‘The Sheep Detectives’ Is A Wonderfully Charming Mystery
Every now and again, there comes a film that might not break any barriers but surprises you with how much more it has to offer. The Sheep Detectives is the definition of a film that, at first glance many will dismiss as generic kiddie fare with an absurd premise, but The Sheep Detectives provides the heart and clever wit that more family films should retain.
The unique charm The Sheep Detectives radiates is a mash-up of the naive cuteness of the Paddington films with a shockingly compelling whodunit mystery lying at its center. Each character has a delightful sense of witty humor to them, whether it’s bumbling idiocy or smartly worded remarks. But what brings the entire film together is the nuance of the realities of loss and memory surrounding the quaint lives of this flock of sheep.
While the film isn’t likely to provide anything groundbreaking to anyone over the single-digit age range story-wise, The Sheep Detectives is a great balance of cute charm and emotional poignancy that will keep both kids and their parents engaged.
What exactly lies behind The Sheep Detectives’ mystery?
The Sheep Detectives takes place in the small town of Denbrook, following the life of shepherd George Hardy (Hugh Jackman). George absolutely adores his sheep and treats them like family. He even gives particular ones names such as the smartest sheep, Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), winter ram Sebastian (Bryan Cranston), and the sheep with the memory of an elephant, Mopple (Chris O’Dowd).
When George isn’t reading his sheep detective novels before bed (which he thinks they can’t understand), he writes letters to his estranged daughter Rebecca (Molly Gordon). Everything in the town of Denbrook is, however, upended when one morning, it is discovered that George has been killed by poison. It sends the quaint town and George’s sheep into a panic, with local bumbling police officer Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun) in charge of taking the case.
George’s former human enemies, including butcher Ham (Conleth Hill), a rival shepherd Caleb (Tosin Cole), a local nosy neighbor Beth (Hong Chau), Reverend Hillcoate (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), and out-of-town journalist Elliot Matthews (Nicholas Galitzine), are among the chief suspects. With Officer Tim near clueless on where to go about the case, it’s up to Lily and her flock to use the lessons they’ve learned from the countless mystery novels read to them to solve it.
How this film balances surprising thematic nuance with lighthearted charm
There’s plenty of quaint fun to be had in The Sheep Detectives‘ riffs on the classic murder-mystery tropes of Agatha Christie novels, but the film walks the line between its thematic touchstones of mortality and a sweet center. The thematic nuance makes more sense when you see that Kyle Balda’s (of Illumination fame) direction is paired with a screenplay by Craig Mazin. The darker concepts the film touches on never clash with its lighthearted sensibilities, keeping the experience from feeling dour.
The film approaches the concept of coming to terms with grief and the pains of memory within an animal species that is frequently forgetful with such warm sincerity that it ends up riding both tones near perfectly. The messaging isn’t exactly new, but it brings the right amount of impact to the experience to make the entire experience more memorable on the whole.
Even the mystery behind The Sheep Detectives is a fun one at that, blending an actual intriguing puzzle with red herrings and all, with the utter whimsy oozing from nearly all its cast members. Much of the humor around the sheep contains mostly fish out of water jokes as Lily and Mopple leave the pampered life of their ranch for the first time with Sebastian to try to solve this mystery.
Many of the jokes border on being a bit predictable, but most of it still works because of the absurdist shifts between the perspectives of both the human and animal characters. There is a surprising amount of delightfully cartoonish expressions gotten out of the film’s realistic CG designs of the sheep.
There’s a particular extended joke where Sebastian tries to explain to Lily and Mopple what the humans see as God, which is a perfect encapsulation of all the things the movie has going right for it, humor-wise.
The human cast is also fun here, with Braun’s clumsy charm and Molly Gordon as a key part of the film’s tender heart being the highlights. Even when the movie begins to reach its end and the beats of who the killer is become more predictable, the core of the movie’s playful nature is never lost. This makes the unraveling of the mystery a great first-whodunit for kids and cute fun for adults.
Final thoughts on The Sheep Detectives
The Sheep Detectives likely won’t break the mold within the conventions of the classic murder mystery for most. However, it’s a good example of a charming enough family picture with emotional nuance, clever humor, and a cast that’s game to roll with its bizarre premise. It might not be particularly remarkable in any respect, but it’s more than respectable family entertainment.
Also check out: Hoppers Brings Pixar Back to Its Glory Days
