- Released: November 11, 2022
- Directed by: Nora Twomey
- Running time: 1 h 39 min
- Rating 3/5
Synopsis
My Thoughts
Cartoon Saloon don't have a lot of movies under their belt yet, but they do have an amazing track record so far. I haven't seen all of their stuff yet, but I have watched most of it (I think the only one I haven't seen yet is Song of the Sea) and it all has been phenomenal so far. I will have to say that this movie, however, is the weakest by them that I've watched yet.
The plot surrounds Elmer, a boy who just moved to the big city with his mother, where they are struggling to make ends meet. Elmer decides that if he has a dragon on his side, people would pay to see the dragon. So he travels to Wild Island, a location where the local ape/monkey population has captured the dragon. Elmer saves Boris the dragon, and they soon form a bond. But when the island starts to sink, they realize that they must look for a solution to save not just themselves, but also the rest of the island's inhabitants, all the while trying to escape the primates hunting them down.
I will preface this by saying that this is not a bad movie. Yes, I didn't like it much and this isn't a positive review, but it isn't bad. It's just pretty weak by Cartoon Saloon standards. I just feel that, with their other movies I've seen all feeling like true artworks and experiences, this one just feels very...average.
The characters feel average and don't have that much to them. The animation is good but not as fantastic as in their other works. The style is cool and unique but also doesn't quite have the same feel and attention to detail that the other Cartoon Saloon movies have. The plot is fine but I had a lot of trouble staying invested. I didn't quite buy the bond between the main characters. And the tone was just kind of all over the place.
There were some moments where the movie feels rather juvenile, with stuff like fart jokes and rather simple characters, but there's also some quite dark and intense emotional moments (such as the climax) that makes the tone feel unfocused. Is this a fun and lighthearted family film or a slightly darker and more intense epic journey?
I also felt a large disconnect from the characters. Elmer is an okay protagonist but he does go throughout most of the movie with selfish motivations (he rescues Boris but only so the dragon can make him some money). Boris felt too juvenile and I didn't like him, he was just kind of annoying to me so I didn't connect well with his more emotional moments. The bond between Elmer and Boris also felt like it developed a bit fast and while sweet, I just didn't really feel a connection here.
The animation, like I've said before, is nice and it's great to see more 2D, but at the same time this doesn't quite have the polish, style or look that the other Cartoon Saloon movies have. Elements of the other films are definitely present here, but it wasn't as visually impressive to look at at something like Wolfwalkers, for example, though there were a few sequences that were still pretty unique and artsy.
I will say that there are two elements from this movie I did quite like. First, the monkey/ape antagonists. They're not even really villains, just antagonists. They also want to save the island, just on their own (wrong) way. Boris and Elmer want to do the same, but they want to do it the right way. And the primates, while hunting the duo down, never quite turn into outright bad guys. Even Kwan, the most ruthless of all of them, still will save other critters in need even if it means letting go of an opportunity to capture Boris. He does eventually turn his back on Wild Island and its inhabitants, but he's never quite an outright villain.
Saiwa, the leader of the primates, is the one who really shows the most depth, however. He is the one who captured Boris in the first place and consistently hunts him down, but he'll also never let an animal in need suffer for his quest, making him more sympathetic than Kwan. He's not a great guy but he is a good leader, just one with the wrong morals. And after he sees that Boris and Elmer found a different way to save Wild Island, he also accepts his defeat and admits to being wrong, apologizing to the duo. Which is just nice to see. It's cool to have a children's movie that doesn't have an outright villain, more so just a bunch of antagonists with different morals and ideas from the main characters.
The other element I liked: the message of fear sometimes being a good thing and something you can persevere through. Throughout the movie Elmer and Boris both are consistently afraid of many things (drowning, fire, losing their home, never being able to open up a new store). Boris is open about his fears, while Elmer tries to push them away and pretend that everything is fine, which leads to some bad situations. And in the end they come to accept that sometimes having fears is okay and that they can give you new ideas and they are something that can be overcome. Just...a nice message.
But that said, I still don't think the movie is very good. It looks nice (but not amazing) and has some good elements but the main characters and tonal problems were too bothersome for me to be able to rate it higher. Still not a bad movie and I think that younger children will still have a good time watching it, but I do think it's the weakest film by Cartoon Saloon I have seen so far. Not bad, just painfully average compared to their other works.
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