Movie Thoughts: Yakari: A Spectacular Journey (2020)

• Released: August 12th, 2020
• Directed by: Toby Genkel, Xavier Giacometti
• Running time: 1h 22min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A boy named Yakari is given the gift of talking to animals and in particular hopes to befriend an impressive horse named Little Thunder. But then Yakari is separated from his people. He now has to get back to his home before tornado season hits and his people will have moved away.

My Thoughts

Did not have high hopes going into this one as the visuals look pretty darn cheap. But honestly, I was pleasantly surprised. It's a pretty solid and charming family film.

No, I'm not gonna pretend that this is anything grand or epic or mind-blowing, it really isn't. But for what it is, a nice lighthearted family film with some themes of friendship, it succeeds. I was surprisingly invested in Yakari and his journey to get home.

The characters are pretty decent, Yakari being a good role model and others being quite enjoyable. My favorite is Little Thunder, I like how wild and spirited he is, but how he's also willing to open his heart to friendship despite being a wild animal. The side characters I honestly enjoyed as well. I was honestly afraid that some of the animal sidekicks pictured on the poster were gonna be annoying, but thankfully none of them really were, in my opinion. 

It was also really refreshing to see that this was just a solid film taking itself seriously enough and doesn't feel the need to have a gazillion annoying comic reliefs and pop culture references. It's just a genuine film that doesn't overstay its welcome. 

I do have to say that the visual design of the characters looks pretty cheap. I think they were trying to go for a nice cell-shaded look here, and such a design for a CGI film can work, but here it just looks kinda rough and like the film didn't have a huge budget. That said, I will compliment the movie for some really nice-looking backgrounds, and the animation on the horses is also pretty well-done from what I can tell. I like how Little Thunder, even after starting to talk, still maintains very equine body-language and mannerisms. 

If I do have another problem with the visuals, it'll probably be the eyes on some of the characters (e.g. Yakari and the horses). This movie's art-style overall is nice, but the eyes on some of the characters have this permanently surprised look that doesn't always look as good and isn't always very good at conveying the expression it's trying to get across. Not a huge problem, but it did stand out to me. Not all characters have this issue, but quite a few of them do, including our leads.

But despite some cheap-looking visuals, I overall really enjoyed this film. It's pretty darn good for what it's trying to do and I had a good time with it. Giving this one a recommendation.