Made at a non-astronomical price and already a big international hit, co-writer/director Chris Sanders’ cleverly worked out survival fable starts when an all-in-one Artificial Intelligence Robot (Roz) crash-lands on an island populated with everything but the humans she’s been programmed to assist. Working closely with a foxy fox and the island’s top duck, she first locates her new main mission: prep the orphaned gosling (who thinks Roz is his mother) teaching him to eat, swim & fly before it’s time to migrate south. In true DreamWorks fashion, the film is far too busy for its own good, but it eventually finds focus and concentrates on story, character (a Noah’s Ark of species, all with laughable/loveable personality tics) and (to a lesser extent) style & settings. By the end (and there’s four or five endings!), our runt of a goose has grown into a hero. On the other hand, you can’t help but feel there’s a lot of magpie in this goose as he filches story beats from a dazzling array of children’s classics.* Mostly THE IRON GIANT/’99, WALL-E/’08 and E.T./’82. (Lifting plot points out of E.T. in a DreamWorks film? Pretty cheeky with a company that has an E.T. moment as its company logo.) Hold your nose during the obvious 'homages' (did we mention that Roz is basically a Tin Man who grows a heart?) and you’ll be fine.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Disney’s WISH/’23 may have been designed to touch base with one hundred years of Disney magic, but it’s got nothing on this film. OR: For a more Euro-styled all-animal survival fable, more Noah’s Ark than personal growth/self-empowerment, and withoout DreamWorks' cheerleading, try FLOW/’24. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2024/08/wish-2023.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2024/10/flow-2024.html
No comments:
Post a Comment