Hugh and ewes are a delightful combination in THE SHEEP DETECTIVES

This is the best family movies in years.

I walked into The Sheep Detective with my shears out.

As a critic and parent, I’ve seen many movies about talking animals. Probably too many. I fully anticipated a loud slapstick mess full of fart jokes, dance parties and baa-d puns. Even my 10-year-old daughter rolled her eyes at the trailer and made it clear she wasn’t too excited about this screening being how she spent a Saturday morning.

But The Sheep Detectives is good. Really good. If you slotted it into a lineup between Babe and Paddington, it wouldn’t feel out of place¹. I’m pleasantly surprised that I’m still chewing on it.

Hugh Jackman plays George Hardy, a shepherd who lives alone in his trailer in the small English town of Denbrook. He doesn’t get along well with the other folk in town, but he’s content to spend his day tending his flock. He’s named them, he’s created a medicine that keeps them healthy and in the evenings, he reads them mystery novels. He knows they’re not paying much attention, but it brings a peaceful close to his days.

But, of course, the sheep are paying attention. When George isn’t around, we hear them talk to each other. We learn that Mopple (Chris O’ Dowd) can’t choose to forget things like the other sheep can. We know that the ram Sebastian (Bryan Cranston) stays away from the flock. And we know that Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is the smartest of the bunch, always one step ahead of the rest of the sheep when George reads his mysteries. That will come in handy – one morning, George is found dead on the ground, the victim of foul play. Denbrook’s lone police officer (Nicolas Braun) is ill-equipped to solve a mystery on his own, so the sheep decide to find George’s killer.

Based on the crew’s pedigree, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is nothing more than loud, pratfall-heavy kids’ junk. Director Kyle Balda has mostly helmed Minion-adjacent fare, and while screenwriter Craig Mazin was behind HBO’s Chernobyl and The Last of Us, his feature screenplays have been for dreck like Scary Movie 4, The Hangover II and Identity Thief. And the film’s trailers leaned into dopey sheep jokes and slapstick puns.

But the movie, based on Leonie Swann’s best-seller Three Bags Full, is more gentle, clever and thoughtful than its marketing lets on. Yes, there’s a running joke about two rams eager to bash up cars, and the film occasionally indulges in a bit of slapstick goofiness. But those moments are sparing, and instead The Sheep Detectives uses its anthropomorphized investigators to tell a story that’s by turns engaging, funny and even insightful.

For starters, Mazin’s screenplay doesn’t let the animal hijinks overshadow a legitimately solid mystery. The film’s protagonists might be animals, but Denbrook is filled with colorful characters, each of whom had some sort of grudge with George. There’s Rev. Hillcoate (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), who preaches about a good shepherd but might be leading his flock astray. There’s Caleb (Tosin Cole), a shepherd who stands to inherit the land, and Ham (Conleth Hill), a butcher who never trusts a vegetarian. Hong Chau plays a townswoman obsessed with George and The Bear’s Molly Gordon complicates things as George’s long-lost daughter, who turns up on the same day as the murder and stands to inherit a fortune. And George’s lawyer – played with shallow glee by Emma Thompson – seems too eager to see who benefits from her client’s will.

Trying to piece all this together is the town’s bumbling cop and a reporter (Nicholas Galitzine) who stumbled into town just as the mystery was unfolding. They’re dumbfounded (and, in the case of the cop, a bit dumb), but thankfully the sheep know what to look for. Lily is well aware that they need to be searching for motives, means and opportunities, and she and the flock do their best to nudge the humans closer to the killer. For mystery fans, the film plays fair; it’s a genuinely entertaining mystery that doesn’t cheat its reveal. By letting Lily explain the tropes and formulas of George’s novel, it serves as a great first whodunit for kids who haven’t yet stumbled onto Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys.

Balda lets it all unfold with wit and charm. The dialogue between the suspects is clever, and the film’s storybook visuals are often undercut with sly humor; I particularly liked the way a sign in the background advertises that a local neon shop has a discount for locals, and attentive viewers will notice that apparently every business in town has taken them up on that offer. When the reporter arrives to find that the heavily promoted cultural festival is a few meager tents and melted cheese, the townsfolk remind him that their true claim to fame is that Return to Oz was filmed just 40 miles away (“many people think it’s better than the original”). While the main draw comes from the sheep’s shenanigans – and those are a delight, particularly a moment when Mopple gets lost inside a home – the film’s human characters are interesting, funny and brought to life by a cast that understands how to pitch their performances between human and cartoon.

Going to big stars to voice animals is usually a lazy move to use celebrity persona as a replacement for character. On occasion, it works – Jack Black is wonderful in the Kung Fu Panda movies — but too often we get kiddie variations on shtick that worked better in live action. But The Sheep Detectives cast wisely, particularly with its two lead sheep. O’Dowd is a fun as a sensitive but also small-witted sheep, and while Patrick Stewart doesn’t have much to do but growl “murderer,” I laughed every single time he did. Julia Louis-Dreyfus conveys intelligence and wit, and she’s particularly good as Lily begins to question her assumptions and skills, learning that the human world is much more complicated that George’s novels. And Cranston is fantastic as the grumpy ram who’s nursing deeper wounds; Sebastian’s backstory is heartbreaking and harsh – it might be a bit much for the youngest viewers – and he brings real pathos and pain to the well-worn trope of a loner finding his flock.

All of this on its own would make for an entertaining diversion. But The Sheep Detectives is deeper and more thoughtful than your average kids’ movie. Rather than use its four-legged heroes as an excuse to trot out slapstick and puns, the film uses its animal community to address the peculiarities of human life. By giving the sheep two cornerstone beliefs – that they can (and should) forget bad things, and that all sheep turn into clouds instead of dying – the film addresses the importance of accepting the good and bad in life, and warns away from beliefs that offer easy answers. Their prejudice toward “winter sheep” – the flock casts off sheep not born in spring – allows the film to discuss community and acceptance in a way that kids can understand and will probably draw some tears. It’s a film that’s suitable for most ages, but it isn’t afraid to get serious and even a little dark. Its takes on vegetarianism and religion are a bit subversive for a kids’ movie².

By the end, my daughter and I were both won over by this delightful little movie. It does what it says on the box – it’s a mystery involving cute animals – but it also overachieves by exploring very human ideas of mortality, community and grief. It’s touching, funny and clever in ways too many family movies aren’t allowed to be. Just a few weeks ago, after being assaulted by the light and nonsense show that was The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, I said kids deserved better. The Sheep Detectives is the movie they deserve. It’s the best family film in years.

1. But not Paddington 2, of course; that’s a tier of perfection all its own.

2. I particularly liked Sebastian explaining to the other sheep that humans worship God – who is a sheep and a lamb, but that the people also eat him. I’m aware that there’s a reading of this film that could also be critical of religion – the sheep’s belief about turning into clouds could be a critique of teachings about the afterlife, but there other moments suggest the film isn’t dismissing the supernatural, just beliefs that offer pat answers and escape. . . and I really did not expect The Sheep Detectives to cause me to think about any of this at all.