What “The Sheep Detectives” Doesn’t Understand About Sheep

The likeliest detectives—rich, idle Englishmen—had already begun yielding to slightly less likely ones—a rich, idle Belgian, say—but Marple, a gossipy old spinster from the little village of St. Mary Mead, was another thing altogether. And Freddy: Freddy was a pig.

“Freddy the Detective,” written by Walter R. Brooks, who was also, very briefly, a writer at this magazine, concerned a missing toy train. “ ‘The first thing to do,’ said Freddy, ‘is to Visit the Scene of the Crime.’ ” Brooks published twenty-six books about Freddy, who not only knew how to read but also kept a very impressive little library in a corner of his pigpen that he called his study. He especially admired “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.” “It’s the best book I’ve come across in a long time,” he told the cat and the goose, “and you’ll admit I know something about literature.”

The flock at the heart of “The Sheep Detectives”—a new film directed by Kyle Balda, starring Hugh Jackman as a shepherd named George, and Emma Thompson as his snappish, big-city lawyer—is similarly well versed in detective fiction. George reads to his sheep every night, and they particularly like it when he reads murder mysteries. When George himself is murdered, they set out to find the killer. Balda, known for his earlier work as an animator at Pixar and as a co-director of two “Despicable Me” films, does not appear to know much about either detective fiction or sheep. This is perhaps more than ordinarily disappointing to me, and not only because I tend sheep of my own. As anyone who has ever watched a cat hold a stakeout by a mousehole, a goat pick a lock, or a lost lamb miraculously find its way back to its flock will know, animals look for clues, inspect evidence, and draw conclusions. They’re natural detectives.