Move over Babe, another perfect family movie has landed. The Sheep Detective is not too saccharine, remains on the right side of cuteness, and offers lessons on grief, cruelty, and prejudice, along with a cracking murder mystery. Craig Mazin has written an excellent screenplay adapted from Leonie Swann’s novel Three Bags Full. In addition, there is a stellar live-action cast with Framestore supplying the animation. 

Hugh Jackman leads as the storytelling shepherd who reads a detective story to his flock every night, introducing them to murder and death. These horrors don’t bother the sheep as they see it as fiction – doesn’t everyone know that sheep don’t die but just morph into clouds? Also, these sheep don’t remember negative experiences; they can will themselves to forget anything they find uncomfortable, until the murder of their beloved shepherd makes them stop and become willing to look at reality. 

From the opening frames, this film enchants; even the MGM lion raises a laugh when it bleats rather than roars. This is much-needed escapism set in an idyllic English countryside bordering a chocolate box village. There is an array of eccentric characters, particularly Emma Thompson as the razor-sharp lawyer, and Nicholas Braun as the inept police officer.  The leaders of the sheep are Lily, voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the ram Mopple, voiced by Chris O’Dowd who, unlike the other sheep, keeps his memories, and outsider Sebastian, who was rescued from a Carnival.  

It is the outsiders, Sebastian and the winter lamb, who bring the darker side of the drama. Sebastian, voiced by Bryan Cranston, was saved from the horror of dog baiting, while the winter lamb, voiced by Tommy Birchall, is shunned by the flock and struggles to survive. The sin of the sweet, lonely winter lamb is that he is different; he was born in Winter, and lambs should only be born in the Spring. 

The twisty plot requires much detecting, with the sheep nudging the Police Officer in the right direction. Along the way, there are red herrings, a smidge of romance, excellent baddie,s and a complicated denouement, all firmly in the tradition of the English detective story. There is something both familiar and extraordinary about this film, which seems destined to be a family favourite for generations to come. 

Screening at Eden Court, Inverness until Thu 28 May 2026