This movie was great fun! The characterizations and the story gags especially were absolutely hilarious - had me totally amused.
First the minor down points. The animation looked very simplistic and cheesy - like out of a very cheap kiddie video game. The characters and cars and such were stiff; and had the old "plasticy" look of very early computer animation. And the song numbers, while fun and cute, didn't feel very dramatic, or link with the storyline very well like a good musical number in a story should.
On the other hand, the voice talent was totally top class - particularly Patrick Warburton, Andy Dick, and my perennial fav David Ogden Stiers. And I would never have picked Glenn Close or Jim Belushi if it wasn't for the credits - they totally lost themselves in their characters.
And director Cory Edwards personification of the twitchy rodent was a comic highlight of the story. In fact the whole throwaway gags were very effective in this.
The tragedy is that this is probably going to be thrown into the "doesn't neatly fit in a category basket" when it comes to historic analysis of computer animation. Like a lot of my fav movies, it's probably going to be considered too cute for adults, but too sophisticated for kids. And funny enough, that's just the storytelling I personally prefer.
The great thing about this one is it's got a soft coating, but a bit of a punch on the inside. So applause all round for the production team on this one!
First the minor down points. The animation looked very simplistic and cheesy - like out of a very cheap kiddie video game. The characters and cars and such were stiff; and had the old "plasticy" look of very early computer animation. And the song numbers, while fun and cute, didn't feel very dramatic, or link with the storyline very well like a good musical number in a story should.
On the other hand, the voice talent was totally top class - particularly Patrick Warburton, Andy Dick, and my perennial fav David Ogden Stiers. And I would never have picked Glenn Close or Jim Belushi if it wasn't for the credits - they totally lost themselves in their characters.
And director Cory Edwards personification of the twitchy rodent was a comic highlight of the story. In fact the whole throwaway gags were very effective in this.
The tragedy is that this is probably going to be thrown into the "doesn't neatly fit in a category basket" when it comes to historic analysis of computer animation. Like a lot of my fav movies, it's probably going to be considered too cute for adults, but too sophisticated for kids. And funny enough, that's just the storytelling I personally prefer.
The great thing about this one is it's got a soft coating, but a bit of a punch on the inside. So applause all round for the production team on this one!