Beautiful and vibrant eye-candy that goes so insanely fast that it feels like watching an hour long movie trailer. If you don’t care about good story-telling and quality choreography, just want some beautiful eye-candy for your child, this fits the bill. Know that there are much better animation features out there (Disney classics, The Incredibles, Wall-E, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wallace and Gromit, Spirited Away), but this isn’t the worst.
A kid’s movie is never an excuse for a subpar movie. Unfortunately this one is rather mediocre. Rushed pacing is the main culprit. We aren’t given much time for character development. They cut into the next shot just a bit too fast every time they were given a chance. It’s so fast, the whole movie feels like one long trailer with some singing here and there. The audience is never given any time to let important moments sink in, making the characters unrelatable and forgettable. The subject matter is not the problem. If anything, the subject matter is the one of the most unique elements of the movie besides the vibrant and colorful scenes.
I had higher expectations because Del Toro was involved, but it just doesn’t have the highs and lows compare to other well rounded animation features out there.