Exploring the emotional gamut from A to Z, The Sheep Detectives is a delightful, laugh-out-loud, cry-quietly family movie that will entertain anyone from six to 96.
Have you enjoyed Babe (1995) and its barnyard of talking animals and/or Aardman’s Shaun the Sheep (2015) and its current animated TV series, then this has to be your go-to film.
Movies starring certain animals need ground rules.
Animals can speak with one another and understand what humans are saying, but human beings can’t understand their varied bahs, moos, neighs, oinks, or cackles.
Challenging it is, but it does make for some frenzied slapstick.
Sheep speak amongst themselves and all a human hears is “ba-a-a-h-h-h”.
Based on 2005’s Three Bags Full, a book in German which has been translated into 26 languages, the film’s setting isn’t Germany or, as intended in the book, Ireland.
The screen takes us into a typical English sitcom village with residents always found in those countless British situation comedies.
There is a young “woolly-headed” police constable, Terry Derry (Nicholas Braun), a pious Dibley-type vicar, and a couple of butchers (one being Ham Gilyard) who would love to turn a flock a sheep into chops.
The only exotics in the village are the sheep, a diverse selection of breeds shepherded by George Hardy (Hugh Jackman). George thinks of his sheep as his best friends.
A blonde-haired bespectacled journalist, Elliott Matthews (Nicholas Galitzine), arrives in the village theoretically to do a cover story on a local festival.
Before every bedtime, shepherd George reads crime stories to his sheep.
One evening George is found dead, his hands blue.
For the sheep, blue is a clue.
Enter lawyer Lydia Harbottle (Emma Thompson) and George’s blonde-haired daughter Rebecca (Molly Gordon), the daughter no one in the village knew he had.
A son phones from South Africa to hear Lydia’s reading of George’s will. It’s the next twist in the plot.
Elliott Matthews takes a keen interest in George’s death and hangs around to investigate the whodunit alongside the police constable.
That visiting journalist is an important character, as important as the sheep themselves because the sheep understand English and know the rules of detective novels.
The sheep must guide the clueless humans toward solving the mystery of George’s death.
Not only do we see the sheep deduce with intelligence, as opposed to their always being thought of as stupid, we learn why that proverbial chicken crossed the road.
The end credits roll revealing surprises as the voice cast for the sheep is strong, competent.
Lily, Number One clue-finder, is voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Brett Goldsmith is both Reggie and Ronnie, twin rams with a fondness for bucking each other and cars. Chris O’Dowd is Mopple, an overweight Merino whose bravado fizzles at any obstacle.
The elder statesman, Sir Ritchfield voiced by Patrick Stewart, is a rare breed governing alone from a high rock. Bryan Cranston’s Moorit is a mystery, his having come late to the flock.
Not a spring lamb, an orphaned winter lamb is frowned upon by the fold and is voiced plaintively by Tommy Birchall.
Viewed unfavourably, the winter lamb is a significant assistant in solving the George conundrum
Following a basic Agatha Christie-like formula, the sheep don’t always get it right and everyone’s a suspect.
The movie punches forth an important lesson and is remarkably emotional.
The unpredictable plot means you can’t expect what happens next.
