Aw, you beat me to reviewing it! Pretty much agree with all your points. I went to a Saturday 7:30 pm screening and the theater was pretty full - more adults than I was expecting. Standard plot, but they do it really well! Yup, the predation was addressed really quickly, etc. Really liked the robot design and its movement, and all the art direction in general. The music really fit. The film is deliberately trying to pluck on your heartstrings - not too heavily, and that's fine. I didn't like Fink the fox at first, but gradually warmed to him. One of the main themes of the film for me was that of belonging.
Voice acting - also good. After getting my Bill Nighy fix as Danzi the elderly dragon in Dragonkeeper, here he was again playing Longneck! Except... well, he sounded more like his regular Bill Nighy-ish voice, delivering cliche words of wisdom. So my brain reverted to its default Bill Nighy setting, which pictures him as Charles Paris, a middle-aged, largely unemployed alcoholic stage actor who keeps getting caught up in murder investigations. Who is not goose-like. So that took some mental adjustment.
There's a really short thing if you stay for the end of the credits. I watched the movie in 3D, but it didn't really take advantage of the medium.
What else... oh yeah, trailers! "Live action" style Mufasa: The Lion King. Then Hitpig, which last I vaguely heard about in early 2022. And then Dog Man, which looked good! The difference of the writing quality between those last two trailers was huge! Of course it could be they spoiled all the best lines for Dog Man, but I hope not. As much as I enjoyed Berkeley Breathed when I was growing up, I'm much more likely to go see Dog Man instead.
(Also I'm kicking myself, because I completely missed a screening of Flow in the area, and since it's doing the art-cinema circuit, I probably won't get the chance to see it again until maybe a year from now.)
Aw, you beat me to reviewing it! Pretty much agree with all your points. I went to a Saturday 7:30 pm screening and the theater was pretty full - more adults than I was expecting. Standard plot, but they do it really well! Yup, the predation was addressed really quickly, etc. Really liked the robot design and its movement, and all the art direction in general. The music really fit. The film is deliberately trying to pluck on your heartstrings - not too heavily, and that's fine. I didn't like Fink the fox at first, but gradually warmed to him. One of the main themes of the film for me was that of belonging.
Voice acting - also good. After getting my Bill Nighy fix as Danzi the elderly dragon in Dragonkeeper, here he was again playing Longneck! Except... well, he sounded more like his regular Bill Nighy-ish voice, delivering cliche words of wisdom. So my brain reverted to its default Bill Nighy setting, which pictures him as Charles Paris, a middle-aged, largely unemployed alcoholic stage actor who keeps getting caught up in murder investigations. Who is not goose-like. So that took some mental adjustment.
There's a really short thing if you stay for the end of the credits. I watched the movie in 3D, but it didn't really take advantage of the medium.
What else... oh yeah, trailers! "Live action" style Mufasa: The Lion King. Then Hitpig, which last I vaguely heard about in early 2022. And then Dog Man, which looked good! The difference of the writing quality between those last two trailers was huge! Of course it could be they spoiled all the best lines for Dog Man, but I hope not. As much as I enjoyed Berkeley Breathed when I was growing up, I'm much more likely to go see Dog Man instead.
(Also I'm kicking myself, because I completely missed a screening of Flow in the area, and since it's doing the art-cinema circuit, I probably won't get the chance to see it again until maybe a year from now.)