Maybe out of fear of putting filmgoers to sleep, sheep have not been much of a mainstay at the movies.

There’s Charles Burnett’s lyrical classic, Killer of Sheep. You could get creative and cite Chris Farley’s Black Sheep. But, really, this is the domain of Shaun the Sheep, the uber-charming Aardman Animation about the wordless but wise guardian of Mossy Bottom Farm.

Joining this small flock of films now is The Sheep Detectives, which, like Shaun the Sheep, takes place in the verdant English countryside and concerns barnyard animals with higher-than-usual IQs. Every night, shepherd George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) reads murder mysteries as bedtime stories for his hillside of grass grazers. They listen intently and bleat the bad guys. Only while talking amongst themselves afterwards do they reveal their hidden powers of deduction.