Saara

Found this animation by accident and decided to do a little background check on IMDb. Ratings were pretty low but as with most animated films that come to my attention I decided to give it a try and find out by my self.

What I discovered was a classic lower class boy loves and rescues high class girl story, injected with some anti-racist and anti-drug messages, even a subtle but apparent criticism on current political events. Overall I'd go for entertaining with some interesting pointers and blame the low ratings mostly on lack of proper advertisement (practically none... ).

On a final note, those of you inclined to poke the truth out of a pile of words, do take a closer look at those really negative comments and the country they're originating from. Sad to see people prefer walls over peaceful coexistence...

It felt like the characters where acting bad. Which is strange because its a animation. Than I realized It was a France movie, with very very bad English voice overs!. For instance the voice of the main character in English sound like a little boy, but original sound like a real man. I normally prefer English voices but this movie really gets better in original voices. Still not a very good movie but not bad too!

Sorry for my bad English, im Dutch with dislexy.

The saying "All flash, no substance" feels like a perfect descriptor of this movie. The painting-like visuals of this movie are fantastic. The people in charge of that definitely deserve some praise for what they've accomplished. Now if only these people could be paired up with some people that are competent at crafting stories.. Because the story is anything but well-crafted. Most characters are extremely underdeveloped and shallow, with motivations being as flimsy as a leaf in the wind. I don't remember a single character in the movie being the least bit interesting; such utterly forgettable characters.

Give this one a skip unless you're tired and just wanna look at something pretty while you shut your brain off.

Sahara is a film I was unsure of. I went in with very low expectations... and, while those expectations weren't met, I felt disappointed by how the film tried to be unique and original but was bogged down by so many elements which didn't have any business being in it. Why did it name drop Batman and Robin? Why was some kind of commentary about class and race divide? Why was this movie trying to do so many things at once instead of doing the one thing I wanted it to be about - a love story with snakes as the main characters. That would be unique and interesting and has so much potential but no, this film had to get bogged down by so many annoying little cliches and trying to be relevant in all the wrong ways.

I wanted this movie to be better than it was, I really did. And it felt like it was trying... but instead, what could have been a wonderful and unique movie ended up being forced into something it didn't want to be. And that makes me sad.

The animation here is decent and the voice acting is mainly good.

HOWEVER

This is a film about a watermelon-eating cobra teaming up with a substance-abusing green snake to rescue another green snake from a racist caricature. There is a lot that this film gets wrong factually. Some can be attributed to artistic license, but a lot is just laziness. There are also some extremely questionable artistic decisions, such as the aforementioned stoner snake in a children's film, which leads to scenes in which he gets high, and snorts sand in the desert like cocaine. While most of the character design is good, there are a couple of notable exceptions where the character looks disgusting, or where they have clearly copied a character from elsewhere. The plot is okay, but a lot of it feels recycled from previous films, including some extremely cliched set-pieces.

In general, this is not the worst animated film ever. That does not make it good. I'd say put it on for a child then leave the room, but that would teach them that quality does not matter in children's films. Also, the drugs-based humour probably needs a responsible adult to put into context for them. Instead, put on a good film for your child, like Shrek or Chicken Run.