Usually all you can hope for with a non Disney/Pixar animated film is something in the range of “okay” and “watchable” and maybe even a “cute”. That’s about where we landed with Smallfoot.
In an adorable twist on the classic myth, the abominable snowman is real, except he’s more like the huggable snowman. The yetis live way up high on a big mountain, secluded from the rest of the world, and governed by a set of beliefs written on stone. One of those beliefs is that there is no smallfoot–human creatures that live below the mountain. In fact, there is no below the mountain. A chance encounter between bigfoot Migo (Channing Tatum) and a plane crashed human leads him to question everything he’s ever been told.
Besides being cute, what impressed me about this movie was the amount of positive lessons for the kiddies. Usually there’s one big moral that we’re working towards. This had so many small but important ideas: ask questions, don’t make assumptions about people, be open to new ideas, learn about each other’s cultures, don’t take everything you’re told at face value.
The voice cast was great too. We learned a couple weeks prior that Zendaya is Meechee, but I really loved Channing Tatum. The film is technically a musical, and I’m not sure I heard him sing before. His voice was so sweet with a delicate quality to it that I didn’t expect.
I wish there had been more in jokes for the big kids (um, adults) in the audience. The pacing felt a little slow, and I didn’t laugh as much as I’d had hoped. But it was sweet and cute, and it will be a win for the little ones
Smallfoot – \m/ \m/ \m/