The Sheep Detectives Movie Review

So what did I think of The Sheep Detectives? Hey guys, it's Brian. Welcome to The Awards Contender. Here's a movie that I saw the trailer of a few weeks ago, and I was like, no. Not for me. Not interested. I liked the cast, but I was like, you have CGI animals, a murder mystery. There's too much going on in that trailer. I don't think that's going to work. But then I've kept my eye on that film the last few weeks. It started getting screened, and it started getting loves. This has, what, like a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes? So I thought, you know, there's nothing really to see this week. Mortal Kombat 2? No thanks. Maybe one day I'll catch up with it on streaming or something. I wasn't going to see that. I'm getting ready to leave for the Cannes Film Festival in just a couple days now. Most of what you're going to see in the next few weeks on the channel will be Cannes Film Festival reviews. But before I left, I wanted to review one last thing, and the Sheep Detectives. You know, I looked at the trailer again. I thought, this isn't really for me, maybe, but let's check it out. Let's give this one a shot. I mean, it's got a really good screenwriter, Craig Mazin, who wrote The Last of Us and Chernobyl. He's been involved with some really good projects. The director, Kyle Balda, he's directed mostly like animated films, like Minions and stuff. He's worked on some Pixar films going back the last few decades. Both the writer and director of The Sheep Detectives have some good credits to their name. And with Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson and Nicholas Galitsine, Hong Chao, a really good voice cast. You have Bryan Cranston, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Patrick Stewart. The list goes on and on. I thought, maybe I am judging this film by its trailer. You know, the same way you can judge a book by its cover. Sometimes the trailer doesn't completely represent what the final finished film is going to be. There's a lot of people hating right now on the Odyssey trailer. And I'm like, hold up, people. Wait till July. Like, let's give Christopher Nolan the benefit of the doubt. And walking out of The Sheep Detectives last night, I was like, damn. I have to stop judging films by their trailers. Because The Sheep Detectives, you guys, is fantastic. I was amazed. I mean, I could not believe how wonderful this movie was. It felt like the kind of family film we got a lot in the 80s and 90s. It's not a sequel. It's not a remake. It has humor and heart, but also darkness in its story. I was kind of taken aback how a few scenes in The Sheep Detectives are kind of disturbing in their subject matter. Not overly so. Like, kids can go to this movie and enjoy it. I was just like, I was pleasantly surprised by all the things happening in the narrative. I'm not a big fan of CGI animals in movies. It doesn't really matter the genre, whether it's an adult film or a kid film, whatever it is. When I'm looking at an animal on the screen that's not physically there, oftentimes I feel it. And you know what? After about five minutes, I really did just sink into the story. I forgot about the CGI of it all. And they really did become real to me after a while. Especially because the voice acting is so strong. Because the narrative of this movie. It really takes you by surprise by how captivating it is. You have a mystery to solve. You have characters you come to care about more than you're going to expect to. Yes, I always kind of knew in the back of my mind I was looking at CGI sheep. But I quickly got past it. I stopped thinking about it. They became characters to me. Characters who made me laugh and who made me cry. The Sheep Detectives, a movie a few weeks ago, I had completely written off. Like, I'm not even gonna see that. This movie made me cry twice, you guys. There's two moments in the second half I was not prepared for. I was like, oh, this is a very deep story. That sometimes is about grief and loss and moving on. Trying to find your place in the world when you don't fit in. There are so many interesting thematic elements to The Sheep Detectives that took me by surprise. It's a really great film. The basic premise of the movie is that Hugh Jackman is in a big part of the beginning of it. He's a shepherd. He's mostly a loner. He doesn't have too many relationships with the people in the nearby town. He lives on his own in a trailer and he is surrounded by sheep. 50, 60, 70 sheep or more. He takes care of them day and night. He reads them books that they all sit and listen to. They love when he reads at the end of a long day. And one morning, a few of the sheep discover his dead body on the grass. He has passed away. We don't know exactly why. But soon thereafter, it is discovered that he was murdered with poison. Someone poisoned him. And so the film takes us into the local town where we meet all of the characters. And at least like four or five people have a motive for him to die. So this is a murder mystery throughout the film. You're watching it on a few different levels. One of which is just trying to guess who the killer is. And I don't know about you. I have never been very good at guessing a killer in a murder mystery. Whether it's a film or a book or a TV show. I'm really bad at it. I will have my assumptions. I'll say, oh my god, it's totally him or it's her. And then you get to the end of the story and I had no idea. I'm like, oh, okay. That's who did it. The only thing sometimes I can work with is if you have a famous person in a movie who doesn't have much to do throughout the narrative. And I'm thinking to myself, why would that actor have signed up for this project? Just for those two or three scenes where they don't say much. That's the only time in a murder mystery film where I can sometimes go, okay. Well, just based on the casting process. Based on everything I know of how a big star comes to be in a film. It makes zero sense why they would have signed up for this project unless they had more to do at the end. That has helped me sometimes throughout the years. Did it help me in The Sheep Detectives? It did not. The biggest star of the film, I would argue, is Hugh Jackman. And he dies in the first 10 to 15 minutes. And we're trying to solve his murder. And based on star status, that doesn't help you this time. I had a few people I was thinking about. And the reveal at the end took me by surprise. I was like, oh, that's really clever, actually. I never would have guessed that. So as a murder mystery, on that level, it's very fun. It works beautifully. It has a propulsive narrative. You're always wondering, who is the killer? What is the motivation? You have such a great ensemble cast in this of human actors. Not just the voice actors, which I'll get to in a minute. Beyond Hugh Jackman, you also have Emma Thompson, who is a hoot in this film. She's like a lawyer. She comes into the town. And she's suspicious right off the bat. You also have Hong Chao, who pops up for a few scenes in this. She has an interesting character, who I was also questioning for a while. You have Nicholas Braun from Succession. He plays like the local cop. And he's very funny in this. Nicholas Galitsine shows up. He's a photographer. He's there for this cultural festival that doesn't amount to much. And let me just say, this movie gives a lot to its audience, to its kids, to its adults. It also has something for gay men. Nicholas Galitsine in this film, with his blonde hair and his glasses. I mean, wow. Like, yes. He is so charming in this. He looks amazing. And he adds a lot of presence to this film. It's just a really interesting, eclectic group of actors for the human characters. And then you get to the voice actors. I mean, this is some fantastic work. Especially, I would say, Bryan Cranston, who really lends a lot of gravitas to this film. And the character he voices, this sheep who's kind of a loner. He comes in and out of the story and turns into one of the most pivotal characters in the film. And Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who I know has voiced characters in a lot of animated projects. I know she voiced one in A Bug's Life in the 90s. Her voice is so appealing. She makes you feel warm right from the get-go. And what's remarkable about her performance is that she gets to play both comedy and drama. It's not just her being quirky and funny all the way through. She gets to play a lot with her character as the sheep. And she gets to try different shades of emotion, of humor from scene to scene. I really liked her work in this. Patrick Stewart is a standout. Regina Hall, Chris O'Dowd. I mean, you have the mix of voice actors and human actors. And there's so much to grab your attention every moment throughout this film. I think the casting job by Lucy Bevan and Emily Brockman is Oscar-worthy. I think the casting here is really interesting. You have some actors, both the voice actors and human actors, you wouldn't necessarily think to cast in their roles. And I was really taken by everybody in this. They're all in their A-game. Nobody is, like, looking down on the project. Oh, I'm in a kid's film. It has sheep. It has a murder mystery. They could be really winking at the camera, like the human actors could be like, like, what am I doing here? And they all believe in the project. They all know they're in something interesting, unique, different. The kind of family film we never see anymore. The casting is Oscar-worthy. And I do think the visual effects in The Sheep Detectives are Oscar-worthy. The look of these sheep, it's really quite something. What they are able to do nowadays to make you believe in CGI animals. As I said earlier in this review, sometimes that takes me out. But because the screenplay is written so well, it treats the audience with intelligence and respect. And you have these wonderful voice actors who really guide you on an emotional and funny journey for nearly two hours. I went with it after a while. I didn't mind that it was CGI animals. I mean, you couldn't make this movie, really, let's be honest. If all of those sheep were real, like, they couldn't make it. They couldn't do what they wanted to do with the characters throughout the narrative. There wouldn't be a movie. They wouldn't have been able to make this. So I have to reckon with my problem with CGI creatures and stuff. And, you know, when it looks this realistic, when they're walking, when they're talking, and you just, you buy into it after a while, I have to give this movie props for the visual effects being seamless, being beautiful and believable. I do think the VFX in this movie are also Oscar worthy. I mean, it's not going to get into Best Picture. It's not going to be Babe, which got a Best Picture nomination for 1995. Even though The Sheep Detectives is doing really well with critics, I think audiences will adore it too. I don't know how big of, like, a box office hit it's going to be. Because it's not a sequel or a remake, it doesn't have a title that everyone's going to know exactly what it is. I do worry that not enough people are going to show up for The Sheep Detectives. It's going to be word of mouth. Word of mouth is going to bring people to this movie. I hope this hangs on past, like, its first week or two. People start recommending it to their family, to their friends. People show up for The Sheep Detectives late into May and even June. I want The Sheep Detectives to be a word of mouth hit. If people show up to this, they're going to be really surprised by how much they love it. By how much they're going to get involved in this story. How they're trying to guess the killer. How they're going to laugh. And how they're going to cry. I mean, again, I was really taken aback by how emotional some of the scenes are near the end. Not in a bad way. Not where you're like, oh my god, what am I watching? This is a kid's film. It doesn't go to any extreme where you're like, whoa, whoa, movie. I have my five-year-old or my eight-year-old here. Like, this is not appropriate. No, it's nothing like that. It just deals with grief in a way that I think is very effective. That really tugs on your heartstrings in a way that's never cloying or manipulative. This movie earns its sad moments. It earns your tears. It is very moving at times. It's also hilarious. Don't think you're going to be crying throughout the entirety of this film. For the most part, it's very funny. It has a level of adventure. It keeps you engaged from one moment to the next. And when this cut to the end credits, I was sitting in my seat amazed. I was like, I mean, I am so close to giving this a 9 out of 10. Like, it's that good, you guys. This is one of the best family films I have seen in the last few years. It has a great screenplay. It has a very high level of craft on display. In its visual effects. In its cinematography. In its production design. It has a very nice sense of place. Again, a great cast. I mean, I would say there's a few parts in the second act, like the middle 40 minutes, that has a few lulls. A couple scenes with the humans where they're like all in a room together. I do think the dialogue goes on a little too long. The movie could be a touch tighter. I think about 5 to 10 minutes could be shaved off of it. That's really my only criticism. For the most part, this is a fantastic film. For kids, for adults, I say go see it. Don't wait a couple weeks. Don't wait until potentially it's out of theaters. Like, show up this opening weekend. Give this movie your attention. Bring your mom. Bring your kid. Bring the whole family. You are going to love The Sheep Detectives. I give this film an enthusiastic 8 out of 10.