Sheep and Wolves () is a 2016 Russian 3D animated fantasy comedy film, directed by Andrey Galat and Maxim Volkov. The original story, Wizart Animation's first conceived by co-director Volkov, contains elements of the fairy tale The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats and the concepts of a wolf in sheep's clothing. It is about a carefree wolf who likes to hunt sheep, but one day finds that he has been magically transformed into a sheep himself. The film stars the voices of Tom Felton and Ruby Rose.
Although critical reactions 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 won the Golden Unicorn Award for best animation film, the Grand Prix from the Seoul Guro International Kids Films Festival and the Catalina Film Festival Crystal Trophy.
Despite the film's poor reception and disappointing box office performance, a theatrical sequel titled Sheep and Wolves: Pig Deal, was released in 2019.
Plot 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 ravine. 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 another wolf named 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, the potion transforms him 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 after 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, 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 (though unaware that Ragear killed him). 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 into 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 defenses, 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 fight for leadership. Mami and Bianca arrive 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 to his death.
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 Wolves Alexander Petrov (Russian) and Tom Felton (English dub) as Grey. A bumbling and fun-loving young wolf, and the next in line to become the new leader of the wolf pack. Grey was Petrov's first voice role, and he had considered leaving the film after his first recording takes for the character were unsuccessful. However, he was persuaded by director Maxim Volkov to keep practicing his voice talent and started enjoying working for the film."Волки И Овцы: бе-е-е-зумное превращение" (PDF) (in Russian). СТВ. p. 3. Retrieved 18 July 2017. Elizaveta Boyarskaya (Russian) and Ruby Rose (English dub) as Bianca. A beautiful young female wolf, and Grey's love interest. Bianca went through the most re-drawings, sketches and 3D models out of all the film's characters. The designers intended to achieve a "pretty" and "decisive" style for her. The character was originally planned to have light skin, but the final result for her was a wolf with darker blue fur given the light color "looked bad" with Grey. As Boyarskaya explained, considering that Bianca was "so beautiful", she had to speak her lines at a much higher pitch than she was comfortable with, which caused her to "almost [break her] voice."СТВ. p. 7. Sergey Bezrukov (Russian) and Jim Cummings (English dub) as Magra, the pack's original leader who is later killed by Ragear. Andrey Barkhudarov (Russian) and Rich Orlow (English dub) as Ragear, the film's main antagonist. Yuriy Tarasov (Russian) and Thomas Ian Nicholas (English dub) as Skinny and Yuri Menshagin (Russian) and Lex Lang (English dub) as Hobbler, the comic relief duo of the wolf pack. Kseniya Bolshakova (Russian) and Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld (English dub) as Sarabi and Ekaterina Afrikantova (Russian) and Emily Bauer (English dub) as Leah (both uncredited), two of Bianca's friends.
Sheep Katia Iowa (Russian) and China Anne McClain (English dub) as Lyra, a ewe with red curly hair who runs a hair salon. Iowa and McClain also sang the film's theme song "Raised High." Yuriy Galtsev (Russian) and Ross Marquand (English dub) as Ziko, a neurotic photographer ram. Diomid Vinogradov (Russian) and Peter Linz (English dub) as Moz, a talkative, socially awkward ram in love with Lyra. Nikita Prozorovskiy (Russian) and Tyler Bunch (English dub) as Belgur, the superstitious, aged leader of the sheep village. Ekaterina Semyonova (Russian) and Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld (English dub) as Shia, Lyra's mischievous younger brother. Eduard Dvinskikh (Russian) and Marc Thompson (English dub) as Ike, a gluttonous but good-natured ram. Dmitriy Filimonov (Russian) and JB Blanc (English dub) as Louis, dubbed "King Louis the Fierce", the much-adored Horns & Hooves Tournament fighting champion. Andrey Rozhkov (Russian) and Cummings (English dub) as Klif, a seagull pretending to be a sheep. Irina Vilenkina (Russian) and Sarah Natochenny (English dub) as Xavi.
Other animals Tatyana Shitova (Russian) and Jennie Grace (English dub) as Mami, a gypsy jackrabbit. Aleksandr Noskov (Russian) and Jim Cummings (English dub) as Baron, Mami's gypsy partner and entertainer rabbit. Oleg Morozov (Russian) and Tyler Bunch (English dub) as Bucho, an ox living in the sheep village.
Concept The story of Sheep and Wolves is loosely based on the 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.СТВ. p. 4. The film features messages about friendship and how to properly deal with another group of people.CTB p. 4–5. 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: Legend of the Golden Dragon (2017). The film involves its protagonist Barash transforming into a caterpillar by wearing a helmet invented by a scientist at Kikoriki Island. The Expert journalist 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. The sheep are depicted at the highest rung in the civilization ladder who live in houses and use industrial society household items. 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 Animation began working on the Sheep and Wolves ever since 2012. The film was Wizart's first original story. The film became a joint venture between Wizart and CTB Film Company. Sergey Selyanov of CTB Film Company, took part in producing the film. The film was the directorial debut of Andrey Galat and Maksim Volkov. American scriptwriter Neil Landau (Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Tad, The Lost Explorer) joined the script-writing team that included the group Sakhar 1 kg ("Sugar, 1 kg", Yolki) as well as Maksim Sveshnikov (Dobrynya and The Dragon, The Snow Queen) who adapted the classic story of a wolf in sheep's clothing theme into a full-fledged comedy film.