The Sheep Detectives
Dustin Chase
Full disclosure: this is a biased review because I have pet sheep. Live-action family films tend not to be the most inventive, as they often choose to placate or simply focus on their younger attendees. “The Sheep Detectives” is a hybrid film in many ways. It uses both real actors and visually created farm animals like other films have. Yet also provides laughs and entertainment for young viewers while simultaneously offering life lessons and an emotional gut punch for the grownups. We haven’t had a lot of memorable talking sheep characters on the big screen. Ma in “Babe” is one of the few who stands out. Aside from farm animals trying to solve a murder mystery, “The Sheep Detectives” follows a similar blueprint to an Agatha Christie story or the more recent “Wake Up Dead Man.”
“The secret to life is sheep,” shepherd George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) writes. He means it too. He’s given names to each of his sheep based on their characteristics and personality. Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is the gentle, copper-coated one, his favorite. Hardy calls sheep the kindest creatures on earth. “They spend their days eating or thinking about eating,” he writes with a chuckle. Hardy lives alone in a revamped airstream trailer with gorgeous pasture views and a flock of sheep that surround him each evening as he reads nighttime stories. What he doesn’t realize is they understand every word and are fully invested in the suspenseful tales he reads. Hardy is loved by his sheep, but the townsfolk of Denbrook find him grouchy and unlikable.
...bring Kleenex
When Hardy turns up dead, everyone is a suspect, and the sheep decide to help the incompetent local police man (Nicholas Braun) figure out who committed the crime.
Every single time the sheep “Bahhhhh”, director Kyle Balda makes it funny. The editing and timing are clever as it switches back and forth from the audience understanding the sheep to what humans hear. There is a poignant narrative thread about death that runs through the film. It’s delicate, sweet, and quite moving as the sheep believe they turn into clouds at some point and only humans experience death. They also have a forgetting ritual, when life gets too tough, they collectively agree to forget something. Everyone except Mopple (Chris O’Dowd), who lacks the forgetting ability. Mopple carries the burden of truth in all things on his own. You see where this is going, bring Kleenex.
Most of us have had enough interactions with cats or dogs as pets to know when a film featuring our furry friends portrays them accurately. The sheep consultants working on this film helped the visual effects team nail down the large and small mannerisms of sheep. This might be lost on viewers who have never interacted with the docile and easily frightened animals, but the level of understanding is quite impressive from a technical standpoint. The murder plot of the script functions as more of a delivery device, or an advertising gimmick to sell tickets. The sheep ideology, their customs and way of viewing the world is what’s most fascinating. You just can’t really sell that in an advertising trailer. The flock interaction, mostly Lily, Mopple and Sebastian (Bryan Cranston) are what provide the heart of the film. You’ll never look at clouds the same way.
Final Thought
A real summer surprise that’s adorable, heartwarming and full of emotional life lessons for children and adults.