From Sony Pictures Animation responsible for KPop Demon Hunters and Spider-Verse this feels like the latter, at least in terms of narrative and ambition.
There’s a straying hint of Zootopia, a world in which talking animals live in various urban environment with all the gags that go with that. No shortage of real craft and care committed to the screen here, with the animation crisp, rich and handsomely rendered, the fur feels thick and earthy, the backgrounds alive with detail. Visually, its strong.
You cant knock the creators for trying.
Ever since “G.O.A.T”– an abbreviation for “greatest of all time”– entered the popular vernacular of sports culture, it was only a matter of time before some Hollywood bright spark put down their skinny Latte, sat up and thought: “what if a goat could play sport?” Take one underdog, in this case, undergoat, a typical Disney gist, where there is a natural pecking order of big and small animals, to upend the system. There’s never been a “small”, as they are known in the basketball-esque sport of Roarball. “Smalls cant ball”, goes the accepted idiom.
But for young goat Will Harris( voiced by Stranger Things Caleb MaClaughlin), who has nourished dreams of stardom, his childhood dream will not be denied , even against seemingly impossible odds, when hey- presto our goat-hero-to-be finds himself thrust into the big leagues playing alongside his hero, black panther Jett Fillmore( Gabrielle Union), when a video of Will shooting hoops goes viral. The main thrust of the story then, is simply some lessons about team-work– lessons that longtime veteran Jett is apparently unaware of.
Regretfully, the screenplay is just nowhere near as sharp as the animation with limp gags that even The Secret Life of Pets would have rejected: in this world, cats lick their genitals, warthog take mud baths, plenty of farts and there is an alarming and repeated use of the word “cloaca” and that’s without getting into the egregious product placement, lavished throughout without shame or regret. But don’t dismiss it outright. The film is far from the greatest of all time, but neither is it the worst. There’s fun for our eyes and ears, in this inventive world that’s sharp and full of mesmerising detail.
Credulous kids of a certain age will be happy with it. Pity the parents who have to ferry their over-hyped littlies to sports stores for retail gluttony. But it could have been more, much much more. Its all a bit billy- goat rough.
