Oups! J'ai raté l'arche...

I got this movie for free on Google so I didn't lose any money. I figured worse comes to worse it's boring and I can delete it and lose nothing. I was pleasantly surprised by how cute it was and it actually had a few jokes that made me laugh. Nothing new or spectacular about the whole "opposites have to work together" premises but it's tried and true so if it ain't broke don't fix it. I don't know what the deal is with people calling it Christian brainwashing or indoctrination, it literally never mentioned God or showed Noah (or any human for that matter) on screen. It's a movie about weird animals that find out how to deal with a crisis and have a happy ending. Nothing religious involved at all besides the setting. You could take Noah and the ark out of the movie entirely and achieve the same outcome. So don't let the rabid anti religious review (you know who you are) and the confusing evolution vs. creationism (you too) thing that cropped scare you away from this movie. Your kids will probably like it, it's face paced and the jokes and slapstick comedy are pretty rapid fire. It's a turn your brain off movie for children, not an art house flick.

It's absolutely a heartwarming and dynamic animated work that masterfully explores teamwork and friendship.

Set against the classic Noah's Ark IP, the film offers a fresh twist-instead of focusing on the heaviness of disaster, it generates a flurry of laughs through the daily lives of "atypical passengers." The humor is bold: at times, it playfully defies plot logic; at others, it hits the mark with characters' endearing contradictions. For example, when the clumsy yet overzealous main group messes up tasks, their exaggerated physical gestures paired with deadpan lines often leave viewers in stitches, even feeling delightfully "out of place."

What's more impressive is its solid character crafting. Every role stands out as a vivid individual with distinct traits-like the seemingly cold supporting character who hides a tender heart. This contrast between their surface personas and hidden stories lifts them beyond flat cartoon tropes, making them as relatable as people around us.

The themes of teamwork and friendship shine through naturally in the interactions of these multi-layered characters. From bickering to seamless collaboration for a shared goal, from letting go of prejudices to standing up for each other, we witness not just an adventure, but ordinary beings learning trust and responsibility amid hardships. This warmth never feels preachy; it gently seeps into the heart.

In essence, the animation wraps a genuine emotional core in a light comedic shell. With well-defined characters, fresh humor, and steady thematic delivery, it's truly a "remarkably solid standout."

I have to admit I was surprised when I watched this, because I didn't think it would be as entertaining as it was. Obviously if you take the technical aspect of it, this seems light years away from current Pixar or other animated movies. But when it comes to the comedy and characters it's not half as bad.

Still the standard is high and movies are not only audio, but also how the visual might affect your movie experience. Very small kids may not mind, but teens surely will have an issue and won't understand the problems with making a movie on a budget. Having said that, you should give this movie a chance. Try to see more than just the obvious and you'll have fun

Commencing the movie defense in 3... 2... 1!

I, like probably many others, thought this was a generic animated motion picture "for the entire family". I was so wrong. So very wrong. Not only was it not generic; it was way better than expected. After all, it was so good, I am giving it a 9!

Okay, let's start with the premise. It is very simple. A single mother and a single father are separated from their daughter and son (respectively), and need to get back together. The daughter is a hunter-type animal who works alone, and the son is a timid-type animal with a natural gift for building things, and a love for warm hugs. It is one of THOSE movies, with the moral being "we need to work together!" It is, as I said, simple, and not terribly original.

Now, the reason I give this movie a 9 out of 10. Despite the simple old-as-dirt moral, the way it is HANDLED is great. Morals take a backseat, while the front seat gets firmly occupied by the action, the gags, and the dialogue. It is like the movie team were given complete creative freedom to come up with as many interesting scenes as possible, and they done all of them. The timing of the action is great, the lines are great, the voice acting is great, and not a single "funny" moment felt forced (to me anyway, some people are much more picky). Actually, this movie reminds me a lot of Penguins of Madagascar, in the way it's structured (simple moral, but runs on non-stop gags).

The animation has to be mentioned somewhere, so might as well mention it here. It is really good. The only parts where I thought things looked "imperfect", was every time tree branches were used. This animated movie does not have the best looking branches out there. Wood aside, all the textures and atmospheric effects are perfectly fine. And in my books "perfectly fine" equates to "nothing being wrong". The animation itself deserves a 9 as well.

You are probably asking at this point: "But what about the Ark? What about Noah? How are those elements used?" Well, I did not mark this review as containing spoilers, and I am not delivering any. Let's just say, the way the "Ark" part of the story is handled, is the most creative way I ever it seen it handled in any movie. And I'll leave it at that.

I won't spoil the ending either, but I will tell you that I did not see it coming. That was some truly great cartoon writing, and I was pleasantly surprised. Now, to reassure you somewhat, I wasn't born yesterday, and seen and read hundreds of stories. I have frames of reference, and I have developed that thing called "taste". The ending of this movie was GOOD. Trust me on that.

Last, but not least, the movie's title. It was changed for every country it was released in, if I am not mistaken. And it is funny, albeit in a sad way. It can instill the wrong impression upon the potential audience (aka, you), that the people who made this movie did not have any idea what they did. I assure you, the naming problem in no way reflects the actual content, because the movie is great. After all, if it wasn't, I wouldn't give it a 9 out of 10.

Watch it. Now. Don't be afraid. It's really good.

This is your standard Noah's ark story as the title may elude to (albeit the title varies depending on which country you find yourself watching the film). The king of the animals, a lion, announces to the other animals that a biblical flood is on it's way to wipe out all the life from the planet. There is a plan to save the animals as an ark has been built to carry them for forty days and forty nights until the flood has gone. The animals each have to meet with the acceptance committee to see if they warrant a place on the ark - it seems only certain animals will be saved and unfortunately for the main characters of this film "Nestrian's" (fluffy neon animals with big snouts that walk on two legs and excrete a cloud of smoke when they are scared) haven't been selected for safety. Rather than face the flood and sure death head on, the Nestrian father and son combination trick their way onto the ark with some Grymps (wolf like solitary creatures, walk on 4 legs and likes to get angry). The child Nestrian and Grymp wander off exploring only to realise that they have left the ark and have been left behind to face the flood. At this point of the film it turns into a journey story, the children try to find a way to avoid the flood water while following the ark and the single parents on the ark try their best to get the ark turned around to rescue the kids. The overall moral is teamwork because alone respectively the two groups, kids and adults, wont be able to succeed by working as a team they should be able to survive.

The story isn't epic by any stretch of the imagination as it's based on a story from the bible we've seen many times before, it mirrors other animated films like "Ice Age" and "Finding Nemo" but all the same its harmless fun. Fortunately the film doesn't try and force religion onto it's audiences it simply takes inspiration from a biblical story and goes off on it's own tangent using the inspiration as platform only. The animation was cute and colourful and while the story wasn't the most original the dialogue was amusing at times and there was a mix of gags that both adult and child could find amusing. The clever thing about the film was that as a cynical adult I knew that random animals with names I'd never heard of wouldn't be saved by the end of the film but there was a great twist which showed what happened to the animals God and Noah didn't save. Ultimately the ending is happy and my cynicism was slightly surprised.

This is a European film which has been released in various countries (as mentioned by the title variances) however there is nothing lost and the unknown actors doing their turn for the voices carry off the film with charm. There are occasional problems with the animation but let's face it, this was made with a lot less budget than your next Pixar film is likely to get and for what was invested this is a good way to spend a quiet weekend day with audiences of different ages. I have no problem awarding this 6 out of 10, not entirely my cup of tea but not an awful waste of time by any stretch of the imagination.