It's funny how within 12 months, Australian animation produces both the sepia-toned, frequently depressing, thoroughly grounded and 100% adult claymation Memoir of a Snail, and The Lost Tiger right here, which is in many ways the opposite of all those descriptors. In fact, I realized that after a year of Memoir, Inside Out 2, Ne Zha 2, The Wild Robot and Flow, I have almost forgotten what it's like to watch a cartoon which seems to consciously sacrifice some of its ability to interest adults in order to better appeal to younger children. Sometimes, things are intentionally simple, and I guess that's OK too.
However, the above does not mean thought has not been put into it behind the scenes. For one thing, it is practically impossible to separate the obvious parallels drawn by the narrative between the thylacines (that's the formal name for Tasmanian tigers) and the Australian Aborigines from the individual experience of Chantelle Murray, who is the first Aboriginal woman to direct an Australian animated film. Somewhat unusually, the primary conflict for much of the narrative is not between good and evil but between the well-intentioned, genuinely good adoptive family and the protagonist's struggle for belonging and the need to avoid loss of culture.
And when evil does arrive, it is in the form of "adventurer archeologists" who are a subtle yet clear rebuke to Indiana Jones' narratives. (In addition to setting up a "never meet your heroes" subplot of personal growth for a side character.) Even the pure comic relief side characters (think of, say, the lemurs of Madagascar) serve to point out the precarity of tourism-based economies - something which must have been close to home for a director from Queensland (with the nameless big city in the film sporting unmistakable Brisbane landmarks.) Come to think of it, this silly cartoon has more going on under the surface than some "prestige" films (cough, "Small Things Like These", cough.)
With all of its strengths, I almost don't want to talk about the elephant in the room - which is that the animation itself is sadly but undeniably not a strong side of this animated film. Seeing this on the same day as Ne Zha 2 brought the point painfully close to home - but even next to a "more normal" animated film, The Lost Tiger is too often clearly stiff and plasticky. Obviously, competing with the titans of CG animation is something too many studios can only dream of - particularly when they create a work that's so unlikely to find much success outside of the domestic market. However, both Flow and Memoir of a Snail look so much better while either one costs below 5M USD. I cannot find how much this one cost, but I suspect it was several times more expensive than that. (For comparison, 2008's The Tale of Despereaux, which was also made by a lesser-known studio, cost $60M to produce similar runtime at an admittedly higher quality.) This review is not the best place to but TLDR; small animation creators really should treat claymation as the first resort rather than the last.
