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There are dog movies, there are cat movies and of course there are shark movies. After that I think that the animals that might have the most films revolving around them are sheep. There have been some high profile pig pictures and cows are not unheard of on the big screen but I think in response to that big three, creature features filmmakers looking for a different angle are saying ‘we see ewe and we raise ewe’. 

Sorry, that’s the best I could do. I was working on something around having ‘a night out at the flocks’ or the idea of ‘Hollywool’ but that all came to nothing. (Wait, cows – unherd of – missed that one, dammit!)

Yep, with Sean the Sheep, Lamb, Black Sheep, Bring Them Down, Dark River, Rams, Brokeback Mountain, The Sundowner, Sunday To Far Away and 2017s Baa Baa Land, which is literally just eight hours of sheep standing in a field, this particular farmyard animal seems to have some kind of cinematic allure. They’ve never summoned as much drama as when Gabriel Oak’s livestock first threw themselves off a cliff in Far From the Madding Crowd but these movies will keep following on, like – er – sheep. 

There are clearly a great number of whodunnit films as well as with Sheep Detectives these two filmic worlds have finally come together. In the end, I’m not sure how much this movie has beyond that high concept. There is something enticing about the idea of these ovine officers..

wait…

hooved flatfoots…

knitted narcs…

Pashmina P.Is

sheared sleuths…

grazing gumshoes…

lanolin law enforcement…

mutton cops…

…

Okay, it’s out of my system. 

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As I was saying, the idea is a fun one but there’s not a lot more to it in its presentation. A very devoted shepherd is killed and it is left up to his eclectic flock to crack the case. What happens around this is not groundbreaking. There’s some amusing sheep and human interaction, rams ram stuff, lambs look cute, and salient old sheep spout woolly liberalism but it essentially Babe meets The Thursday Murder Club. The eventual truth about the murder is not very surprising either, although there is a small amount of suspense generated along the way.

It does have an impressive cast and actually the great service the film might offer is to be a barometer for how famous or notable these people are. If their involvement is a surprise then they are successful enough to be considered above this sort of thing. Patrick Stewart voicing a venerable ram is not unexpected, nor is it odd to hear Brian Cranston, Chris O’Dowd or Rhys Darby doing the same. Similarly seeing Molly Gordon, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Game of Throne’s Conleth Hill or Doctor Who’s Tosin Cole, good as they are, caught up in the English village antics is not a surprise. Even the legend that is Emma Thompson does not seem out of place. What though, are Hong Chau and Hugh Jackman doing here? They are having fun I guess, and I can respect that. Brett Goldstein, I have to say, is wasted. 

The thing is, it could have been better. It grabs for this at times when the plot takes in unexpected reflections on indoctrination, loss of belief, morality, oppression, hubris and ethics, but in the end it’s not that sophisticated. Neither is it really witty enough. It is charming but ultimately it is forgettable. Dip in if you want to, you won’t feel fleeced (sorry) but it’s no Baaaa-ddington. It’s not even Fantastic Mr Flocks. (Urrgh, stop it. What is wrong with me?)

Although, for good or for bad, you’d struggle to get that many puns out of a dog movie.