When there is a clear leader in the field, all reviews and comparisons tend to compare to that standard. In this case, I will compare this to Disney Pixar movies. The animation in this film, at first glance is pretty good. Almost Pixar quality. However, most characters lack the intangible quality that draws the audience to them. Most of the characters lacked real character the way pixar films do, and particularly the human characters had robotic features. The worst part are the extremely cliché references to human destruction and greed - although I agree with the message, the sappy moral rhetoric had me rolling my eyes most of the time. It gets over-done and really old halfway through the movie, but then they amazingly pour it on in even more annoying quantities towards the end. *** SPOILER ALERT *** Then in the end, it all falls apart in an illogical incoherent mess. Especially when the music comes in and the animals start dancing. To, of all things - the Beach Boys song where they sing "fun fun fun, til daddy takes the T-bird away" which has NO context to the film whatsoever. Then the animals are flooded in a massive damn break, but they all miraculously float away. Then they end up in New York city by riding inside several whale's mouths, to attend a global conference on environmental matters, which is great. But you know they are going to die, because A - animals can't talk, and therefore cannot dispute their views at the conference, and would likely be shot. And B - even if they survive getting shot, they are in New York city, where there are no natural resources or food for their survival.
The saving grace is that my daughter is 8, and didn't know any better, and still managed to like this movie.
Which brings to mind another comparison to Disney-Pixar. In DP movies, adults enjoy them as much as children do. This movie was excruciating for anyone over the age of 10.
Overall, if Disney-pixar fired its writers and hired low wage teenage summer students to write plots, and the animators hated their jobs and stopped caring how the movie turned out, their films would probably look a lot like Animals United.
The saving grace is that my daughter is 8, and didn't know any better, and still managed to like this movie.
Which brings to mind another comparison to Disney-Pixar. In DP movies, adults enjoy them as much as children do. This movie was excruciating for anyone over the age of 10.
Overall, if Disney-pixar fired its writers and hired low wage teenage summer students to write plots, and the animators hated their jobs and stopped caring how the movie turned out, their films would probably look a lot like Animals United.