So, I just finished watching The Sheep Detectives for the first time and I'm really disappointed. I saw all the fan art and I knew as soon as I saw it that it was inspired by Three Bags Full and most importantly it was a movie from the perspective of animals but I just couldn't get into it. It's a comedy but I didn't chuckle at any of the jokes, it's a drama but I couldn't give two shits about any of the characters. I felt disappointed with how much the story focused on it's human characters as well, even when they didn't add much of anything to the story. More thoughts and spoilers under the cut:
My first thoughts while watching were mostly just "stop talking!" There's like a solid ten minutes of narration while the farmer guy writes his letter but I specifically hate that he tells the audience about the difference sheep instead of us just following the sheep for a bit and learning about them ourselves. It felt like rather than looking at the sheep and getting attached to those characters THAT way we were expected to care about them just because that one guy cared about them. Which is why I never felt connected to any of the sheep characters.
And when it comes to characters I truly feel like there's two many. Why are the businessman and the butcher separate characters? They both serve the same purpose. Why does that one smaller sheep with the darker hair exist? All they do is ask questions, you could give their lines to literally anyone else. There's multiple baby lambs, once again-why? None of them except the winter lamb contribute to the story in any way. Lilys husband(friend) doesn't do anything other than stand next to her and knock some stuff over. Cloud uncovers a bracelet. That's ALL they contribute to the plot. Beth- the lady in the town- only exist to tell the girl that her mom shared the name with the sheep. Once again, literally any other character could have also done that. When a character only has one part to play in a story like this it's better to either regulate them strictly to being a no-name background character, give them a bigger role in the story, or combine them with another character so they can have those multiple roles without adding more to the story
Also, about Lilies husband: his whole thing was that he couldn't forget. Why did that trait go to him and not Sebastian??? It would have made way more sense that the outsider with a traumatic backstory couldn't/choose not to forget the farmer and everything else. Especially since it's hinted that Sebastian doesn't choose to forget anyways, even if he doesn't say it out loud.
On the butcher and businessman plot- one of the only things I can appreciate is that they didn't go the easy route and make them the actual murders and that's it. They still demonize the butchers though. And that would be understandable from the sheep's perspective of course, because they're omnivores, but it feels like the audience is being guided to hate them too? With the old Shepard calling them "murders" (because obviously killing an animal for food is on the same level as killing a human for wealth) and the butcher being misogynistic (why? It only ever comes up in one line and is just dropped?). I really don't like it when movies about animals preach about how people who eat meat are evil for doing so, or that farmed animals aren't happy (because why were those sheep living in a spooky forest and framed as creepy?). Because it's so easy to demonize eating meat when you ignore all the slave labor and underpaid people who toil to grow vegetables so you can conveniently pick it up from the store. But I'll move on because this post isn't about the moralization of veganism.
We never find out why the Winter lamb was outcast from the herd. As the audience we can understand that in real life animals will abandon their babies if they don't think they have a good chance at survival but these are fictional sheep with otherwise human morals so I need an explanation outside of that.
Also, I'm REALLY surprised that a bottle baby that small survived all those days without being able to nurse. They weren't even lethargic. Not a gripe with the movie but I'm surprised it was just never brought up.
Sebastian shouldn't have died to early into the film. And I don't say that because I liked his character and didn't want to see it go, in fact it's the opposite: I couldn't give two shits about him which made his death feel like just another scene. It feels like he tells Lily his backstory and them bam- dead. They don't bond. He never seems particularly happy to be helping the other sheep. He never even talks to the Winter Lamb directly. If anything he's an asshole to them.
Also, in his backstory he talks about how the Shepard bought him from his abuser. Anyone who knows the basics of economics knows not to do that. The shepard basically gave Sebastians abusers money to go buy another sheep to abuse. Buying abused animals just puts more animals in the same position you want to save them from.
Also I wish the mystery ended in a more satisfying way. I think a good mystery is one that you can look back on and go "wow! There were so many hints I didn't even notice!" Like in attack on Titan where you can go back after the reveal and lowk feel stupid for not putting it all together yourself. The reveal just felt out of left field and almost like an afterthought despite being the CENTRAL part of the story. The son supposedly used cheap hair dye that came off in the rain but his hair looks perfectly fine when he's introduced? There's no reason to believe that some of its washed out or that it's even bright enough of a dye to make that shade of green. He supposedly knew he'd be asked to go outside the room but no one heard him answer a call right as he closed the door?
I also wish they spent more time on the sheep solving the mysteries itself rather than sitting back and watching the humans solve the mysteries for them.
4/10 movie. I don't even want to read the book anymore.
