I took my junior film critic, Eileen (age 8) and her grandpa (age 79), to see this folksy film starring the “kindest animals in the world.” While their appreciation might have been what I expected, their comments were surprisingly astute.
The sheep, led by the smartest sheep in the world, Lily (voiced by a shyly intelligent Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and a grand old winter ram (voiced by a powerful Bryan Cranston), are part of lovable George Hardy’s (Hugh Jackman) family (flock). He has created a special blue drink for them that keeps them healthy, and he reads to them each night from a whodunit.
George loves his sheep, but he is not aware of a very important thing. They can understand him and communicate with each other about things as varied as book discussions and their disappointment when it’s bedtime, and they must wait another evening for the next chapter in George’s reading.
Lily can generally figure out who the perpetrator is in each mystery. She can reason logically better than the rest.
One rainy night, while they are sleeping in the barn, George is murdered. A coroner comes out to verify the death, and the only policeman in town certifies that fact. But Lily is able to figure out that George was poisoned and must figure out a way to let the cop know.
Now the real madcap fun begins. George’s beautiful, estranged daughter (gentle Molly Gordon) arrives with George’s high-octane lawyer (assertive Emma Thompson) for the reading of the will. A flustered newspaper reporter (Nicholas Galitzine), apparently trying to cover the annual Denbrook festival, figures the murder is a much better story.
All along, Lily and the sheep are trying to figure out who did it. They don’t for a split second trust the brains of the lone and quite dimwitted policeman (Nicholas Braun).
I haven’t even gotten around to mentioning Eileen’s favorite character. At school they have been studying “empathy,” the ability to feel another’s feelings. So, right away, she favored the little rejected winter lamb, wanting to befriend him when the rest of the flock cast him out.
Eileen gave “The Sheep Detectives” an enthusiastic 5 (she gave last year’s “Snow White” a 4). She loved the talking sheep, the environment, and the little winter lamb (Tommy Birchall, aged 11-12). She enjoyed the humor and had fun guessing throughout the film who committed the murder. But neither she nor her grandpa, who found the film “a heart-warmer,” could correctly guess who the perpetrator was.
After the film was over and time had rolled on, Eileen started asking pertinent questions. There were certain things leading to the discovery of the true culprit that did not seem to add up to either her or her very wise grandpa.
Her insightful questions surrounding the true murderer can’t be addressed in this review. But I can divulge that Eileen needed a motive for the murder and the weakly suggested one was not convincing to her. Her other questions surrounding the winter lamb, color and beauty parlor secrets found her grandpa and I floundering for answers.
Eileen still gives “The Sheep Detectives” a 5 because the concept of talking sheep was “sweet.” However, she’s got a mind in her head, so to her some of the writing, though not the concept of talking and thinking sheep, still needs a little work to make the rest of the story completely logical.
Eileen’s Rating: 5 out of 5
Credits
Director: Kyle Balda
Writer: Craig Mazin based on story “Three Bags Full”
Producers: Lindsay Doran, Tim Bevan, and Eric Fellner
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nichalas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein, Hong Chau and Emma Thompson.
Cinematography: George Steel
Editors: Martin Walsh, Paul Machliss and Al LeVine
Music: Christophe Beck
Release: May 8, 2026
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