Release Date – 8th May 2026, Cert – PG, Run-time – 1 hour 49 minutes, Director – Kyle Balda
When their shepherd (Hugh Jackman) is found dead, his flock of sheep take it upon themselves to investigate his murder.
For anyone who may have wrongly doubted it, the power of Emma Thompson is very much still alive and well. She walks into The Sheep Detectives around half an hour in through and somehow manages to completely turn things around. A lacklustre, on-the-nose murder mystery suddenly gains its laughs in the biggest portion of her brief appearances as the lawyer of shepherd George Hardy (Hugh Jackman). After he was found murdered she’s present to read his will, and reveal one of the possible motives for the gathered few in the village of Denbrook, where George had some secrets and rivalries.
However, the police (Nicholas Braun with not too shabby English accent) are struggling in their investigation and so the sheep still grazing in George’s meadow take it upon themselves to try and work out who the murderer is, inspired by the murder-mystery stories he would read aloud to them each night. Once past a series of cartoon behaviour which produces little but bland and faltering jokes we see smartest sheep Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) take the lead alongside never-forgetting Mopple (Chris O’Dowd). The story isn’t so much about the mystery; that’s kept fairly simple and straightforward, but about the central sheep, with tinges of details about grief and remembering rather than choosing to forget.
There’s intentionally a film made that should work rather well for all ages, broader than the traditional family labelling. It’s playing for a very wide audience and should generally have something to appeal to everyone, especially once it properly kicks in with the aforementioned arrival of Emma Thompson who brings about the bigger narrative focus and push for the sheep and actual chuckles – definitely a strong tonal shift for writer Craig Mazin, adapting Leonie Swann’s novel Three Bags Full, having spent the last few years working on TV projects Chernobyl and The Last Of Us (having written films in the Scary Movie and Hangover series before that).
The impact of this film may not be quite as striking, or memorable. In fact, it’s likely that it’ll be hard to remember much of it shortly after it’s finished. But, for its run-time there’s enough to like and be amused by, especially once the narrative factors are in play for the sheep to investigate. This is a solid slice of likable amusement for all ages.
It might take some time to properly get going, but once past some lacklustre build-up and properly focusing on the sheep investigating there’s solid, if forgettable, amusement to be found in The Sheep Detectives with a good deal of chuckles once the titular flock turn away from being cartoons.
Just A Little Bit Random 