Estinti... o quasi

We're getting more of these sino-Netflix productions and I must say I am impressed with how much they improve on China's other attempts in animated fun during the last decade.

A professional, pacy, lively and adorable adventure awaits in a movie that could have so easily gone down the path of mawkish ecology but knows how to keep it fun.

Expect tons of anatomical gags but they don't detract from the delightful dynamic of live wire and her neurotic brother. At the heart of the story is a relationship where both members have to re-assess the way they treat or regard their sibling and it's all actually pretty satisfying.

Very visually beautiful with superb character designs, radiant back grounds and slick animation for its visual humor, my only real negative is how in the middle act they devote too much time to this quest through these time portals. It's a bit too much like a Mario game, you know?

But overall I was pleasantly surprised by this free-spirited no-brainer adventure that even has a song.

As weird as this movie is, it made sense in the plot. But I feel as if it fell so short of something that would have been better.

The voice actors were fitting for their characters, however it felt as if they were just kind of calling it in in the parts that really needed that extra kick!

I have watched this movie all the way thru because the plot was interesting enough to keep going along. The movie itself felt like it took forever to get thru.

Now don't get me wrong, there is a plot twist. It did really take me by surprise because I was really thinking what it was trying to lead me. After that the movie sped up quite quickly. As if it should have been brought up earlier in the film. Something about it felt like pulling a fargo with the countdown.

Basically it feels like they put too much time for the build-up, but not enough time into the execution.

It was sort of decent then pretty dumb, why did the other animals not try to be unextinct. The twist absolutely stupid. Why does China hate dogs which appears to be the message.

To be fair, this was one of my favourite netflix movies not long ago. The characters (most of them) are pretty good, the villain is easily hated, and most of it makes sense. I love the revenge story behind the villain, and thought the storyline was ok, not top notch, but still, yet it wasn't too hard to find some flaws.

Firstly, the animation could have been better. Charles Darwin looks like a monkey, some of the animals are hideous and unbelievable and the humans (in which there are very few, thank goodness), are even worse.

While I do enjoy this movie, I think the ending got too complicated. The makers need to simplify it for the young kids. Some of the characters make unwise and even stupid decisions, others hated the main characters for no real reason and I felt like some of them even abandoned their personalities completely.

So I give it six stars because although it was really interesting, funny and the story was mostly pretty good, the animation could have been better, the ending simplified and the characters needed to be more believable.

This movie gives off the vibes of Blue Sky films, fun, lighthearted and sweet. Although it's not the best I've seen, it's a good family movie that you should give a watch if you need something new to watch.