alli gallixsee

My 9 year old and I watched this without any expectations while sick over holiday break. We were both surprised and delighted by everything about this film! The representation, the family dynamics, and the themes were all really well done. The plot wasn't exactly Oscar-worthy, but it wasn't awful and ridiculously formulaic either. My 9 year old has a knack for predicting plot lines and this story escaped his formula detection algorithm. We both thoroughly enjoyed the animation, the dreamscapes and wondrous creatures (especially Splat), and the character development. I have no idea why this film got such low audience ratings, the only reason I can come up with is that homophobes went on a campaign to smear this film. The gay teenage love story in this film is the sweetest and most wholesome I have ever encountered in a kids' film--which is probably why it's so threatening to some. There was a moment when I was expecting Grandpa to lose it when hearing his grandson's love interest was a boy--but Grandpa didn't even blink and carried on giving advice on how to woo his love interest. The normalization of this conversation across generations was such an overwhelming relief that I cried. It was a quiet but powerful moment in the film, and it was probably one of the alarm triggers for people who hold tight to their old, bigoted ways. The old ways are dying, dinosaurs--sorry not sorry. Y'all this is a good Disney flick. It's not the best, but it's certainly far from the worst. It's a fun adventure for the whole family with creative animation and likeable characters and a decent plotline. If you're a decent human being, you should watch it and you will probably enjoy it. If you're homophobic or racist you should probably pick a different film to watch.