It’s almost a cheat to point out that the various wooly creatures sharing the screen with some familiar and well-regarded live actors in the whimsical mystery movie The Sheep Detectives are largely computer-generated, despite how realistic and seamlessly integrated they are with the film’s flesh-and-blood people and actual settings. Not that the technological sleight-of-hand isn’t given away as soon as the sheep start talking in the comfortably familiar voices of some well-known stars. Still, it’s downright refreshing to encounter a motion picture that makes use of copious computer animation like so many others in the recent past but happens to be worlds away from an over-amped battle-driven video game adaptation or a science-fiction epic.
The Sheep Detectives, which features a loveable Hugh Jackson and a tart-tongued Emma Thompson in two significant roles, is an amusing gambol that offers a few sweet and thoughtful elements that will resonate with children and grown-ups alike. It’s as good a family entertainment as one might hope to encounter, and though the human beings in the story are integral to what happens, the title is no accident. There’s a murder, and some surprisingly savvy sheep endeavor to find the killer. Jackman plays a kindly shepherd named George. He’s a bit of a loner whose residential trailer and flock are located in a sylvan meadow on the outskirts of Denbrook, one of those quaint English villages that seem to retain their quaintness, even in modern times. Fond of his charges, the shepherd reads detective novels to the sheep at bedtime to soothe them, and they pick up a few tricks along the way, which they use in their attempt to figure out which human suspect among the locals is the murderer.
The smartest of the sheep is Lily, who leads the investigation and is voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. As noted, the majority of the actors voicing the rams, ewes, and lambs are quite recognizable and include Patrick Stewart, Bryan Cranston, and Regina Hall, as well as Chris O’Dowd, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein, and Rhys Darby. With such singular talents at play, the personalities of the sheep are sharply defined, and the animation is so accomplished that it’s easy to buy the conversations between the animals. As for what they discuss when they’re not solving crime, their social order is governed by certain tenets. Although they predominantly exist in a carefree state and willfully forget unpleasant memories, the members of the flock have a prejudice against sheep that are not born in spring, and they thoughtlessly treat one born in winter as an outcast. Their perspective begins to change when confronted by the reality of death and its impact on their community and on the townsfolk.
Bleating the rap
While the lucky audience watching The Sheep Detectives can understand every word the sheep utter, the two-legged characters that populate the whodunit don’t understand any of the bleating. The most significant of the villagers, other than George, are rival sheep farmer Caleb (Tosin Cole), bumbling Denbrook policeman Tim (Nicholas Braun), conniving innkeeper Beth (Hong Chau), and sneering butcher Ham (Conleth Hill). Then, there are town visitors led by estate lawyer Lydia (Thompson), annoyingly eager newspaper reporter Elliot (Nicholas Galitzine), and George’s estranged daughter Rebecca (Molly Gordon). Most of them are under suspicion of homicide, and their actions and reactions before and after the killing are significant, but none of their part in The Sheep Detectives is as profound or delightful as what the sheep do.
If it sounds a little callous to suggest delight in a tale that has someone’s death as a triggering incident, the script by Craig Mazin (The Last of Us, Chernobyl), who adapted the book Three Bags Full by German novelist Leonie Swann, never loses its lightness or the comedic aspects of its animal escapades. There’s genuine sentiment as the sheep come to grips with mortality, loss, and grief, yet the wit and warmth of Mazin’s screenplay ultimately win the day. As for the director of record, Kyle Balda previously helmed the uniformly funny, fully animated Despicable Me and Minions films. Balda’s work on The Sheep Detectives is ample proof that he’s as good with a real-life cast and shockingly lifelike CGI sheep as he is with a cartoon mad scientist and his little, goofy, yellow, bullet-headed clones. In the face of those who bray that digital technology lacks soul, Balda, Mazin, the cast, and the animators have used it to spin a yarn that’s humane and moving.
The Sheep Detectives is currently in theaters.
