Pedro galletto coraggioso

It's not usual to see a Mexican film being highlighted in Portugal, and even less being entirely dubbed into our language. However, I have just seen it on TV, on a Sunday morning, the regular time at which children's animated films are usually shown. And after researching a little about it, I was truly surprised by the number of films about roosters and eggs that Mexican animation cinema has already made.

Overall, I liked what I saw. It's not an original film, we've already seen a lot of similar things, but it was a consistent, solid effort and denotes some ambition and also technical and artistic capacity, which is commendable for a country that makes a lot of cinema for regional consumption, but has some difficulty in export films to the Old Continent. It's not a movie that makes me laugh a lot, and I bet most kids will enjoy it, but without feeling excited about what they're seeing and quickly forgetting everything they've seen.

The script revolves around Toto, a young chicken who has to save his family's farm, preventing it from being taken over by a malicious landowner. To do so, he needs to defeat a big fighting cock in a stakes fight. Of course, the other animals, chickens and talking eggs will try their best to help you tip the odds in your favour. Therefore, it is a retelling of the old story of David against Goliath, of the struggle of the oppressed and weak against the powerful. It's effective, has a good, uplifting moral message, and entertains the audience well.

On a technical level, the film deserves attention for its impeccable graphics and visuals. The CGI used in the animations is not exactly state of the art, it is not pristine and ultra-realistic. None of that. However, it's elegant enough, pretty enough, doesn't make gross mistakes, and has very good color and stroke. The mood isn't perfect, but it seems okay, it's within what I expected to find. I cannot evaluate the original dialogues and jokes since I saw the dubbed version for my language and not the original, but I am satisfied with the dub done by the Portuguese, it is a job that seems to be well done.

"What came first, the chicken or the egg?" It's a question as old as… well, chickens and eggs – and questions. And the answer is… the egg! At least that's how the story appears to go in the animated comedy / action-adventure "Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos" (PG-13, 1:38). If you're one of our Facebook page's American followers (and you're really observant), you may guess that, based on the title, this movie ain't from around these parts. You'd be right. This is a Mexican animated movie, and received the widest U.S. release of any other Mexican animated feature to date. "Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos" (pronounced: OOHN GUY-oh COHN MOOCH-ohs HWAY-vohs) literally translates to "A Rooster with Many Eggs". It's the latest in a series of animated features from Mexico's Huevocartoon Productions.

The rooster of the film's title starts out the movie as an egg (hence, the answer to the age-old question). He's a heroic egg (think "Underdog" with a white shell) who swoops into a kitchen and saves three eggs and a strip of bacon that an obviously monstrous human was about to… (gasp!) cook in a frying pan! Soon after this dramatic rescue, as the story's opening narration goes, "a miracle occurred". That heroic egg hatched into a young rooster named Toto (voiced by Bruno Bichir). Tales of his heroic exploits, as told by another egg, make Toto a folk hero in the barnyard, at least to the younger eggs. (In this movie, eggs have faces, arms and legs, but even a runt like Toto towers over the little walking, talking eggs.) Toto may be young and small, but he's destined for great things – even greater than he realizes. Early in the film, he's being trained by the ranch's experienced rooster to crow at dawn. In spite of the encouragement of his mother and the older rooster's daughter, Toto is really bad at crowing. He's going to have to practice, but before he has the chance to master the art of crowing, he has bigger bacon to fry (sorry, Bacon). The old widow who owns the ranch is out of money and she's going to have to sell everything – lock, stock and barnyard. The ranch's poultry hatch a plan to help out the old woman by staging a cock fight with high-stakes betting that, of course, young Toto ends up having to fight and win.

The ranch's experienced rooster used to be a champion of these cock fights (not with claws as much as with boxing gloves)… but that was in his younger days – and his career ended in disgrace. The local crime boss egg agrees to promote the fight that the older rooster wants, but only if little Toto is the fighter – and he fights the local champion, a very large rooster named Bankivoide (Sergio Sendel). To say that Toto is both scared and unprepared is putting it mildly. He's going to have to make up for his lack of size and strength with technique. Toto is encouraged by all the hens, roosters and eggs on the ranch and he's being trained by the son of the fighter who ended the older rooster's career… but will it be enough? Along the way, this story is chock full of pop culture references – including many which will be familiar to those of us north of the border. Characters that appear throughout the film include poultry-esque versions of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Jean Claude Van Damme, Marlon Brando and even Snoop Dogg. There are two or three American songs, one of which is Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" - played by a mariachi band! The most obvious American influences in this movie are the other films that it imitates. Movie Fans who see this film will probably notice strong echoes of "Rocky", "The Karate Kid", "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story", "The Godfather" and several animated features. I think the amount of outside influence in this movie is just too much. Every movie contains influences from other movies and there are no totally original stories out there, but this film takes things too far. There's a fine line between paying homage and ripping off. This movie crosses that line.

Unfortunately, a lack of originality isn't this movie's only problem. It's predictable, some of the plot points and dialog don't make much sense and there are double-entendres and scenes of female anatomy bouncing in slow motion, all saddling the film with an avoidable PG-13 rating. On the plus side, however, the animation is outstanding and the movie does have its cute moments. This movie isn't egg-cellent enough to earn my recommendation, but it doesn't deserve to be tossed in the compost pile either, and the young eggs on your ranch may well like it. "Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos" gets a "C".

It's a decent third part; the plot is fine, the voice actors are very good and the CGI animation is passable; I recommend it if you like Huevocartoon Productions movies.

A lighthearted animated film about a rooster and his dreams, set in a Mexican ranch full of funny characters, this Mexican movie is very different from a Pixar classic, but the animation is quite good, the storyline is simple and full of references to other classic movies like Rocky, The Godfather, The Karate Kid, I found some parts real funny and there are a couple of musicals, we have seen the same story many other times but I guess the Mexican approach is what makes it different, the voices of the characters are made by very recognizable Mexican actors for the Spanish version, its good for both young and their parents, just don't expect a "Finding Nemo" level.

Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos ("a rooster with many eggs") opened in three-hundred and ninety-five theaters over the 2015 Labor Day weekend, making it the largest theater-count for a Mexican-animated film in America. If this film winds up experiencing a strong opening weekend, say $3 - 5 million or more, it could be a turning point for Spanish cinema in America. For years, I've wondered why Bollywood films are constantly appearing in American theaters and so seldom do we see a Spanish-speaking film in theaters, when Latinos are the most prominent and fastest growing minority in the United States.

Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos is not an amazingly strong film, but it's certainly not a bad kickoff for what could be more Spanish-speaking animated films finding a wider, more consistent release in US theaters. The film is another installment in the long-running Huevocartoon Producciones series, a formerly 2D animated film company, which has churned out animated films with lovable characters and slapstick humor for many years. This is the turning point for the company not only because this is the first time one of the films sees a wider release in America, but because the animation style of the series has been upgraded to CGI, giving the characters a more distinctive look than their traditionally animated counterparts. Finally, the screenwriters of the film took a different approach to writing the characters and the film than they have in the past, slightly forgoing the slapstick humor to make the film a bit more racier in its humor (hence the PG-13 rating), and toying with the fun of innuendos and double-entendres.

All these stakes would make one question if the film would collapse under the weight of its greater scope and ambition, but the film works well enough to see that this is the case where everybody, the director, the writers, and the voice actors, seems to be having a good time acting goofy. The film revolves around a timid little rooster named Toto (voiced by Bruno Bichir), who is tasked with the challenge of fighting an evil rancher, who threatens to buy and destroy his family's farm, which has been passed down through generations. In order to keep the farm, Toto must fight Bankivoide (Sergio Sendel), an enormous rooster, in a cockfight with winner-take-all stakes. Already feeling himself crumble under pressure, Toto enlists in the help of his pals, a strip of bacon, a frog, and, yes, muchos huevos, to help him bring down Banki and save his family's farm.

As stated, much of the film is built of innuendos and slightly more risqué humor than your traditional animated feature (even the title can be interpreted two ways). I have no doubt that some of the best jokes get lost in the English translation, but the the strength of screenwriters Carlos Zepeda and Javier Calderón comes in the way they can break down those barriers and make a film that has a solid amount of jokes that hit regardless of what language the film is in. With that, the characters, while on the zanier, more ridiculous side, find their own ways to charm, particularly a petulant but well-meaning frog, who helps earn the film some of its biggest laughs.

Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos is charming enough for a family outing; much of its humor is on the milder side and the bright colors and lively characters likely will distract from any racier jokes the film is attempting to get away with. This is on the more popcorn-entertainment side of the spectrum, lacking the narrative heft and longevity most animated films can merit, but the result is endearing, sweet, and surprisingly innocent little outing that could find itself being a pioneer for Spanish cinema in America.

Voiced by: Bruno Bichir, Sergio Sendel, Maite Perroni, Omar Chaparro, Ninel Conde, and Carlos Espejel. Directed by: Gabriel Riva Palacio Alatriste.