- Released: February 1, 2017
- Directed by: Pierre Coré
- Running time: 1 h 26 min
- Rating 3/5
Synopsis
My Thoughts
I've actually seen this movie once before when it first came out, but I literally remembered nothing about it aside from vaguely the plot. But not the characters, animation or anything else stood out to me. And, honestly, I can see, why, because this is a pretty bland and generic movie.
The snake Ajar and his best friend, a scorpion named Pitt, are done with life in the desert and want to live in the jungle, where the much more prosperous green snakes live. Meanwhile, a green snake named Eva wants to leave the restraining life at the jungle behind and seeks to escape. She, Ajar and Pitt meet up for a few moments, but then Eva gets captured by a legendary snake-charmer who is in possession of a magical flute. Ajar, Pitt and Eva's slacker brother Gary set out on a journey to rescue her, while Eva starts to learn how to dance to the flute's magical music, which renders her unable to escape.
Very basic plot, and is has some flaws. My main gripe that most people have brought up and even the movie itself acknowledges: Eva and Ajar, the supposed Romeo and Juliet of the story, only met each other for a few minutes before she got captured. They were on friendly terms then, sure, but not to the point that one would cross the entire desert to rescue the other. Because right now it feels like Ajar is not just risking his own but also his friend's lives for a literal stranger. Even Eva's brother pretty much doesn't want to tag along, even if it is to rescue his own sister. You also kind of get the impression throughout the movie that Ajar is just trying to rescue Eva because he wants to be with her. Not really explicitly stated, but it does give off those vibes. Seriously, who else endangers not just himself but also his friends just to rescue a stranger just because they have a crush on them?
The animation is mostly fine and pretty generic, however there is one creative sequence where Eva gets introduced to the magical flute for the first time that is very artsy. It's not enough to make the rest of the film stand out, but it's definitely worth watching by itself if you're curious. Just not the rest of the film.
Honestly the snake designs are all over the place, with some like Ajar and Eva looking really good, but others looking kind of weird, such as the ballet-teacher or Eva's big-chinned love interest at the snake charmer's location. Pitt and the other scorpions look way too cartoon-y for me. The snakes are in a cartoon-y style also, but at least you can tell what they are; snakes. The scorpions just look like scorpions but with a very stylized cartoon-y human face for whatever reason. I never get what it is with these movies and portraying bugs and arachnids as looking closer to actual bugs and arachnids. They always need a blatant cartoon-y human face for some reason, instead of stylizing an actual bug/arachnid's face to look more human. Just a design pet peeve that bothers me. If a snake can look like a snake then a scorpion can look like a scorpion. Stop taking the easy (or lazy) way out character-design wise.
Another problem the movie have is the huge tonal issues. In most regards this is just a film mostly aimed at children, with some pretty basic juvenile jokes. But then there's also several more mature jokes (mostly about incest) that are just...really out of place. Eva's brother Gary is addicted to pollen, like a drug. He's consistently trying to sniff it (as if it's cocaine) whenever he comes across it and suffering from withdrawal symptoms throughout the entire journey to rescue Eva as he's ran out.
There's also several more inappropriate references which just feel so weird in a movie. Like, if they wanted this to be an animated movie directed towards an older audience: that's fine, but then go all the way, because by all means this is a very basic kid's movie with some randomly inappropriate moments and jokes. And if they still want to have it mainly directed at children but with some subtle references for adults: then do it that way. Subtle. Because right now it's super in-your-face and honestly Gary's entire pollen thing is even a minor subplot as he has to overcome his addiction in order to save his sister.
This movie also suffers from having pretty much every main/major character in a hetero relationship by the end, even if they're not developed at all. Ajar and Eva is the central relationship, so getting them together (no matter how weird and unnecessary it is because they barely know one another) at least makes some form of sense for the plot. But then Pitt randomly gets together with a goth scorpion he comes across, and even hecking Gary gets a gold-digger girlfriend at the end. Nothing in the movie even implied that Pitt and Gary were looking for love interests, nor do these characters getting together add anything to the plot whatsoever. They just do in the last minute because I guess everyone should be in a hetero relationship, otherwise they're not happy. That's hyperbole, but still. It feels so needlessly forced, especially when their love interests barely do anything throughout the entire movie. It just feels like they're introduced for the sake of ending up as one of the main character's accessories.
So by all means this is just a very generic kid's movie that looks generic and has some random inappropriate moments and jokes. There's one pretty animated sequence, but literally nothing else stands apart from it. The romance is ridiculously badly written and there's so many couples introduced in the last minute that were definitely not necessary. I wouldn't call this one explicitly bad, just basic with a few random elements that stand out but don't make it worth watching.
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