On the lamb

Look, I know that if you're going out to see a movie in the next week, you have a lot of options: The Devil Wears Prada 2, Mortal Kombat II, the James Cameron-directed Billie Eilish concert film, and of course the most insidious option: the hagiographic propaganda piece Michael, which posits that Michael Jackson has never done anything wrong.

But forget all of that. Your top priority right now is to go see the movie about the sheep.

When I first saw the trailer for The Sheep Detectives, I thought it looked goofy at best and horrifically brainless at worst. I'm happy to report that it is nothing of the sort. (Well, it is goofy at times, but wonderfully and endearingly so.)

Hugh Jackman stars as a loner shepherd who loves his flock more than anything, and may have some secrets he is keeping. Each night, he reads his beloved sheep detective novels, and when he suddenly finds himself murdered (that's not a spoiler; it's the catalyst of the movie and in that trailer up that that you probably watched), it's up to the sheep to solve the case, as the blundering town's lone bobby (Nicholas Braun) certainly isn't up to the task on his own.

So yeah, it's a talking animal movie. But unlike the waking nightmare that is Babe: Pig in the City (I'm somehow still in disbelief that George Miller directed that), it's brimming with heart and great gags and a lovely little mystery at the core of it. The movie is based on the novel Three Bags Full, which was originally written in German, and I'm still chuckling about the braintrust that brought this adaptation to the screen. The movie is directed admirably by Kyle Balda, who co-directed Despicable Me 3 and the two Minions movies (to date), but it really shines in its screenplay, which was written by Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin. (Mazin also co-created The Last of Us, so I guess he needed a project to take the edge off after his last two TV shows. I get it.)

The sheep themselves are voiced by an all-star cast: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Patrick Stewart, Chris O'Dowd, Regina Hall and Brett Goldstein, among others. They're all great, and the CG animals blend in (mostly seamlessly) alongside the live action cast that also includes Nicholas "He-Man" Galitzine, Hong Chau and a delightfully scenery-chewing Emma Thompson.

A word of warning: this sheep movie may very well make you cry. About sheep. Multiple times. It's unrelentingly sweet and good-hearted, and I think we can probably all use some content like that these days. (Additional chuckle: when the movie was over, a person in our theater yelled "GO VEGAN" before the credits rolled. Point well taken!)

I'm very glad we made the spur-of-the-moment decision to go see this one, as it ended up being a sheer delight. If you feel the need to hit the theater before The Mandalorian and Grogu drops next week, opt for the sheep thrills.