Movie Thoughts: Buffalo Kids (2024)

 

• Released: June 2024
• Directed by: Juan Jesús García Galocha, Pedro Solís García
• Running time: 1h 33min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A brother and sister arrive in North America and take the train to travel to see their uncle in California. On their way they meet their new friend, Nick. But then they accidentally get separated from the train. Now, the trio, together with a dog named Sparky, will have to find the train and rescue its passengers, after it turns out that bandits took them them hostage.

My Thoughts

I honestly quite liked this movie. Not that I had bad expectations for it going in, but it positively surprised me. At first I expected this to be a simple "get home to your uncle" story but nope, it definitely has a few interesting twists and turns along the way to keep the audience guessing where things are going next. Which is more than I can say for a lot of animated movies, which are usually pretty predictable to an extent.

I also quite liked the characters. These three main leads just really work for me. Tom and Mary, the main duo, feel like real siblings and like real kids. They're childish at times and they bicker from time to time, bu they genuinely love one another and will do whatever it takes fro the other. Nick also has a nice friendship with them, especially Mary, and I really appreciate how Nick is just as much a protagonist as Tom and Mary are. He doesn't talk and is in a wheelchair and I was afraid at some points that the movie might botch this representation by third-wheeling him, but as far as I can tell they honestly handled it really well and Nick is a very nice third protagonist to round off our trio.

Also, while she's more of a side character, I also really appreciated Red Moon as a fourth companion to our protagonists. And even Sparky, who at first I thought was just going to be there for marketing reasons, is likable and proactive and actually plays an important role in the plot eventually. So I'm glad they didn't just add this dog character for the sake of "we need a cute companion". He's actually a good addition to the cast.

If I do have a criticism for the movie, it's that some of the animal character designs are a bit "eh". Not terrible or anything, but especially the bison look kind of uncanny valley sometimes. They have these pitch black eyes (which even real bison don't have) and their faces kind of are a bit too human-like. The eyes face forward just a bit too much, and the nose and mouth are put in this almost human-like position. The horses and little bison also kind of suffer from this, but it's the worst on the adult bison.

I also could've done without the fart jokes the movie felt the need to insert. It just wasn't funny and especially it later becoming plot-relevant just had me a bit annoyed. I never like gross-out humor in movies so I don't know, I wish it wasn't as major here.

I brought up the representation of Nick before and how I thought it was rather well-handled. However, I'm not too sure about the representation about the Native Americans (Cheyenne to be specific) in this movie. Just to be clear: I'm white and I'm not an authority on this subject, listen to actual Native voices on the subject. But just from the conclusions I was able to draw here: This representation feels a bit...idealistic and simplistic, I guess.  

Now, I am happy with the very positive portrayal the Cheyenne get in this. They're great friends, enjoyable characters, and allies to the protagonists and really help out a lot throughout the movie. However, there are parts where the movie just kinda starts to gloss over some very real issues that are present if we look at the real history. 

Like, the movie basically makes it seem that, just because these children vouched for the Cheyenne, there was instant peace between the settlers and Native Americans and all tensions are gone and anti-indigenous racism and genocide is no more. And if we look at history we just know that that flat out isn't the case and it does feel to me like this is really oversimplifying things, and is a bit too idealistic. Again, I'm no authority on this subject, but it did feel a bit tonally weird to see things work out this easily and idealistically when keeping in mind the real, very dark history between the Native Americans and the settlers. 

But overall, yeah, this is a pretty solid movie. It's got a neat adventure, some high stakes, likable main characters who have well-written relationships, some neat disability representation and some heartwarming scenes. Only things I didn't vibe with as much is the fart jokes, some of the animal designs, and the overly simplistic representation of the conflict between the settlers and the Cheyenne.