‘The Sheep Detectives’: Not a Baa-d Murder Mystery Comedy
A murder mystery can take many forms—some more or less familiar than others. Agatha Christie helped popularize the literary genre, writing 66 detective novels with famous hits like Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None. The murder mystery genre became familiar enough that it required films to add their own flair to the genre to keep it interesting. Films like Clue take a parodic spin on a whodunit. A more contemporary example is the Knives Out series, which uses its characters and themes to tell a thinly-veiled social commentary through a murder mystery. And then there is The Sheep Detectives, a movie that uses this genre to tell a lighthearted story of a flock of sheep cracking the case of who murdered their shepherd. This film succeeds as a family-friendly whodunit because it balances an accessible yet subversive mystery, cartoonishly cute sheep, and a touching treatment of grief, despite not pushing the boundaries in the genre.
The Sheep Detectives opens with idyllic pastures and with the narration of George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) on how sheep are the secret to happiness. The audience is shown the his simple joy, as he lovingly takes care of his sheep. George details how he even named every one of his sheep, walking through all of the names and personalities of every single sheep in his flock. One thing George loves to do every night is read murder mysteries aloud to his sheep. What George doesn’t know is that his flock understands every word of the murder mysteries and that they argue among themselves about who they think the killer is in each story.
The sheep’s perfect lives take a tragic turn when George is mysteriously killed one night. The sole member of the Denbrook Police Department, Officer Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun) is utterly helpless when it comes to solving the mysterious crime, but he doesn’t face the challenge alone. Sebastian (voiced by Bryan Cranston), the loner ram of the flock, convinces Lily (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the smartest in the flock, that they need to help the clueless officer find clues. Once all of the suspects are called for the reading of the will, it is revealed that George was poisoned and had many secrets, like a net worth of $30 million at the time of his death. The mystery deepens as the means, motives, and opportunities of the suspects are investigated by the aloof detective and the keen sheep.
