É o Bicho!

GRADE: B-

THIS FILM IS RECOMMENDED.

IN BRIEF: Fine animation is once again upstaged by a weak unfocused book.

JIM'S REVIEW: Animal Crackers, an independent animated feature by Scott Sava has been languishing on the shelves for a number of years and has slowly resurfaced with the help of Netflix and some courtroom action. But it is the Shakespearian plotting behind-the-scenes narrative that is a more interesting story than the actual plot of the movie. Set to be released in 2017, the film was plagued with financial difficulties and political intrigue after it was bought by Weinstein Studios and resold to Chinese businessmen who interfered with the filmmaker's initial vision. Court fights and personal debt plagued the animator until recently when a certain streaming service became his lifesaver.

The film itself is a mix of creative ideas, some very well done, others unfulfilled. Based on Mr. Sava's graphic novel and inspired by those edible childhood favorite cookies, the meandering and far too convoluted scenario begins its tale with a flashback involving two brothers named Horatio and Bob Huntington who own a circus. Their eventual falling-out over a gypsy girl, Talia, leads to tragic results, which brings us to the main storyline about their nephew and present-day circus owner, Owen, his wife, Zoe, and their possession of a magical box of animal treats.

Directed by Mr. Sava and Tony Bancroft who show off enough craftsmanship from their animation department, the film follows the fate of many animated features suffering from a story that is sub-par to the visuals. A visual delight throughout, the film is undernourished by its aforementioned rambling script, written by Dean Lorey and Mr. Sava. Their plot becomes such a jumble of unprocessed notions, although I am not sure where the blame goes due to the real-life background behaviors and the mishandling of the film. Nevertheless, the well-rendered animation itself is definitely worth viewing.

The major snag with the film is its scattershot screenplay. The first half hour is merely story exposition and character development before it even kicks into the plot mechanics about the box of magical animal crackers. Then the customary action and chase sequences follow with an overabundance of snappy tune montages that do little to advance the story, except to wow you with its wonderful computer-generated visuals. Yes, there is much too see, yet too little to ponder.

But behold the film's animation skills! They may be on overdrive, with rarely a quiet moment and desperate to impress the shortest of attention spans from the youngest of moviegoers. Still, the overall look of the film is superb, for viewers of any age, with its vivid primary color palette, stylized backgrounds, and the filmmaker's obsession to the simplest details. Character design is inventive and each exaggerated figure expresses its own unique personality and sense of wonder.

And what a cast they have assembled! Voiceovers are provided by a high pedigree of skilled actors: Married couple John Krasinski and Emily Blunt as Owen and Zoe, Sir Ian McKellan and Gilbert Gottfried are the antagonists, with fine supporting work by Danny DeVito, Sylvester Stallone, Raven-Symoné, Patrick Warburton, and Harvey Fierstein. All bring their A-game to the project.

Bear McCleary's lively score includes original songs by the likes of Michael Bublé, Huey Lewis and the News, Howard Jones, and Toad the Wet Sprocket, most of which are forgettable ditties. One can see the care and lavishness doted on this personal project by so many talented people,especially noticeable is Mr. Cava's earnest passion to his "pet" project (pun intended)

Despite all the love and heartache given to this independent project and some wonderful style and flair, the end result is ultimately lacking focus. Animal Crackers has just too many half-baked ideas to become the proper cinematic sustenance it wants to be. Still one hopes Mr. Cava has better luck on his deservingly future projects.

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.

If you're a parent checking reviews for "Family Movie Night", and you go in to this with moderate expectations, you're family will be entertained. The animation is on par with Abominable or Madagascar so rest assured it's not a cheaply made production. Harmless plot with no agenda. My 9 year old son loved it and I wasn't glued to my phone out of boredom (my own rating system). If I reach for the phone in the first 10 minutes I'm in for a rough 90 mins of kid, cinema, torture. This one's absolutely good enough for a family movie night. No phone required, so go for it!

This is an enjoyable film. Viewers shouldn't go into this expecting Pixar, nor a lot of humor. This is a cute and fun story, albeit a somewhat cookie-cutter plot line. The performances are good, the overall story line holds together, and it offers a decent ending. It never came across as boring or juvenile (a flaw of many poor animations). It should prove entertaining for children and adults alike. I especially enjoyed the husband-wife relationship of the two main characters; they were well-developed and well-portrayed. A bit of cliche here, but fun cliche. Well worth watching.

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.