Movie Thoughts: Chupa (2023)

 

• Released: April 7, 2023
  
• Directed by: Jonás Cuarón
• Running time: 1 h 35 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A boy is sent on a trip to Mexico, where he is staying with is grandfather and cousins. Here, he discovers a mysterious young creature which he has to keep safe and look after, with cryptid hunters being after it.

My Thoughts

Fun fact: I discovered this movie's existence not through Netflix's recommended but instead through Tumblr meme-ing on it because apparently the movie's title (shortened from chupacabra) means something suggestive in Spanish. True story.

The plot is very much as I described above. A boy named Alex who lives in the USA is feeling disconnected from his Mexican culture and family, especially after the death of his father. His mother sends him away for a while to stay with his family in Mexico, his grandfather Chava and his cousins Luna and Memo. Here he soon discovers the creature and tries to hide it, however his family quickly finds out and together they decide to look after Chupa and teach him to fly, before cryptid hunters can catch him. They grow closer over this, and eventually they manage to return Chupa (who is actually just a cub) to his family. 

Basic plot, very basic and you've probably seen it a million times. And the execution is nothing really all that unique, however I also wouldn't call it bland. There's definitely some aspects to this movie I really like, such as Alex slowly starting to embrace his family and culture again more after initially fighting against both. Chupa was also a cute creature and there was also a more serious subplot about Chava showing signs of Alzheimer's, and possibly having to give up his ranch to stay with family because of it. So while not fully unique, it has some good things going for it.

However, I'd also hesitate to call it great or even all that good. It's mostly just solid but nothing more or less. While I liked the relationships between Alex and his human family quite a lot, his bond with Chupa (despite being the central focus of the movie) I honestly felt less for. It just felt so by-the-books and I never really got a feeling there was a deeper connection between these two, especially with the cousins and Chava looking after the critter pretty much an even amount. At first it seems that Chupa chose to only reveal himself to Alex, which might imply a stronger or more special bond, but then it later turns out that Chava already knew even before Alex that Chupa was out there, and thus looked after him in his shed in secret. Which honestly makes me feel like the connection between Chava and Chupa should be the focus here, not Chupa and Alex. But I guess we need a child protagonist for the kiddos, so that's what we got, but his bond with Chupa feels not super unique as a result. 

In How to Train Your Dragon, for example, Hiccup's bond with Toothless truly felt unique and was the strongest aspect for the film. Here, the connection between Chupa and Alex just feels like it happens because of the plot and nothing really all that much to it. Neither does it feel unique, since Alex is one of four people looking after the creature, rather than Hiccup who was the only viking who managed to bond with a dragon in that movie (before the climax and the others became dragon riders as well). This is just a comparison of the top of my hat, but it's clear why the bond between Hiccup and Toothless works and feels tangible and unique, whereas Alex's bond with Chupa is just kind of there and doesn't feel that fleshed out.

The villain of the movie was also awfully one-note, just being a scientist cryptid hunter who is in it for selfish gains. I guess it's neat that they're trying to not only capture the chupacabras for money, but also for the healing powers they possess, but in the end they still do nothing with Quinn's character that makes him feel unique or even anything less than one-dimensional. 

Since they're after Chupa for his healing powers, wouldn't it be an interesting moral conflict to set up for our protagonists, especially Alex, who lost his father due to cancer? Having him have to choose between setting Chupa free, or being able to save a lot of human lives with the creature's healing powers if it is kept captive? That's an actual heavy moral conflict to present to our heroes, but instead Quinn is pretty much instantly rebuked as a villain without even considering what he has to say. I just think it'd have been more unique if they actually tried to pose a real moral question rather than just "creature must be free, scientist evil". Nuance, what is that?

That aside, I also didn't like the animation and CGI on the catamount who appeared as an obstacle in one scene. On Chupa and the other chupacabras we briefly see it looks fine, since they're fantastical creatures we have no real-life point of reference for. But when the CGI cougar showed up it just looked a tad off. The CGI model in and of itself already isn't perfect (the tail was way too thin, more closer to that of a lion than that of a catamount), but the movement of it in some of the shots also just felt a tad too un-feline-like to be realistic. And for cougars we do have real points of reference, so it instantly feels off when the animal doesn't look or move right. Gives kind of an uncanny valley effect.

The movie is mostly solid overall, though. Definitely has a few points in the negative for a boring villain, the bond between Alex and Chupa not feeling very genuine, and the CGI on the cougar being a bit off, but it's still a neat watch. If you can get past the suggestive title, I still don't know who approved that to be honest.