The Sheep Detectives

The sheep will win you over. I think it’s safe to say that no one was clamoring for a movie in which a flock of sheep who talk (only amongst themselves, mind you) solve a murder mystery. But now that The Sheep Detectives is here, it’s the heartwarming spiritual sequel to Babe (1995) moviegoers can embrace as few did the dark and often weird Babe: Pig in the City (1998).

Accepting the movie reality of a flock of computer-animated sheep with celebrity voices (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Patrick Stewart, Regina Hall, Chris O’Dowd, Bryan Cranston) turns out to be easier than you’d expect. The lead sheep is the earnest and sensitive Lily (Louis-Dreyfus), who has learned crime-solving by listening to the mystery novels shepherd George (Hugh Jackman) reads aloud to the flock every evening. When George is found dead in the paddock one morning, Lily and her wooly cohorts have to nudge the small English village’s sole police officer, Tim (Nicholas Braun, Succession), to investigate. Suspects include George’s American-raised 20-something daughter, Rebecca (Molly Gordon), and a fistful of the town’s prominent residents: pastor, post mistress, shopkeeper, butcher, rival shepherd, etc. There’s also a local news reporter on hand, Elliot (Nicholas Galitzine, Red, White & Royal Blue), whose role appears chiefly to be rival to Tim for Rebecca’s attentions. The obligatory lawyer who reads George’s surprise-filled will is played by Emma Thompson, who seems to be enjoying serving as a haughty, well-dressed bystander.

A scene from The Sheep Detectives.

But really, the murder mystery is not the point so much as the sheep and their education in life outside their hillside paddock. Getting up the courage just to cross a road with the unfamiliar feel of pavement under their hooves makes for one of the movie’s funniest and most charming moments (or two or three). Loosely based on the best-selling German novel Three Bags Full (2005), the movie is more family-friendly than the book (no religious debates, murder by poison rather than impalement), and the renamed and reconceived sheep are easily distinguishable and just as personable as any of the humans. The Sheep Detectives shares Babe’s agenda to quash animal stereotypes, although the interaction between sheep and humans is less affectionate (George excepted) than comic: Braun earns consistent chuckles as Officer Tim gradually realizes that the sheep are shadowing him — and better detectives.

There are lessons here about mortality, acceptance, and stereotypes, gentle and well-meant, but the movie is chiefly an unencumbered entertainment, refreshingly detached from reality (don’t expect to learn any real shepherding tips) and from all the divisive agendas that currently divide the human herd. The director, Kyle Balda, helmed both Minions movies and the third Despicable Me, so directing a small flock of animated sheep must have seemed like a country vacation. Blessedly, The Sheep Detectives has little of aggressive freneticism of those Illumination titles. It’s easygoing and consistently amusing, with a touching conclusion that you may or may not see coming. Let’s just hope the sequel isn’t Sheep in the City.

Rated PG. Now playing at the AMC River Hills, The Carolina Cinemark Asheville, and Regal Biltmore Grande.

Photos courtesy of Amazon/MGM Studios.

Some of the lead characters in The Sheep Detectives.