Movie Thoughts: Miss Moxy (2025)

• Released: June 6th, 2025
• Directed by: Vincent Bal, Wip Vernooij
• Running time: 1h 28min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

When she gets lost on vacation in France, a cat named Moxy has to find her way back to the Netherlands. On her way she's joined by a wise old bird named Ayo and a bulldog named Tuur.

My Thoughts

This is just a nice and cute movie. Is it perfect? No, but I legit had a good time with this one. And as a bonus, it's made by my own country. Yeah, the Netherlands doesn't have a very good track record when it comes to feature-length animated movies (usually it's either poorly animated stuff for toddlers or it's stuff like Knor). But Miss Moxy is genuinely a nice movie.

The story is simple, but functional. I also like how it's not just the story of Moxy getting home and her troubles with learning about true friendship, but that there's also a B-plot of this woman chasing after her and Tuur because she wants to use them in her talent show. So that adds a bit of a ticking time bomb to the plot, making it work more than if this were just a laid back traveling film. At least if you ask me.

I also liked the main three characters and their relationships. They genuinely felt like just likable characters, but they're also not beyond having flaws. Ayo is arguably the most "flawless" of the main squad, being the oldest and wisest, but he does tend to talk too much and speak in riddles. Moxy and Tuur have the most complicated relationship as they're cat and dog and seem to not get along because of this. But gradually they overcome their differences and learn to accept each other for who they are, which was just nice to see.

I also liked how Moxy is a protagonist who genuinely messes up a few times before she learns her lesson. She's not perfect from the start, but not downright unlikable either. She's just a flawed cat who needs to overcome her prejudices, and she does eventually learn her lesson. It's just that her progress as a character isn't linear. She does have her ups, and she does have her downs. But in the end she, Tuur and Ayo all make up and Moxy knows who her true friends are. Just nice to see and we love a well-written character arc.

The animation is also like, really nice. It's nice and stylized and has this low frame-rate, which makes it feel like a mix between a stop-motion movie and something like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (albeit on obviously a lower budget). But it does look really nice. 

If I do have a criticism for this movie, it'll probably be the songs. They're just not very good and memorable and honestly I could've done without them. And not all the (Dutch) actors are great singers, to add to that.

So yeah, I overall think that this is a really nice movie and I genuinely hope that people check it out. It's not flawless, but overall it's just a nice and charming little film that I think deserves recognition.