Goat Review

 

So Sony Animation has made another movie that isn't related to Spider-Verse or Hotel Transylvania. Let's hope it's a good one.

Goat is an animated sports comedy that's produced by Sony Pictures Animation with distribution by Sony Pictures Releasing. Tyree Dillihay directed with Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley writing the screenplay.

The story is, a small goat named Will has big dreams of playing the dangerous full-contact sport of "roarball" which is dominated by massively huge apex predators. Will gets a once in a lifetime shot to join the pros but he's ridiculed by his teammates for his size. But instead of letting these taunts and jokes bring him down, Will is determined to prove that "small can ball".

Initial Reaction

Now originally I wasn't really looking forward to this, because I just wasn't all that interested. But since I want to support animation that just isn't the usual suspects of Disney, Pixar, or DreamWorks. So I figured I'd give this a chance.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

The one gray area and I believe we all saw this coming just from the trailers alone, but we do have a very familiar underdog story. But if I've said once then I've said it a million times if you provide just enough entertainment with a familiar story then I think people will be a little bit more forgiven, and Goat does just that. Will is a very much the big dreamer who wants to chase his dreams. But I think he's story just get very interesting when he stops doing not for payment and the love of the game, but he meets the players who also have struggles like relevancy and legacy. So he stops doing it for the love of the game and instead does it so he can help others despite his teammates not liking him at first. And the plus side even though "roarball" is clearly just basketball, at least the filmmakers made the right decision but having the game be played in different environments. And I don't mean just a different city, I mean at one point the characters will be playing on a field on ice, a jungle, or fire.

Pros

Let's start off with the thing we all think about with these movies, the animation. I liked it. It was beautifully done, just something that'll really capture your eye. But what I found to best it's best aspect was the movements of the animals. I don't mean when they do wacky movements or anything like that per say. I mean we the animators got to do something fun by having the animal's movements be very different from each other and how an animal would handle being in a different environment like those previously mentioned basketball fields. Now let's move onto the pacing. Typically with these animated movies whether they're aimed at kids or adults, I'm expecting the pacing to a be breeze to get through and thankfully this continues that. From beginning to middle to end never ever slows down to the point where it feels like a chore. Then there's the humor. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Although we don't have those moments where the jokes were clearly meant for children then adults, but they weren't the worst things I've ever heard. The last thing I'll praise is the voice cast. Especially from Caleb McLaughlin and Gabrielle Union. McLaughlin (who I imagine is happy is doing something outside of Stranger Things) does an excellent job being Will. He captures the character's determination as well as the vulnerability. He also shines with the moments of overcoming doubt. Lastly there's Union. With her voice she brought a commanding presence and confidence. But what she also brought was very mentor-like moments during the intense game scenes.

While Goat has some flaws I think this is still worth checking out. Sure the story's familiar but it was fun to see an animated movie that isn't a sequel or based off an I.P. Especially since the movie does provide a lot of entertainment value.

My final rating is, Good.

Okay that's gonna do it for now. Come back on Monday, Feb 16th, for my review of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.