★★½
Voices by Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Steve Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Matt Jones, Brian Stepanek
2015 / 94 Minutes / Dreamworks Animation
Dreamworks hasn’t really been pumping out the greatest of animated films lately. They’ve certainly had many terrific films in the past (Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon), but recently a lot of them have lost the heart and humour which made them such a strong competition for Pixar.
This time we have the familiar kid/alien story that we’ve seen way too much before… and a lot better! The characters are really annoying and not very likeable. I’m not a fan of Minions either, but they are certainly a lot more likeable then these obnoxious alien things. The movie feels so ADD and all over the map, which is the same problem I had with Dreamwork’s Madagascar films. There’s so much happening it’s complete chaos of bright colours on screen… or maybe I’m just too old for this stuff.
I understand that this movie is geared for children and I’m sure they will have a great time watching it, but for adults it doesn’t really leave much for us to enjoy. The jokes don’t hold up and instead are just irritating. However, the ending was tense and I did find myself entertained for that very brief time.
This movie just isn’t up to par, especially when a film like Inside Out comes out the same year. A film with so much originality that thinking about this movie becomes much more painful. There have been fantastic animated films over the last decade and every year another one comes along and raises the bar… sadly this is not on of those films.
Grade C-
