Robinson Crusoe

It may not be fair to compare an independent Belgian animation to industry dominators like Pixar, but the film industry is competitive.

This film has excellent animation considering it was made by an independent company. Many vibrant colours are featured, and although the don't burst of the screen like Rio, it does add to the aesthetics of the film. Yet, it does feel like the film is very self contained, but it doesn't impact it in a good way. The setting explored (or not) has a lack of scope and the film clearly suffers from this. But for kids, this will not be a problem.

Despite strong design and animation, the direction is nothing notable. There are a maximum of two slightly interesting ideas (in the form of transitions) but other than that, everything else seems average, with no courageous attempts add to adding anything to the story.

Unfortunately, the film falls flat on the storytelling (particularly through dialogue) which just results in everything being cliché and predictable; it brings nothing new to the table. It appears that the writers just gave up, a shame considering if the dialogue wasn't so forced then the film wouldn't suffer so much. There isn't even an innuendo to keep the adults entertained.

This film is a good way to keep the kids occupied for 90mins, but nothing that adults will obtain any pleasure from (unless you are in awe of the animation which I doubt you will be).

As a family film, 'Robinson Crusoe' is a long way from awful but it misses the mark. It may be good for kids, providing that they don't expect too much, but adults won't find much for them.

Just for the record, this is coming from a huge lifelong animation fan in her early 20s with many animated films being considered favourites, just in case one accuses me (as is so the standard thing on this site these days) of seeing it through adults eyes too much.

The best thing about 'Robinson Crusoe' is the animation, with the exception of stiff human designs and lack of scope for the setting. There is a lot of gorgeous detail, especially the parrot's feathers, rich vibrant colour, good smoothness of movement and the animals look good.

'Robinson Crusoe' also has a groovy and dynamic soundtrack, the story (even if a very, very loose adaptation of the story) is at least coherent and easy to follow and some of the characters have charm, especially Ainsley (though really disliked the rather cheap treatment of him) and the humorous if slightly over-used villainous cats.

On the other hand, while the story is coherent it is also very predictable, too safe and bland, not much to be excited by here, even the climax feels like very watered down Looney Tunes/Tom and Jerry or something. The human characters do lack the colour and charm that went into some of the animals, especially the dull and unsympathetic protagonist, and other characters veer on the annoying. The script is lacking in laughs, emotion or any kind of colour. The voice acting is not too great, there's been worse but it does sound inexperienced with clichéd and obviously false accents.

In conclusion, good for the kids but little for adults. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Is it fair to judge a kids movie on its appeal to adults? On the other hand, with all the good animated movies that came out recently which also appeal to adults/parents and have quality that can be reviewed by "older" people to a better degree, I'd say all is fair. So consider this when seeing the rating and make up your mind, if it's important or what's important in its appeal.

Having said that, there is also the very real thing of having "star" names of German comedy or cinema taking on major roles here. People have made the argument, that there are professional animation dubbers, who know their job. Depending on your liking or disliking for that matter, someone like Schweighöfer will get a reaction from you. Again, as a kid you won't care, but probably also not read this. So it's the parents who if the kids want something new and you want something that they can watch by themselves, there are worse choices than this

I'm a mildly annoying middle aged woman who doesn't know anything about wildlife stuff but they sometimes have internet stuff about fun facts so this was a good choice by me and yes I'd love to recommend it. I'm told the fx are good but I still think they look fake. The story was a but absurd as if anything can survive out there on treasure island.

This movie is one of the best 3D movies ever made, there're simply tons of pop out effects. Actually this is 3D done right - you're constantly experiencing both pop out and depth effects. So the story is what it is, neither bad nor fantastic - but if you're seeing this movie in 2D, then I'd probably not bother, this is a 3D movie, the movie is completely designed to the 3d format, and this movie needs 3D to come to life. After so many years with mediocre 3D movies it's great to see a movie truly using 3D - and then they cancel all 3D TVs, argh... :-)