SPOILERS FOR THE SHEEP DETECTIVES!
For those of you lucky enough to not know me via real life or by listening to my awesome podcast (that tantalizing bit of business at the top right of this website), in order for any of this to make sense, we should probably get a bit more personal up in here.
My mother, Pamela Gail Parry, died in November last year. It was unexpected, cruel and upsettingly fast. A seemingly standard hospital visit went from expecting news as to when Mum would come home to saying our last goodbyes a couple of days later. Some of the things I experienced on that final day are enough to traumatise me for about fifty lifetimes. It’s incredibly tempting to live in denial, bury all those terrible images and feelings and try and move on, but if there’s one life lesson I’ve had to learn repeatedly it’s that bottling things up doesn’t work.
The 14th of June is Mum’s birthday. This year was her first birthday in which she wouldn’t be in attendance. Over these many months, I’ve tried to flip the script and force myself to be grateful for Mum’s life rather than mourn her death. I’ve had varying degrees of success. However, I’ve decided that June 14th will always be my day to celebrate who my mother was. This year, I took myself off to the cinema to watch exactly the type of film that Mum and I would have gone to see together – The Sheep Detectives.
I didn’t go in completely blind. This isn’t an “Oh wow- who’d have thought the silly sheep movie had depth?” type revelation. The trailer made the film look a cut above the usual kiddie nonsense and I’d read reviews that had praised Craig Mazin and Leonie Swann’s script, often making particular note of how it dealt with the subject of death . What I wasn’t prepared for was how open and deft the film was in engaging with its dark themes. Don’t get me wrong – it’s very much a silly sheep movie. It even opens with the iconic MGM lion Leo bleating inside of roaring. It’s a simple gag, but I laughed and I know Mum would have too.
The basic premise is that George Hardy (Hugh Jackman) is a gruff shepherd who lovingly tends to his flock of sheep and reads murder mystery novels to them at night. When Hardy is murdered, smart sheep Lily (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) enlists the help of her flock to try and solve George’s killing.
The film introduces a concept about sheep willingly forgetting unpleasant things. Lily leads them in a countdown, they concentrate and poof! – the bad thing is forgotten and the flock move on none the wiser. This handy ability has also facilitated the belief that sheep don’t die, they just become clouds when they’re ready to.
It’s all very charming, but there was one point where the film went straight for my bruised heartstrings and refused to let go until both the credits and my tears rolled. Lily realises that by intentionally forgetting things, she’s been in denial and that everything is a lot harder and darker than she bargained for. The cold reality is this: bad things happen and sheep do indeed die.
Lily ends up in a idyllic dream where she talks to George and admits she wants to forget him because it’s all too difficult to deal with. She then asks if he’s really alive and talking with her in that moment. He replies that he is because she remembers him. Our loved ones live on because we engage with the often painful memories. We do it because it keeps them alive. We do it because it’s the right thing to do.
That broke me.
One could argue that this is nothing new and that kids’ movies have been doing this forever. However, something about the CGI sheep speaking plain existential prose to a kindly Hugh Jackman really got to me. I’m grateful that there are still films out there teaching kids (and smooth brained adults like myself) useful and actionable lessons about some of the darkness we all have to face at some point in our lives. Disney/Pixar’s Hoppers also dealt with a similar theme of grief and legacy in a poignant, mature way.
So what’s my ultimate point? Well, I don’t really have one main one, but I do have a few minor ones:
Cherish your loved ones.
Check out The Sheep Detectives (and Hoppers for that matter)
Happy Birthday Mum.
The Popcorn Bucket 