I found the movie to be terribly written, although the animation was decent and the animals were all very cute. Overall I think rather than producing this as a movie it would have benefited as a half-hour cartoon episode, some of the cheesier (in some cases, lamer) jokes would have fit better in that environment.
When I went to see this movie I had hoped there would be some hidden gems of adult-humor stashed away within the script, I mean on the surface this movie reminded me of that underappreciated cgi movie Over The Hedge... boy was I disappointed. The animation was cute (and who wouldn't enjoy the similarity of Buddy to the Ratatouille rats)... and that's as far as I'll go for compliments.
The characters were very two-dimensional (in some cases one-dimensional), the names just didn't seem to click (as I said, this felt more like a stretched out afternoon cartoon), the voice acting felt too forced (Oh gawd did I learn to despise Greyson by the end) not to mention for an animated movie... quite a few non-voiced characters even in the inner circle. Even parts of the plot that sounded interesting got no depth - such as Raccoon's grip on the park community. It all just felt very very dumbed down, even some kids in the showing I attended voiced some complaints by the end.
It's probably just me, but I felt this movie could have been fantastic if it was a bit darker. Spoilers follow of course...
It would never happen but killing off some of the characters would have made this so much better. Right at the beginning letting Greyson die in the fire would have set up Surly as looking much more villainous and saddled him with some deep guilt issues, the Angry-Birds rip-off? I would have let him perish in that cat scenario, Mole looked pretty villainous when he almost drowned the gophers... why did they just gloss over attempted murder by the end? He seemed to fit as a kind of Peter Pettigrew type character. Surly should have gotten a bit of a show trial which ended with his banishment then of course Raccoon needed to have a little more than a glimpse into his dictatorial control of the park, make it a little more sinister than just wanting shinies... which didn't quite add up for me (did other animals want his shinies which led to needing control?).
This call for a darker film may seem completely uncalled for but they did leave Raccoon in a seemingly death-sentence position by the end of the regular movie so it's not like it would completely out of left-field. eh... just my tastes I guess, though would be a lot better than the numbingly terrible writing of the movie :P
I found the movie to be terribly written, although the animation was decent and the animals were all very cute. Overall I think rather than producing this as a movie it would have benefited as a half-hour cartoon episode, some of the cheesier (in some cases, lamer) jokes would have fit better in that environment.
When I went to see this movie I had hoped there would be some hidden gems of adult-humor stashed away within the script, I mean on the surface this movie reminded me of that underappreciated cgi movie Over The Hedge... boy was I disappointed. The animation was cute (and who wouldn't enjoy the similarity of Buddy to the Ratatouille rats)... and that's as far as I'll go for compliments.
The characters were very two-dimensional (in some cases one-dimensional), the names just didn't seem to click (as I said, this felt more like a stretched out afternoon cartoon), the voice acting felt too forced (Oh gawd did I learn to despise Greyson by the end) not to mention for an animated movie... quite a few non-voiced characters even in the inner circle. Even parts of the plot that sounded interesting got no depth - such as Raccoon's grip on the park community. It all just felt very very dumbed down, even some kids in the showing I attended voiced some complaints by the end.
It's probably just me, but I felt this movie could have been fantastic if it was a bit darker. Spoilers follow of course...
It would never happen but killing off some of the characters would have made this so much better. Right at the beginning letting Greyson die in the fire would have set up Surly as looking much more villainous and saddled him with some deep guilt issues, the Angry-Birds rip-off? I would have let him perish in that cat scenario, Mole looked pretty villainous when he almost drowned the gophers... why did they just gloss over attempted murder by the end? He seemed to fit as a kind of Peter Pettigrew type character. Surly should have gotten a bit of a show trial which ended with his banishment then of course Raccoon needed to have a little more than a glimpse into his dictatorial control of the park, make it a little more sinister than just wanting shinies... which didn't quite add up for me (did other animals want his shinies which led to needing control?).
This call for a darker film may seem completely uncalled for but they did leave Raccoon in a seemingly death-sentence position by the end of the regular movie so it's not like it would completely out of left-field. eh... just my tastes I guess, though would be a lot better than the numbingly terrible writing of the movie :P