The Sheep Detectives
In a quintessentially English village, the sheep step up to the plate to solve a murder in an unexpectedly refreshing and engaging ovine whodunnit.
Bo-peeping: Chris O’Dowd and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Shaun and Lamb Chop might have to step aside to make room for Lily, the newest and sharpest sheep in the flock. A devotee of detective stories and whodunnits, Lily laps up the mysteries read to her and her meadow mates by George Hardy, the kindly human who tends to their needs. Adapted from the anthropomorphic crime novel Three Bags Full (2005) by the Munich-born Leonie Swann, The Sheep Detectives is a live-action/CGI hybrid which is essentially a murder mystery with talking animals. Set in a quintessentially English, multi-cultural village, the film is designed to appeal to children, animal lovers and Agatha Christie enthusiasts. Of course, it is the sheep that steal the show, miraculously rendered by the visual effects studio Framestore, and with a starry vocal cast. The humans fare less well, as if instructed to reach the last row of the stalls just to remind the viewer that they are watching a comedy. Even Emma Thompson, who has been known to resist such comic exaggeration, taps into the OTT vibe, while the New York-born Nicholas Braun (Greg Hirsch in Succession) upstages all and sundry as a pompous, inept policeman with an indeterminate English accent.
However, Hugh Jackman is the heart and soul of the story as George Hardy, a caring, muscular shepherd who treats his flock like family, going so far as to give each and every sheep a name (Lily, Cloud, Wool-Eyes, the combative twin rams Reggie and Ronnie). Yet George seems less liked down in the village of Denbrook, thus setting up a variety of future suspects in what is basically a murder mystery. There’s also a mystery woman, to whom George pens loving (and scented) letters at frequent intervals. So, where can this all possibly lead?
While never forgetting its farcical allegiance, The Sheep Detectives tackles serious topics such as intolerance and death and, in its ovine way, even racial discrimination (not all sheep are equal, it seems). But more than anything, it is bent on exploding the myth that sheep behave like sheep and in reality are curious, intelligent creatures, more capable of solving a murder than the resident human copper. The film actually gains comic momentum as certain running jokes are exploited to their full worth, such as PC Plod’s gradual realisation that he is being helped by a gang of farmyard animals.
Culturally, it’s a crowded field, as the sheep display a wide range of accents – Chris O’Dowd’s Merino sheep Mopple is so Irish that his name sounds like Marple, which would be entirely appropriate under the circumstances. But it’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Lily who is the real Miss Marple, who gradually ties together all the clues, but has still to convey them to the police in plain English. The CGI is truly astonishing, making the sheep somehow seem more real than the human actors, but then Hugh Jackman, with his fantastical network of bulging veins, has never really looked real. There are also plenty of nice background touches (look out for the village’s improbable neon signage) and visual gags (why did the chicken cross the road?). Above all, it’s nice to encounter a family film that is neither a remake nor a sequel, although it’s patently obvious that we haven’t heard the last of Lily, the Shetland Sheep.
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Hong Chau, Emma Thompson, Tosin Cole, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Conleth Hill, Mandeep Dhillon, and the voices of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Rhys Darby, Brett Goldstein, Laraine Newman.
Dir Kyle Balda, Pro Lindsay Doran, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, Ex Pro Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Tyson Hesse, Aditya Sood and Tim Wellpring, Screenplay Craig Mazin, from the novel Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, Ph George Steel, Pro Des Suzie Davies, Ed Martin Walsh, Paul Machliss and Al LeVine, Music Christophe Beck, Costumes Rosa Dias, Sound Glenn Freemantle, Danny Freemantle and Nick Freemantle, Dialect coach William Conacher.
Working Title Films/Three Strange Angels/Lord Miller Productions-Sony Pictures.
109 mins. UK/USA. 2026. UK and US Rel: 8 May 2026. Cert. PG.
