- Released: 28 December 2012
- Directed by: Wayne Thornley
- Running time: 1 h 23 min
- Rating 2.5/5
Synopsis
A young flier named Kai must protect the bird paradise of Zambezia against the lizard Budso, who wishes to devour all their eggs.
My Thoughts
I actually took a look at another movie by Triggerfish a while back, back when I was doing my old shitty movie reviews. This was Khumba, the tale of a zebra born partially without stripes. I always knew Zambezia existed, yet I never went out of my way to take a look at it.
But that has changed today. Zambezia actually came out a year before Khumba. I went in blindly, not knowing what to expect or having watched any trailers.
It was… okay. Kind of bland if you ask me, not many twists and turns. The plot was kind of predictable. There were stakes, don’t get me wrong, but the way the story was handled just kind of made you predict from the start where things were going. Of course Kai and Zoe are going to become Hurricanes in the end. Of course none of the eggs get eaten. Of course the marabous turn against Budso. It was all just kind of trope-ey and clear from the start. That doesn’t have to make it bad, but this execution was just kind of too bland for my taste.
The characters are not much different. Kai is your selfless hero who will mess up, but usually for the good of everything else. He does have some flaws, such as when he didn’t stand up for his new friend when he was being picked on by the Hurricane trainees, but otherwise he’s pretty much just a generic animated movie protagonist. The other characters were mixed, but usually they just had one or two traits that made them stand out. It was obvious from the start that Kai and his father would make up, or that Zoe and he would be love interests. Some of the side characters are kind of fun, but others border on or just flat out are annoying, such as Eezee. The villain was pretty intimidating at first, but honestly he wasn’t all that successful in his plans. He just managed to get to Zambezia, but didn’t get his claws on a single egg. He’s just mostly flailing around trying to get rid of the birds, then falls to his doom. Not a very memorable villain outside of his voice acting.
The voice acting overall was decent. Most of it was, again, just kind of bland, but there were clearly some actors that were having fun with their roles.
I really want to compliment some of the background music in this. A lot of it is just generic movie score, but there’s actually a few really nice tunes in here.
The visuals were… varying. Okay, so the animation itself was just basic. It looked kind of wonky and awkward in some places, but overall it was just all right. Standard for a not-so-high budget animated flick. There were some well-executed flight scenes, so I’ll give it that.
The character designs were mixed, too. Some of them looked a bit uncanny-valley, and unfortunately this mostly applies to our main character and his father. Their bird faces are just a tad too human. Zoe kind of has it going on, too, but it wasn’t as jarring on her as with Kai and Tendai. Most bird character designs looked fine, but just their flat faces with the human-like eyes and eyebrows and small beaks. It just didn’t work. The textures were also lacking. They aren’t completely smooth, you can see that they do actually have feathers, for example, but they still just looked too smooth and polished. Sometimes there would be scenes where they’d fly against the wind or something and all of the feathers on them would just stay perfectly still. That just bothered me.
The backgrounds were good and the design of Zambezia itself just downright steals the show. It’s just really fun to see how they come up with all these designs and accommodate it for birds. It’s obviously not as intricate as something like Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, but they still had some neat features here and there.
The colors of the scenes were varying, but overall good. It had some pretty evening and night shots, especially.
The humor is what you expect: kiddie stuff, a few potty jokes here or there, but nothing downright horrible or insulting.
I won’t go out of my way to say that Zambezia isn’t worth the watch; there really is some good stuff in here. It’s just that the overall execution is a bit too safe and formulaic. It could’ve done with some slightly better visuals and more twists along the way story-wise.
See it if you want to, it’s on Netflix, at least where I live. If you like birds or Africa and don’t mind a generic family movie, it’ll probably be fine for you. Just not really my taste, but I nonetheless don’t regret watching it.
The characters are not much different. Kai is your selfless hero who will mess up, but usually for the good of everything else. He does have some flaws, such as when he didn’t stand up for his new friend when he was being picked on by the Hurricane trainees, but otherwise he’s pretty much just a generic animated movie protagonist. The other characters were mixed, but usually they just had one or two traits that made them stand out. It was obvious from the start that Kai and his father would make up, or that Zoe and he would be love interests. Some of the side characters are kind of fun, but others border on or just flat out are annoying, such as Eezee. The villain was pretty intimidating at first, but honestly he wasn’t all that successful in his plans. He just managed to get to Zambezia, but didn’t get his claws on a single egg. He’s just mostly flailing around trying to get rid of the birds, then falls to his doom. Not a very memorable villain outside of his voice acting.
The voice acting overall was decent. Most of it was, again, just kind of bland, but there were clearly some actors that were having fun with their roles.
I really want to compliment some of the background music in this. A lot of it is just generic movie score, but there’s actually a few really nice tunes in here.
The visuals were… varying. Okay, so the animation itself was just basic. It looked kind of wonky and awkward in some places, but overall it was just all right. Standard for a not-so-high budget animated flick. There were some well-executed flight scenes, so I’ll give it that.
The character designs were mixed, too. Some of them looked a bit uncanny-valley, and unfortunately this mostly applies to our main character and his father. Their bird faces are just a tad too human. Zoe kind of has it going on, too, but it wasn’t as jarring on her as with Kai and Tendai. Most bird character designs looked fine, but just their flat faces with the human-like eyes and eyebrows and small beaks. It just didn’t work. The textures were also lacking. They aren’t completely smooth, you can see that they do actually have feathers, for example, but they still just looked too smooth and polished. Sometimes there would be scenes where they’d fly against the wind or something and all of the feathers on them would just stay perfectly still. That just bothered me.
The backgrounds were good and the design of Zambezia itself just downright steals the show. It’s just really fun to see how they come up with all these designs and accommodate it for birds. It’s obviously not as intricate as something like Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, but they still had some neat features here and there.
The colors of the scenes were varying, but overall good. It had some pretty evening and night shots, especially.
The humor is what you expect: kiddie stuff, a few potty jokes here or there, but nothing downright horrible or insulting.
I won’t go out of my way to say that Zambezia isn’t worth the watch; there really is some good stuff in here. It’s just that the overall execution is a bit too safe and formulaic. It could’ve done with some slightly better visuals and more twists along the way story-wise.
See it if you want to, it’s on Netflix, at least where I live. If you like birds or Africa and don’t mind a generic family movie, it’ll probably be fine for you. Just not really my taste, but I nonetheless don’t regret watching it.
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