Animal Crackers

Animal Crackers was a rather pleasant surprise. Despite being based on Animal Cracker cookies of all things, the movie managed to exceed my expectations with its creativity, humor, style, and voice acting. The movie follows Owen and Zoe Huntington who, along with their daughter, inherit not only Owen's uncle's Circus, but also a box of Animal Crackers that allows who ever eats them to take the form of that animal. But that's an EXTREMELY paired down synopses because there's also a long standing feud with Owen's still living uncle Horatio, animosity between Owen and his father in law, a subplot involving a dog biscuit flavor like people food, and a few other speed bumps along the way. However, while the story can sometimes feel overcluttered with too many moving parts, it does make up for it with its creativity and economically delivered style. This is not a Pixar or Dreamworks movie so it's best to set your expectations before hand. With that said, despite this being an independently produced animated film it still looks vibrant with lots of details including a very well staged scene set to Queen's Don't Stop Me Now that's filled with creative transitions, smooth animation, and vibrant colors. The movies third act falls apart at the end especially since the antagonists does an abrupt turn and changes character from an egotistical jerk to a power mad villain bent on world domination(yes, seriously), but even despite its faults I do recommend it because it is well made, the performances are well delivered with good chemistry between the actors and you can certainly do worse in terms of family films. So marginal recommendation.

Really enjoyed the movie! Great cast and storyline.

Because I thoroughly enjoyed this new-old film despite, or in spite of, my advanced age of 51. Great, strong actors and a family dynamic with much heart and love. The dialogue is smart and doesn't condescend to the audience. Sure, the plot could be seem as stale as those cookies, but the fun animation, exuberance of the actors, and exciting action make an oft-used plot feel new. Finally, there is no moralizing about a topic du jour, unless, maybe, one thinks an unbreakable familial bond is preaching.

Really good watch, would watch again, and can recommend: probably better for younger audiences.

This is a very good example of a family movie that tries to be for the entire family without being too obvious about it. It takes the serious bits and makes them palatable for a younger audience, and takes the magical bits and makes them more complex for older audiences.

The voice casting was excellent, they managed to stack the cast with celebrity voice actors (normally a death sentence as they don't all play well together) without me noticing, which is a sign of a good voice actor: that they feel natural in the character.

The writing actually seemed to be pretty decent, if formulaic, but I would have preferred a different antagonist scenario. The movie is all about family, born or chosen, and how great it is to be together, but both Mr. Woodley and Horatio embody the opposite of that so while it makes sense from a literary standpoint, it didn't feel intuitive for this movie. A scenario where it is all about working together to overcome someone / something (like a chief investor in the circus or a rival circus) would have been preferable, but both story lines were resolved in the expected manner.

This isn't going to be a deep movie, but it was certainly fun to (mostly) turn my brain of for a bit and enjoy it.

I dug this up a little while back and now that I heard the great news that Netflix is adding it this month, I figured I'd leave my review. Despite its obscure release and generally insignificant existence, this movie was particularly impressive. The voice cast was perfect, animation nicely fluid and colorful with an entertaining story. Of course, there were the couple random scenes where you felt, 'What are they thinking?' Or 'Why didn't they just do this?' But all in all, it was a delightfully amusing film that I enjoyed watching (along with my nephews/niece ranging from 12 to 5 yrs). They thought the hamster bit was hilarious!