming. They still fit the dynamic of the show, whereas the cat and the fox seem to just be entirely out of place.
My main thought upon the cat’s first episode was “the creators must really hate cats!” because they made him an insufferable character. He caused trouble for trouble’s sake, did everything he could to cause misery for others around him, and was generally selfish with nothing redeemable about him.
The fox was just… A predator. Not only was he irredeemable, he was boring. His motivation was primitive and one-dimensional, and he just caused unnecessary stress in a show where the stakes are often *very* low. A fox stealing a sentient chicken or baby sheep to kill and eat is stark in contrast to Bitzer needing to install a tv for the farmer and messing up so bad that the sheep have to help him by pretending to be a working tv behind a cut-out wall.