The Sheep Detectives

by George Wolf

I was expecting to enjoy The Sheep Detectives. And I did, but for reasons I hadn’t prepared for.

What seemed like a silly showcase for sleuthing sheep in a droll knockoff of the whodunnit formula also turns out to be warm, human and downright touching.

Shepherd George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) tends his flock with loving care in the quaint English village of Denbrook. He also reads the animals mystery stories in the evening. So when George turns up dead and the bumbling Officer Derry (Nicholas Braun) is ready to rule “heart attack,” woolly suspicions erupt.

This was murder! And the sheep are going follow the lead of their “night stories” to guide these dimwitted humans toward the evidence that will root out the guilty party.

Director Kyle Balda (Minions, Despicable Me 3) and writer Craig Mazin adapt Leonie Swann’s novel “Three Bags Full” with tenderness, wit, and a big assist from pristine production design and the CGI department’s wonderfully rendered talking animals.

Mazin’s resume runs the gamut from the Chernobyl series to The Hangover franchise, so the warm fuzzies here are another welcome surprise. The humor is more amusing than LOL, but the stellar cast of bodies (including Emma Thompson, Hong Chau, and Molly Gordon) and voices (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sir Patrick Stewart, Regina Hall and Bryan Cranston) work together in landing every opportunity for mirth, mystery and meaning.

The film’s foray into darker themes earns the PG-rating, but there is fertile ground here for all-ages family bonding over lessons on kindness, belonging, and loss. You might come for the funny talking sheep, but you can expect to be thoroughly delighted by the mix of Knives Out and Charlotte’s Web that was hiding in plain sight.