Kyle Balda is the director here. Balda has worked for Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Pixar and Illumination. He started out as an animator for such films as The Mask (1994) and Jumanji (1995). He also worked on Toy Story 2 (1999) and Shrek the Third (2007). He was a director or co-director for blockbusters, such as Minions (2015) and Despicable Me 3 (2017). Both of which made close to or over a billion dollars. Craig Mazin is the writer here. Mazin was known early in his career for his comedy spoofs, such as Scary Movie 3 (2003) and Scary Movie 4 (2006). Lately, Mazin has been known for his more dramatic television work, such as HBO's Chernobyl (2019) and The Last of Us (2023). Both of which won Emmy Awards. Balda and Mazin have interesting track records, and it seems combining their talents have proven to be a winning combination, as Mazin was first tapped to adapt the successful novel, Three Bags Full (2005) by German author, Leonie Swann, and later Balda was tapped to helm the production.
Hugh Jackman (Deadpool & Wolverine and Les Misérables) stars as George Hardy, a shepherd who lives on farmland just outside an English town called Denbrook. He has a flock of dozens of the titular animals. His whole life seems mostly devoted to these animals now. He doesn't have a lot of possessions. He lives in a meager and tiny trailer that seems only big enough for one person to inhabit. The rest of his property is a wide open field that's large enough for the animals to graze. He does have a barn that's big enough for them when the weather isn't good. He spends most of his day caring for them and before sunset, he takes time to read to them. He reads detective stories, which they seem to enjoy. He's even named all of them.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep and Seinfeld) co-stars as the voice of Lily, a Shetland sheep, brown in color, who is identified as the smartest of all the others in the flock. She's arguably one of George's favorites. She understands everything that George says and reads to her. She's always the one who can guess who the murderer is in the detective stories before anyone else can. Lily is a veritable Jessica Fletcher. When an actual murder occurs on George's farm, Lily is the one who steps up to try to solve it. She realizes that the police officer in their small village isn't going to be able to do so by himself.
Nicholas Braun (Succession and 10 Things I Hate About You) also co-stars as Tim Derry, the solo police officer in Denbrook. At first, he doesn't seem like the brightest bulb or the sharpest tool, but eventually he works to try to solve the murder. What he doesn't realize is that the sheep are secretly helping him. A lot of his apprehension is that he's a young guy and this case is his first murder case. It also doesn't help that the number-one suspect is someone for whom he has romantic feelings.
Molly Gordon (The Bear and Animal Kingdom) plays Rebecca Hampstead, the daughter to George. She was estranged from her father. She was in fact living in the United States. She comes to visit George in England because he wants to turn over the farm to her. George wants to pass it down to her one day. He teaches her how to be a shepherd. He even teaches her the names of all the sheep. However, when the murder occurs, Rebecca is identified as the chief suspect. Tim develops a crush on her before she becomes the number-one person under investigation, and because Tim is the one doing the investigation, it makes this a bit of a conflict for him.
Nicholas Galitzine (Red, White & Royal Blue and Bottoms) plays Elliot Matthews, a reporter who comes to Denbrook to cover the festival happening in town. When his car breaks down and he becomes stuck in town, he sees the murder as the perfect story for him to rise up and become a more noteworthy journalist. He basically attaches himself to Tim and pesters him to be included in the investigation. In a lot of ways, he pushes Tim into the investigation more than the sheep do. He seems like a mix of a busybody and an opportunist.
The two Nicholas's, Braun and Galitzine, lead an ensemble of actors, including a really great supporting cast of live-action performers. Top of that supporting cast is Oscar-winner, Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility and Howards End) who plays Lydia Harbottle, the lawyer representing the estate of the deceased. She's sharp and witty, as she excellently can be, but not above doing some pratfalls and physical humor that works great. Also notable is Oscar-nominee, Hong Chau (The Whale and Downsizing) who plays Beth Pennock, an innkeeper who has a secret crush on George and ironically, Chau's character does something here that is very similar to what her character did in the recent Wuthering Heights (2025), involving interfering with the mail and stolen love letters. I also have to spotlight two Black actors whose roles are brief, mainly to make them more mysterious and leave suspicion on which one is the killer. The first is Tosin Cole (Bob Marley: One Love and House Party) who plays Caleb, a fellow shepherd who has a neighboring farm to George. The other is Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Dreaming Whilst Black and Sirens) who plays Hillcoate, the town's reverend who is considered a shepherd of a different kind of flock, but like Caleb, he might not be a good shepherd.
Rounding out the cast are a host of voice actors. All of them are standout. The most outstanding would have to be Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad and Malcolm in the Middle) who voices Sebastian, a black Icelandic Leadersheep who is the loner of the flock. He watches over them from a hilltop cliff that overlooks the farm. The reason for his isolationist behavior becomes a powerful moment in the film. Chris O'Dowd (The IT Crowd and Bridesmaids) voices Mopple, a Merino sheep who unlike other sheep can never forget anything bad. Most of the sheep have the ability to forget anything bad or negative that happens but not Mopple, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Patrick Stewart (X-Men and Star Trek: The Next Generation) voices Sir Richfield, a Boneray sheep, the eldest of all the animals and the wise statesman who is a patriarch and often gives advice to the flock. Regina Hall, Rhys Darby and Brett Goldstein also lend their voices brilliantly.
The vocal performances really matter here and I think the cast nails it. So far, many have been comparing this film to Babe (1995) in terms of live-action, talking animal films. This one can be added to the list of certainly the better ones that have come along in the 30 years since Babe. Many would probably put Paddington (2014) at the top of that list. For me, I think I was more moved by this than Paddington. Swann has written sequel books to this story. I would be in favor of adapting those books, based on how sweet, funny and charming this film was.
Rated PG for some violent content and brief language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 49 mins.
In theaters.
