The Sheep Detectives (4.5*): A Really Entertaining Family Film, (Almost) Baaaaa None.

A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Sheep Detectives”. (2026, 4.5*, PG).

We are really being spoiled for great family films this year. Last month brought us the wonderful “The Magic Faraway Tree“. Now we have “The Sheep Detectives”, designed for slightly older children (see my parental guidance in the “Spoiler” section below the trailer), that is again a near flawless piece of family entertainment in the manner of “Wonka” and “Paddington 2“.

Mark Kermode in his “Kermode and Mayo Take” podcast described this one as being “Babe meets Knives Out“…. and its a pretty good description!

One Mann’s Movies Rating:

Plot:

Shepherd George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) lives an idyllic life as a shepherd in fields near the English village of Denbrook. He reads murder/mystery stories each night to his flock of sheep. But one night, fiction becomes fact when George is murdered. With a bumbling local PC, Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), always on clueless, it is up to the sheep, led by the wise Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), to keep putting him on the right track.

Certification:

UK: PG; US: PG. (From the BBFC website: “Mild violence, threat, brief language”.)

Talent:

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brett Goldstein, Patrick Stewart,
Regina Hall, Bella Ramsey, Chris O’Dowd, Rhys Darby, Bryan Cranston, Aroop Shergill, Tosin Cole, Conleth Hill, Hong Chau, Emma Thompson, Nicholas Galitzine, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Tommy Birchall.

Directed by: Kyle Balda.

Written by: Craig Mazin. (Based on the novel “Three Bags Full” by Leonie Swann).

Running Time: 1h 49m.

Review:

Positives:

• What a delight! If you are put off from seeing this film because it looks a bit childish, with a bunch of talking sheep, DON’T BE! Underneath the (mostly) child-friendly exterior, there is a really amusing and entertaining film for adults, with a pretty decent “Knives Out“-style mystery to solve. (The wool was well and truly pulled over my eyes – pun intended – as regards who the killer was… I didn’t guess it.) There are also a lot of great gags that only adults will get. (The twin-rams called Ronnie and Reggie, for example, both voiced by Brett Goldstein.)
• There are lots of gags that provoked outright laughter, rather than just smiles: a chicken crossing a road; a sheep that is constantly convinced that “the maid did it” (there isn’t a maid); a mash up of ecclesiastic nonsense as the sheep pass a church; and biggest of all for the Illustrious Mrs Movie Mann and myself, “Nancy’s Neons” (“Low prices for locals”) which was a minor running-gag and hilarious!
• The eclectic cast are clearly enjoying themselves. It is great to see Nicholas Braun (Greg from “Succession”) is such a big screen role. Given that Hugh Jackman is only in the film for a little of its running time, Braun is actually the lead actor in this, so I would guess he is a bit pissed off about being so far down the IMDB cast listing! The voice cast for the sheep is stellar: Patrick Stewart, Bryan Cranston, Regina Hall, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Chris O’Dowd are all in there. But I must confess that the only one I recognised was the unmistakable voice of Patrick Stewart.
• The script is a lot more deep than it first seems. Covering themes of family, loss and grief, I didn’t realise quite how much the film was emotionally getting under my skin until one of the final shots of the film – you’ll know the one – when I unexpectedly found myself welling up. This is what good cinema should be: a movie that manages to unexpectedly move you to tears.

Negatives:

• I think this is a near faultless film (I have actually just upped my rating from a 4* to a 4.5*). The only thing I had reservations about was that the first reel, which was a little bit laborious in getting the action started. For younger kids in the audience, I think that might be a bit slow for them.
• I would think this film is most suitable for kids 8 and above: there are elements (see the spoiler section below the trailer) that might be disturbing to youngsters. We are not talking “Watership Down” traumatising, but worth considering.

Monkeys?

There is an audio “monkey” at the very end of the trailer. Some of my film-reviewing colleagues had commented to me that this was a “MUST STAY FOR”. Ahem, I might beg to differ and think they might need to get out more! 😉 It’s smile-worthy at best, but don’t miss your bus for it.

Summary Thoughts:

This hit just the right note for me as a whimsical film for older kids and adults still young-at-heart. It also ticked the box as being quite a clever murder/mystery as well. All told, this is a really nicely crafted film and one I will wholeheartedly recommend you go and see at the cinema. (For those unable or unwilling to do that, it is an Amazon Original film, so it should be hitting Prime Video within a few months.)

Perhaps the innovation here comes from combining writers and directors from VERY different streams. The director is Kyle Balda, whose feature-directions to date have (I believe) all been animations (he did some of the “Minions” movies and “Despicable Me 3”). The writer was no other than Craig Mazin, writer of some of the “Scary Movie” films; “The Hangover” films; TV’s award-winning “Chernobyl”; and the TV zombie hit “The Last of Us”. If that is the case, then Hollywood should get its food blender out more often!

Where to watch?

Nothing is available for this title in the Justwatch database.

Source:

Trailer:

The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyZI5oM6hWk.

Spoiler Section:

Don’t read past this point if you’ve not seen the movie.

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NO, SERIOUSLY!

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Parental Guidance notes

I commented that I think this film is best suited for 8+ children, so will use this section to explain why. (Of course, all children differ in emotional intelligence, so scenes in here might be a breeze for some 5- year-olds but still traumatise a 9-year-old.)

Firstly, there is obviously the issue that “THEY’VE GONE AND KILLED THE GREATEST SHOWMAN!!”. The murder is in no way graphic, but the sparkly Hugh Jackman is not in the film for more than about 30 minutes before he is ‘brown bread’. (He does appear later in flashback and in a ghostly form.)

The main source of concern though are the dogs owned by the farmer of the next pasture Caleb Merrow (Tosin Cole). In one scene, the sheep Lily and Daisy are attacked by the dogs, with the lone ram Sebastian (Bryan Cranston) arriving to save the day. He fights the dogs off, but suffers a fatal bite in so doing and dies on the hillside. There is also a flashback scene of Sebastian trapped in a carnival and forced to fight dogs for betting purposes. All of this is non-graphic, without noticeable blood, but might still be disturbing for young children, particularly if they already have an existing fear of dogs.

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