‘The Sheep Detectives’ is the starry, family-friendly whodunit you didn’t know you needed

Talking animal movies do not, on the whole, have the best reputation. Yes, there is “Babe,” but “Babe” is the exception. Most are pretty bad, whether it’s the uncanny effects, the shoddy storytelling or some horrifying combination of the two.

Audiences have earned the right to be skeptical when something like “The Sheep Detectives” comes along — everyone involved was too. And yet this family-friendly “Knives Out” with a murder mystery at the center, a starry ensemble including Hugh Jackman, Emma Thompson and Nicholas Braun, as well as the voices of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Regina Hall and Patrick Stewart as yes, talking sheep, has caught more than a few off guard for its quirky humor, its sincerity and its unexpected depth.

Chris O’Dowd, who voices Mopple, “the most patient sheep,” noted: “You don’t get a lot of projects that are from the director of ‘Minions’ and the writer of ‘Chernobyl.’ It’s an unusual combination.”

In the film, in theaters Friday, Jackman plays George, a kind, but isolated shepherd in the English countryside who reads his animals murder mysteries at night. Unbeknownst to him, not only do they understand the words, they debate the stories among themselves. So when George dies under mysterious circumstances, the flock take what they’ve learned to try to help the dimwitted local police officer (Braun) solve the case, language barriers and all.

“What we know from watching this movie now with audiences over and over and over is that people are repeatedly delighted and surprised at how much more there is going on here than just silly sheep doing something silly,” screenwriter Craig Mazin said. “There are some really beautiful moments and themes and things that parents can talk about with their kids … and, most importantly, it is legitimately a movie that is meant for everyone.”

Aiming high with ‘The Sheep Detectives’

The story of how “The Sheep Detectives” got made goes back almost 20 years, when veteran producer Lindsay Doran (“Sense and Sensibility”) told Mazin about Leonie Swann’s novel “Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story.” He was expecting something cute, goofy and silly, but found himself enchanted by how smart, moving and philosophical it was.

It would take nearly a decade to secure the rights, and almost another to get the thing made, and made well thanks to studio executive Courtenay Valenti who, Mazin said, rescued it from rotting on a pile of scripts. Along the way they would find themselves emboldened by the caliber of talent who wanted to be part of it as well.

“Everybody involved was all on the same page of aiming as high as we could and sticking to our guns when it came to quality,” Mazin said. “Phil Lord and Chris Miller came on as producers as well, and their entire career has been about taking things that other people might not make good and making them good.”

Molly Gordon, whose character becomes a primary suspect when she mysteriously shows up in town the night of the murder, had the same reservations as many.

“The script was sent to my agent, and he emailed me, like, ‘This is really profound’ and I was like ‘How could this be profound?’ Like, I just, like, the sheep movie?” Gordon said. “And then within 10 minutes of reading it, I was like, this is one of the best scripts I’ve ever read.”

The real audience test

Mazin’s own kids grew up while “The Sheep Detectives” was getting made. But he still invited his 21-year-old daughter to watch it with him and his wife a few months back. She’s proud of her dad for his career, but, he said, also wouldn’t hesitate to call something of his “mid.”

“When the film ended, they were both just sort of a sobbing, happy mess,” he said. “My daughter, who doesn’t cut me any slack at all, AT ALL … Was like, ‘That is such a good movie.’ I thought, ‘OK’ … if your kids are older, it still works.”

The movie is coming into a fairly healthy theatrical marketplace, where PG-rated movies are often outperforming PG-13 movies and where non-franchise movies with the right buzz have been finding their audience, including another Amazon MGM release, “Project Hail Mary.” Mazin, a veteran screenwriter who also co-hosts the popular “Scriptnotes” podcast, doesn’t often hype his own projects like this. Usually he thinks they should speak for themselves.

“Nobody needs the guy who wrote something to say, no, it’s really good. This is the first time in my career that I’m like, but actually, no guys. I love this,” he said. “Seeing this movie is a purely positive experience.”

And it needs a little bit of hype. “The Sheep Detectives” is currently tracking for a muted box office debut, in the $10 million to $15 million range. But it’s also a movie that has been underestimated at nearly every step.

“Low expectations are, you know, sometimes a gift,” Mazin laughed.

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Associated Press Writer Lizzie Knight contributed from London.