Back to Gaya

Well, today I've finally watched "Back To Gaya" which I was eagerly waiting for. My anticipation was damped because of the bad trailer which had a bad synchronisation and did not help to make one curious about the movie. Fortunately the movie was much better than what I had expected. Actually it is quite good but it has three major timing problems:

1. technically: the animation is not very good (not a single run cycle seems correct in this movie) 2. the pace: the movie seems to last longer than it is because of bad pacing 3. the jokes: first of all there are too few and second they have a bad timing. Either you know the joke seconds before it is spoken or you miss it because you don't have time to laugh about it

On the other hand BTG is technically very well done (except the animation) has tons of places and objects, is beautiful colored and has a nice music. Everyone that likes CG-movies should see it, it's worth the money... all the other should give Brother Bear a chance - since it is much better than most people think =) Well, give it a try - both of them.

This movie is so cute! It has all the stuff the rest of the CGI animated stuff has except for the humor displayed. But, we must keep in mind this is the first German CGI animated flick ever. So, maybe some of their humor is different from ours in the USA. Still, it makes it to nice, fun level.

I loved all the characters, and the facial characteristics of them were wonderful and a delight to see.

I will admit the rats in the chase sequence would be a bit scary for the wee ones, but I saw Bambi and cried my eyes out at their age. So, I think maybe the kiddies will be tough enough for this.

I give it an 8 out of 10. Keep the kids under about eight from watching it. The rest? You've said worse around your kids by that time. Let them have a romp through Gaya, why not?

The Computer Graphic in this movie were sometimes sooo good that I kept trying to figure out how such quality effects were used in a movie with such terribly poor pacing, story, and plot. The quality of the scenes was often on par with Shrek or even Monsters Inc. I would watch a scene thinking this could be a professional studio doing this film (that I never heard of in mainstream media), then I would see the characters do a scene that would no longer pass as adequate in a Saturday Morning Special.

Maybe it was the difficulty of working with CGI characters. Its possible that because the film was made in German and then English audio was dubbed that caused the audio track to be off throughout the film. I never realized how spoiled we've become with films like Toy Story, Shrek, Nemo, Antz, and so on. This film had several sweeping scenes that I thought could have been right out of any of those films, but then cut to action that could not have been in a storyboard for one of those films.

Beautiful scenes, but lacks the wittiness and pacing that would allow an adult to enjoy this movie.

I've heard the producers say: "Hey, we don't want to be 'like Pixar' or like anything else ... !"

OK. But in 2004 you have to reach certain technical standards. And the makers of "Gaya" didn't. The kinematics is wooden, the camera movements make you dizzy and the lip-sync is disastrous. I mean -- this is a German CGI movie, so why are the German voices out of sync? Even movies like "Shrek" or "Ice Age" have been dubbed with German voices without visible glitches like that.

Aside from the technique: It's a nice animation film, but the plot is a bit thin and the characters are a bit weak. "Back to Gaya" is OK, but it's not more than that.

Back to Gaya certainly cannot match with Shrek 2 or Monster Inc. but keep in mind that in comparison this film is a rather 'cheap' movie. With the funding they had, the makers certainly did a great job!

The main positive aspect of the movie is that the makers did not apply the usual scheme of black and white. All the characters have certain strengths and weaknesses which add some shades of grey. The hero is bold but incredibly stupid. His companion is more of a shy guy yet he is quite resourceful.

Especially the introduction of the black haired Gayans teaches the kids that prejudices and discrimination because of certain bodily features are wrong and unfair.

BtG offers colourful family entertainment. It's funny, exciting and it even conveys certain moral values to the viewer.

7 out of 10