The Sheep Detectives is a movie adaptation of a German book translated and billed as “Three Bags Full” written by Leoni Swann. A flock of carefree, simple sheep who suddenly find their shepherd George played by Hugh Jackman has been murdered. And the sheep will figure out who did it, because George also read pulpy detective books to them every night before bed so they are of course experts.

This is an Amazon MGM movie with Amazon money backing it, so you’ve got a star studded cast of recognizable actors like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, and Chris O’dowd rounding out your three main sheep characters.

The writing here is simply solid, nothing special but competent in they way you would expect a funny animal adventure typical murder mystery to play out. So much, that good chunks of the movie directly spell out how to solve a crime movie or crime novel. It’s having fun poking at the genre. I came into this movie expecting very little, and was pleasantly surprised.

The movie tackles some unexpectedly mature topics, like being an outcast in the way that everyone around you doesn’t want you around and that nobody loves you, the right thing to do after a loved one dies, illegal dog fighting, and the darker side of animal husbandry including where our food comes from. I wouldn’t think this is suitable for very very young children. If you haven’t taught your kids what death is yet, this movie will do it for you. Hugh Jackman dies really fast in this one.

However, there is no toilet humor in this one. Which is a relief.

On the other hand it’s not reinventing the wheel. The human characters are limited in scope even though they’re the suspects and in my mind should be the focus. The mystery takes a bit of a back seat for a while. You might get a kick out of silly CGI sheep hijinks and some of the jokes landed for me.

Overall, this is a pretty good one for what it is.

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