GOAT

Review: I know I’m kinda slacking on my reviews of new releases this year. I can guarantee you that as we get further into the year that will increase because the number of movies I’m eager to see quickly will rise drastically. One new release from February that I was finally able to catch was this animated sports comedy from Sony. I made it out to the theater with my son and we both left feeling pretty good about the movie we just watched. Well I think Rider liked it. He watched pretty much the whole thing with minimal distraction so that’s a pretty good sign for a two year old. This film features an absolutely huge ensemble of voices with Caleb McLaughlin playing the lead role and the other animals he interacts with being voiced by Gabrielle Union, Aaron Pierre, Nicola Coughlan, David Harbour, Nick Kroll, Jenifer Lewis, Patton Oswalt, Jelly Roll, Jennifer Hudson, Sherry Cola, Eduardo Franco, Ayesha Curry, Wayne Knight, and Stephen Curry, who also produced the film. McLaughlin voices Will Harris, a young goat with dreams of becoming the first small animal to play professional roarball. He idolizes the best player of his hometown team (Union) and has to overcome several obstacles to follow his dream. One random note is that I find it kind of funny that very few of the animals have animal related names. Like his name is just Will Harris, a normal human name. And there are other characters named Olivia, Archie, Lenny, Flo, and Dennis, all just common names. The film was pretty funny, definitely geared to a young audience, but it had some jokes in there too that an older audience could appreciate. I though a lot of the vocal talents blended together well, and I honestly couldn’t even tell who was voicing some of the main characters, which was a good thing because I wasn’t just distracted by a voice I knew well. Really solid animated movie that I’d definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys the genre.

High: Sony is killing the animation game. This movie wasn’t quite as stylistic in it’s animation as some of Sony’s other recent releases (I’m looking at you ‘Spider-Verse’ and ‘KPop Demon Hunters’) but it was still well animated with the animation style fitting the film really well. I really appreciate their lack of commitment to a single style of animation, catering the medium to the film itself. It usually has great visual results.

Low: Listen, Will Harris is a certified bucket. Bro can hoop for sure. His game is very akin to Mr. Producer, Steph Curry himself. But he was an absolute liability on defense. I’m not sure if I saw him get one defensive stop. Luckily he had a rhino and giraffe backing him up on D, but he was pretty much a cone on that side of the ball.

Rating: 7/10