Since the unexpectedly masterful Paddington 2, few films have attempted to heed the clarion call for more interesting, charming, and well-made family-friendly movies at the multiplex. So when The Sheep Detectives premiered in May 2026, almost everyone I know was bowled over — this is what family movies should be!
But the charms of Sheep Detectives fade fast, and by a second watch, the problems with the narrative, casting, and performances really start to show. While this is undeniably wholesome family entertainment, it’s far from the masterpiece status of Paddington 2, and the conservative philosophy at the heart of the story feels capable of rotting the whole thing from the inside out.
Everyone Feels Like They’re In a Different Movie
Sheep Detectives concerns a flock of sheep embroiled in a mystery when their beloved shepherd (Hugh Jackman) is murdered. Luckily, the good shepherd prepared them for this by reading them murder mystery stories every night before bed.
It’s a shame that Hollywood stopped making talking animal pictures at the exact same time that computer animation technology caught up to the idea, because Sheep Detectives’ best quality is its totally convincing photo-real talking sheep, an effect so good that it makes you believe they shot this with actual sheep.
The sheep gently nudge the investigation along, helping small-town police chief Officer Derry (Nicholas Braun doing an incredibly believable British accent) find clues and leads his ordinarily bumbling person would never otherwise unearth. Emma Thompson is here, too, fully understanding her limited role within the quaint, often low-brow material. While Jackman’s kind-hearted shepherd, Thompson’s befuddled lawyer, and Braun’s wonderfully clueless oaf feel like they fit perfectly within the world of Sheep Detectives — aside from a few scenes where Braun’s lines feel cobbled together from six different deliveries — the rest of the supporting cast each feels like they’re in a different movie.
Playing the town butcher, Conleth Hill is basically a puppet. Hong Chau, who runs the town inn, can’t pick an accent. Nicholas Galitzine, playing the reporter who chances into town on the day of the murder investigation, goes for this broad straight-man-in-a-goofy-comedy performance that often means his scenes are the least interesting of the flock. And I have no earthly clue what Molly Gordon was doing here. She’s way too over the top, like her character is tripping balls from the instant she rolls into town.
When one performer doesn’t fit, it’s easy to blame the actor — but when most of the cast feels incongruous, it’s the director’s fault. Kyle Balda, the longtime director of the Despicable Me films, is here stepping into his first live-action venture. That tracks — in animation, a director will have actors do many takes in the recording booth so that they have lots of choices when it comes time to edit the film. That’s a strategy that works for animation, but for live-action, which requires a much more controlled grasp of tone and a more definitive idea of the finished film, it’s easy to see how that method of working would lead a director to tonal inconsistencies and poor direction of real performances.
The Least British Film Set in Britain
Curiously, The Sheep Detectives is plagued by a feeling of sheer un-Britishness. It’s set in a small hamlet in Britain, concerns sheep farmers, and everyone is angry and/or poor. It doesn’t get more British than that! Yet compare this film to the Paddington films, which are, for all their issues, at the very least proudly and unmistakably British and use this cultural specificity to become universal in their appeal. Sheep Detectives, on the other hand, is so sheepish (baahaha) about its British roots that Amazon splurged for a famous voice cast that doesn’t even make sense in-universe.
(The sheep are voiced by American, Irish, Australian, and British actors that do not correspond to where their breeds are from. I’m not saying I want ultra-realism from my talking sheep movie, but the decision to not cast British actors as British sheep is indicative of a host of broader problems with how the film seems embarrassed by its British setting.)
The Conservatism at the Core of Sheep Detectives
In a production that otherwise strives to ignore its British identity in pursuit of international box office receipts, the most British thing about The Sheep Detectives is the conservative philosophy at the heart of the picture. Hugh Jackman lives in a crummy caravan with 16 sheep and possibly no money to his name, but he’s HAPPY about it, darnit, because he loves his limited means. Characters who want monetary success are treated as villains, whereas the possibly delusional Rebecca Hampstead (Molly Gordon) is treated as a Christ figure for her selfless adoration of the sheep and her decision to abandon her nice life in the States to move into a tiny caravan in this ignorant, failing backwater hamlet with a population in the low double-digits.
But is that surprising? The small-town cozy murder mystery is predicated on the sort of embrace of tradition and denigration of outsiders that Sheep Detectives fully embodies. For all the film’s moralizing about the evils of rejecting a sheep from the flock simply because of when it’s born — a clear allegory for racism, especially when the other “winter lamb” in the story is Bryan Cranston’s black circus sheep — the villain of the film, invariably, winds up being an outsider here to do harm to these God-fearing poor people. The small-town cop gets his man, the rule of law is reestablished, and the residents of Denbrook can go back to their petty, miserable lives.
Conclusion
It might sound as though I’m being overly harsh to a movie in which some silly sheep get knickers on their head and chase Emma Thompson. Believe me, I do like this film — the storyline with Cranston’s character is genuinely moving, the special effects are wonderful, and Jackman totally steals the film despite only being on-screen for six or seven minutes.
But its flaws are so glaring that I feel the need to assert my contempt for the film’s conservative undertones and its creative decisions that are more rooted in profit incentive than what’s best for the story. Sheep Detectives is a fun lark, but as our only significant proxy to the Paddington crown, it leaves much to be desired.
The Sheep Detectives is now available to rent online or stream on Amazon Prime Video.
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