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DokBrowne [ 6.5 ]
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I'm doubly surprised here, and in opposite ways: 1) by how very short and simple the story is. It's a time-honored cliche: a con artist fools a good-natured community into helping him out of a jam, only to be embraced into their family and realizing that's more important, just in time to save the day with their help and set things right. The script races through all of these plot points, so before I had even really figured out the characters or decided to like them, they were already apparently bonding and facing moral conflicts...oy. Even though it's the most standard of scenarios, it still requires a certain finesse to make us care, if not in fact an extra amount to overcome its tiresome, formulaic predictability. The movie's biggest downfall, then, is its refusal to commit to the story in a believable way. It just goes through the motions.
2) by how much it has grown on me in retrospect. The obligatory (so tediously obligatory!) roster of unfunny archetypes used to round out the cast really pissed me off at first; not as much as in "Cars", but you still got Garry Shandling as an exasperated straight man, Eugene Levy as a neurotic dope, William Shatner as a ham, Avril Lavigne as a valley girl, and Steve Carrell (not typecast but undeniably cast a moldly old type) as the hyper, childlike nutball (already done better in last year's "Hoodwinked"). Oh, and Allison Janney as a heartless human, Thomas Haden Church as an arrogant exterminator, and Nick Nolte as a grumpy bear (actually, that's good casting). None of these animals are that endearing and definitely not funny, except for the movie's most inspired scene, when Carrell's Hammy the squirrel is given soda at the end and the world actually stops in relation to his insane buzz. Bruce Willis is an odd choice for voiceover work, but does a surprisingly convincing job as the peppy yet vulnerable raccoon, considering how laconic he tends to be in person. Anyway, in spite of all that and the autopilot screenplay, the movie manages to be sort of winning, somehow. The animation is breathtaking (less on the ugly designs of the animals than on the settings that surround them), so I'll probably want to watch it at least a few more times later on just for that. And the tone is extremely featherweight and pleasantly harmless, making it good solid escapist fare.
To top it off, there are a bunch of new Ben Folds songs! As a fan, this was icing on the cake for me, even his tame re-recording of "Rockin' the Suburbs". Good times.
So I wouldn't say it's the solid success that a lot of critics seemed to call it - maybe it's less egregious than its 8 identical twin animated animal escapades from 2006 (still haven't seen them all yet so I can't decide), but that doesn't make it funny or well-written. It is at best a charmingly pleasant movie, but those adjectives are actually quite appealing to lame old me, so I'm giving it more credit than it probably deserves
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Cookeyface [ 8.0 ]
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This is a cute movie with a fun story line. Set in the Suburbs, we find our little woodland friends fighting for their land with this silly story. Extermination is not possible with this film. Worth a look.
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chapter11 [ 8.0 ]
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Remarkably likeable, considering its existence in a popular, ripoff laden sub-genre-- the cuddly creature-filled CGI-fest for kids-- I thought I was going to have to totally roast this film, but I ended up completely charmed by it. Cute, really funny, and even kind of insightful: the riff on American consumerism and food culture was particularly inspired. Will Steve Carrell ever get old?
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| Weighted Rating | : 6.9 |
| No. Ratings | : 8 | |
| No. Reviews | : 6 | |
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