A cute (and woollen) murder mystery
For a moment there, about halfway into The Sheep Detectives, things get dark. Not Babe: Pig in the City levels of dark, but not-for-small-children serious and scary, even surprisingly existential. The Sheep Detectives is a new charming murder mystery featuring a flock of computer-generated sheep and a talented cast from director Kyle Balda (The Lorax, Minions). The film is reminiscent of the live-action Disney films of the 1990s and early 2000s, when scripts were less focused on maximizing jokes-per-minute, and when movies trusted young audiences with mature material while still having tons of fun!
Hugh Jackman (Song Sung Blue) stars as George Hardy, a shepherd in a fictional rural English village, Denbrook. Every evening, he reads detective novels to his flock of sheep, who unbeknownst to Hardy, are not only listening, but understanding. After Hardy is murdered, his beloved sheep, led by Lily (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Mopple (Chris O’Dowd), and Sebastian (Bryan Cranston), try to identify and catch the killer. The human players in the Agatha Christie-esque scenario include Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun, Succession) as Denbrook’s sole police officer, Elliot Matthews (Nicholas Galitzine, The Idea of You) as an aspiring reporter, Rebecca Hampstead (Molly Gordon, The Bear), as George’s estranged daughter, and Lydia Harbottle (Emma Thompson), Hardy’s lawyer handling George’s will and estate. The Sheep Detectives is a proper whodunnit, filled with twists and misdirection, but charmingly elevated by its adept humor and lovable collection of ewes, rams, and lambs.
The voice acting is wonderful. Louis-Dreyfus and O’Dowd make for a winning pair, with other actors giving humorous supporting performances, including Sir Patrick Stewart, Regina Hall, and Brett Goldstein. The Sheep Detectives has a family-friendly feel, but also tackles some serious subjects (death, parent-child estrangement, community outcasts, the meat industry), and both the script and the voice work effectively weave the conflicting tones together. The film contains enough slapstick to please younger children and wry British humor for adults. Thompson, in particular, is wonderful as the impatient, dry-witted lawyer, playing hilariously against Braun’s scene-stealing pathetic ignoramus.
Despite the jokes and the talking animals, The Sheep Detectives does feel five to ten minutes too long. Some minutes could have easily been shorn (pun intended) off the middle third, when the film gets dark, without lessening the emotional impact of Lily’s personal journey, a central tenet of the film. I give credit to the filmmakers, not just for sticking the landing, since I was embarrassingly unable to solve the mystery myself (at least not with any confidence), but also for having the wherewithal to produce a well-rounded family film. The Sheep Detectives doesn’t shy away from naughty jokes or sensitive subject matter, thus treating audiences like people and not, well, you know.
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The Sheep Detectives opens on Friday, May 8th.
