Critics Are Weepy for The Sheep Detectives

Photo: Amazon MGM Studios

Do you know how much easier headlines for reviews of The Sheep Detectives would have been if the movie was baaaad? Instead, it is good, and that doesn’t sound like a sheep’s bah at all. Vulture’s Alison Willmore says the film “has no business being as good as it is, or being the kind of movie you can imagine living forever in young memories as something both lightly scarring and delightful.” Lightly scarring makes sense to describe a kids movie written by the creator of Chernobyl and the most heartstring-tugging standalone episode of television in a decade.

Of particular note is director Kyle Balda (Minions, Minions: the Rise of Gru) turning from CGI to live-action. Or at least a 50/50 split. The titular sheep detectives are animated as much as any minion. But the sheep are given weight, both physically and emotionally, within the film. Here’s what critics are saying (bleating?) about The Sheep Detectives.

“The reason the sheep are capable of conveying emotionally resonant experiences is because there’s a tangibility to them onscreen that’s not just about design but to how well they fit within the movie’s slightly heightened reality — creatures that have rich inner lives but that, to the humans, are basically part of the background. Like children, they pick up much more than anyone expects them to, even if they don’t understand it all in the moment.” — Alison Willmore, Vulture

“Alternating a mellow storybook tone in the story’s sheep-centered sections with jaunty Britcom-style humor whenever the focus shifts to human goings-on, the result comes about as close as any adaptation could to being all things to all creatures great and small.” — Guy Lodge, Variety

“The Sheep Detectives brims with charm, wit, and a twisty murder mystery that can only be solved by the most endearing set of farm animals since Farmer Hoggett said ‘That’ll do’ to Babe the pig. This film has a similar combination of idyllic country settings, an assortment of vivid characters, and meaningful stakes. Also like Babe, it is genuinely for all ages (except for the youngest children—it is a story about a murder and acknowledges where meat comes from). It is accessible enough for younger viewers without condescending to them, yet complex enough to engage an adult audience.” — Neil Minow, RogerEbert.com

“The great feelgood trick pulled off by this film is that the murder, involving a character we’ve been encouraged to like and invest in emotionally – much more so than in traditional detective stories – doesn’t get swamped with sadness and shock. The film scoots smartly past the death and brings us briskly on to the entertaining business of sheep-oriented crime detection. It’s all very silly.” — Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Critics Are Weepy for The Sheep Detectives