Is The Sheep Detectives Worth Watching?
The film everybody’s talking about, The Sheep Detectives, sounds downright outrageous. Based on the novel Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, it follows a flock of sheep who must solve the murder of their shepherd, played by Hugh Jackman. But at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s one of Jackman’s most critically acclaimed films. So what is it about The Sheep Detectives that has audiences in tears (us included), and ruminating over how to cope with grief? It’s easy to dismiss this fluffy, half-animated, half-live action film as just for kids, but this murder mystery is intriguing, touching and teaches us so much about community and dealing with emotion. If you’re a fan of Paddington 2, Babe or Knives Out, you should probably add it to your watchlist. Plus, the cast is stacked. The live-action characters include Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Hong Chau, Tosin Cole, and Emma Thompson. The flock of sheep are voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Rhys Darby and Brett Goldstein. Below, entertainment writers Angeline Barion and Rachel Choy delve into what makes The Sheep Detectives tick, why we cried over Sebastian and Winter Lamb, and whether or not this film is the best of the year. Mild spoilers follow. Rachel Choy: I saw someone describe The Sheep Detectives as Babe meets Knives Out. And I kind of love that. It has all the emotional bits, there’s a true murder mystery — but the murder mystery isn’t the main takeaway. Angeline Barion: I was like, why are there tears in my eyes? I’m really, really confused by the fact that there’s tears in my eyes over a sheep. RC: That’s what everyone is saying! The sheep being able to choose whether or not they can wipe their memories so they don’t remember anything bad, that’s so real. AB: That’s such a kid thing to do. Compartmentalize. It’s fine. RC: If you had the choice to wipe everything bad that’s ever happened to you, would you do it? AB: I don’t know. I feel I wouldn’t be the same person if I did do that. I think it’d be okay if I could pick and choose exactly what it would be. But I feel there’s a butterfly effect to thoughts, and how they branch out into different things. I wouldn’t be the same person if I chose to wipe my memory. RC: It’s also telling that everything you overcome, everything has taught us a lesson. So we might be really stupid if we never learned from our mistakes. But I did love seeing the characters realize that you do need to face these hard and heartbreaking moments in life. So it’s a weird thing about grief. It would be great to get rid of your grief, but at the same time, you wouldn’t be able to remember the important moments. Your grief makes your better moments shine. AB: Have you ever seen that quote, “In order for you to feel grief, it means that you felt an extreme amount of love?” You wouldn’t have one without the other. Despite grief being such a heavy thing that we all get to experience at some point in our lives, I think it’s also important to know what that feels like, so you can feel the good parts of it to its full extremity. RC: I love that. Did you think the film was a bit dark for kids? AB: I think maybe it was a good way to teach them about loss in a relatable way. I think putting it in a term — animals — that they understand helps them grasp those conversations. It also gives parents or anyone a starting point to talk to a child about that type of stuff. RC: I don’t know if really little kids would understand everything, but I guess they can just be entertained by the animals. AB: We all want a talking animal. I’m really, really confused by the fact that there’s tears in my eyes over a sheep.Angeline Barion on The Sheep Detectives RC: But that scene where the ram Sebastian got attacked, it was giving me Mufasa flashbacks from The Lion King. AB: I was sitting with Bernice when we were watching it, and we audibly gasped. It was just so awful. It was like in Guardians Of The Galaxy when they were showing Rocket’s backstory. It’s one of those things that will just stick with you, RC: I can’t wipe that from my memory. The other thing was, I wanted to die every time they shunned Winter Lamb. AB: I was like, oh my god, please just leave this poor lamb alone. This is so upsetting. He just wants to have a friend. He’s so small. RC: He’s so small. And everyone online is like, we would die for Winter Lamb. And did you watch Project Hail Mary? Same thing for Rocky. AB: I would die for Rocky. RC: I feel that’s maybe what the film does so well, it really plays on your emotions. And there’s such deep messages I was not expecting from a movie about sheep. It’s about the importance of community, staying curious and learning, and not excluding anyone. And then also, how humans can be so evil when it comes to greed, it’s a lot. AB: I love the way that they set up each of the
Black News 
The film everybody’s talking about, The Sheep Detectives, sounds downright outrageous. Based on the novel Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, it follows a flock of sheep who must solve the murder of their shepherd, played by Hugh Jackman. But at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s one of Jackman’s most critically acclaimed films. So what is it about The Sheep Detectives that has audiences in tears (us included), and ruminating over how to cope with grief?
It’s easy to dismiss this fluffy, half-animated, half-live action film as just for kids, but this murder mystery is intriguing, touching and teaches us so much about community and dealing with emotion. If you’re a fan of Paddington 2, Babe or Knives Out, you should probably add it to your watchlist. Plus, the cast is stacked. The live-action characters include Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Hong Chau, Tosin Cole, and Emma Thompson. The flock of sheep are voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Rhys Darby and Brett Goldstein.
Below, entertainment writers Angeline Barion and Rachel Choy delve into what makes The Sheep Detectives tick, why we cried over Sebastian and Winter Lamb, and whether or not this film is the best of the year. Mild spoilers follow.
Rachel Choy: I saw someone describe The Sheep Detectives as Babe meets Knives Out. And I kind of love that. It has all the emotional bits, there’s a true murder mystery — but the murder mystery isn’t the main takeaway.
Angeline Barion: I was like, why are there tears in my eyes? I’m really, really confused by the fact that there’s tears in my eyes over a sheep.
RC: That’s what everyone is saying! The sheep being able to choose whether or not they can wipe their memories so they don’t remember anything bad, that’s so real.
AB: That’s such a kid thing to do. Compartmentalize. It’s fine.
RC: If you had the choice to wipe everything bad that’s ever happened to you, would you do it?
AB: I don’t know. I feel I wouldn’t be the same person if I did do that. I think it’d be okay if I could pick and choose exactly what it would be. But I feel there’s a butterfly effect to thoughts, and how they branch out into different things. I wouldn’t be the same person if I chose to wipe my memory.
RC: It’s also telling that everything you overcome, everything has taught us a lesson. So we might be really stupid if we never learned from our mistakes. But I did love seeing the characters realize that you do need to face these hard and heartbreaking moments in life. So it’s a weird thing about grief. It would be great to get rid of your grief, but at the same time, you wouldn’t be able to remember the important moments. Your grief makes your better moments shine.
AB: Have you ever seen that quote, “In order for you to feel grief, it means that you felt an extreme amount of love?” You wouldn’t have one without the other. Despite grief being such a heavy thing that we all get to experience at some point in our lives, I think it’s also important to know what that feels like, so you can feel the good parts of it to its full extremity.
RC: I love that. Did you think the film was a bit dark for kids?
AB: I think maybe it was a good way to teach them about loss in a relatable way. I think putting it in a term — animals — that they understand helps them grasp those conversations. It also gives parents or anyone a starting point to talk to a child about that type of stuff.
RC: I don’t know if really little kids would understand everything, but I guess they can just be entertained by the animals.
AB: We all want a talking animal.
I’m really, really confused by the fact that there’s tears in my eyes over a sheep.
Angeline Barion on The Sheep Detectives
RC: But that scene where the ram Sebastian got attacked, it was giving me Mufasa flashbacks from The Lion King.
AB: I was sitting with Bernice when we were watching it, and we audibly gasped. It was just so awful. It was like in Guardians Of The Galaxy when they were showing Rocket’s backstory. It’s one of those things that will just stick with you,
RC: I can’t wipe that from my memory. The other thing was, I wanted to die every time they shunned Winter Lamb.
AB: I was like, oh my god, please just leave this poor lamb alone. This is so upsetting. He just wants to have a friend. He’s so small.
RC: He’s so small. And everyone online is like, we would die for Winter Lamb. And did you watch Project Hail Mary? Same thing for Rocky.
AB: I would die for Rocky.
RC: I feel that’s maybe what the film does so well, it really plays on your emotions. And there’s such deep messages I was not expecting from a movie about sheep. It’s about the importance of community, staying curious and learning, and not excluding anyone. And then also, how humans can be so evil when it comes to greed, it’s a lot.
AB: I love the way that they set up each of the different moments, how they would lay out very clearly all of the different personality types for the sheep. And then also in the scene where they’re reading the will, reading out all of those archetypes for each of the people as well. It leaves you questioning, but also lets you know that there’s a future resolution to things. Sometimes, especially for a kids’ movie, I hate finding out later that someone was meant to be evil out of the blue, and it’s hard for me to process.
RC: I also hate in murder mysteries when there’s no real way to figure out, for example, they put in a random twist at the end. But this is a proper murder mystery with clues, and you can see everyone that’s involved, and come to a conclusion.
There’s such deep messages I was not expecting from a movie about sheep. It’s about the importance of community, staying curious and learning, and not excluding anyone.
Rachel Choy On The Sheep Detectives
AB: It doesn’t leave too much to the imagination at the end.
RC: Even my husband got teary, and he never does this. He was thinking that this could be the best film of the year.
AB: We were obviously walking in and expecting that it was going to be a really fun movie, like a light-hearted version of Knives Out. But the fact that it goes so deeply into all of these different complex and very heavy topics was just so surprising. He’s right to say it would be one of the best movies of this year.
RC: And they got such a stacked cast, they would have all read the script and signed on. That’s so many people believing in it, not only just in the voice cast, but also the live-action cast as well.
AB: I think they have such a good dynamic. Nicholas Braun really carried it. His ability to play the character that’s very clueless, but then somehow works it out in the end.
RC: Even Emma Thompson in her tiny little moments, stole the show.
AB: It felt like a really nice family movie, one of those ones that you would chuck up on the TV on a Friday, eating popcorn at home.
RC: For me it’s up there with Paddington 2, it has that same vibe.
AB: And Mulan, The Little Mermaid… those types of movies that you can watch over and over again, despite knowing what the twist is. And I don’t mind telling all my friends about it.
RC: I’ve already told people they have to watch it. I said, “You need to watch this. I think you’re gonna resonate really well with this message.” Is there anything else you want to say about the film?
AB: I always wonder how the sheep understand English.
RC: They’re bilingual. They’re baa-lingual.
This conversation has been condensed for clarity. The Sheep Detectives is in theaters now.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
6 Treats You Should Watch On Netflix This May
