É o Bicho!

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.

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!

REVIEW - ANIMAL CRACKERS

Why do I do it?

I try to keep abreast of the latest movies so I can review them and saw the write up for this so thought I'd give it a try.

Ok I'm not the target audience for this as I'm 51 years old and not 6 but here goes.

Animated film and what attracted me to it was the sheer amount of stars doing the voice over for this include Danny Devito and Sylvester Stalone.

Actually quite good, kept me interested anyway, not really the humour for adults and there isn't really any dual humour, one joke for kids and one for adults that the kids won't understand but enjoyed it none the less.

Interesting story, set in modern times using mobile phones etc. Animation very good and a great way to waste 90 minutes with your kids who will just love this film.

Definitely a family sit around the TV movie.

Rating 7 out of 10

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.