Animal Crackers is an animated film which was released three years back and now it is streaming on Netflix. Animal Crackers is an animated adventure which is a good, entertaining watch but it could have been better. It is about churning out magic cookies which come in with philosophical references and with adequate humour and makes for a light watch.
Personally I enjoy watching animated films because I love the airy, light and easy entertainment it brings. Animated movies, according to their nature, almost always make us emotional and have a message to impart no matter how tiny it is. Animal Crackers is not the kind that makes you reach out for tissues or has a message to give you, it does not specifically have a message but it is not empty either.
The name of the movie sounds a tad strange at first because what could be possibly going around with both animal and crackers at the same time? The film is about a factory and a man who tries to save his family circus with the help of new dog cookie that can now turn people into animals (how scary does that sound?!).
The journey forward is entertaining, humorous but it still remains as a passable story. There’s drama shown through bad blood in the circus business and how it has been dealt with. Overall it has come together to be a decent animated film, however, do not get your hopes high!
Slow and steady!
Considering Animal Crackers has a duration of 1 hour 45 minutes, the first thirty minutes of the film hardly made any sense. It takes some time for the movie to pick up pace, and until then, it feels stretched and boring.
The film is jointly directed by Tony Bancroft and Scott Christian Sava and is based on a novel. Owen is our character here and is voiced by John Krasinski — who is the nephew of two rival ringmasters. He meets Zoe (Emily Blunt), at the circus where something unexpected occurs. Animal Crackers could make for a fun and sweet watch for kids in this lockdown so head straight to Netflix for it!
Simple and plain characters…
The characters are fairly uncomplicated and the plot is simple to a point where it will feel meaningless to watch. There’s a villain and we have our hero Owen Huntington who is out there to protect his family and his wife is portrayed to be somebody who is supportive and loving. Amidst all this, there is a clown Chesterfield voiced by Danny DeVito, as well as Mario Henchman voiced by Gilbert Gottfried who is always speaking in third-person.
There are humour elements and it is all very entertaining but at times there are dialogues which are not required and it will bore you. The animation could have been better because we have definitely seen films with better animation and to an extent, the animation of Animal Crackers will disappoint you.
Doesn’t have one big message instead has smaller messages to give!
Like previously stated, it might not be the greatest animated film ever made and neither does the animation stand out but there are certain things that this film has beautifully upheld. The realities of today’s world which lacks sensibility and compassion, a scene where the whole crowd is booing at the acrobats and only a little girl protests against the misbehaviour of the crowd.
The film has beautifully shown how human beings adapt and change depending on various situations and how important family is for all of us. Horatio P. Huntington, voiced by Ian McKellan, is the chaotic circus ringmaster and his performance is one of the main reasons why you could stream this film.
This is an animated film and somewhere I believe that we all could give this a shot without any expectation. It is a fun watch but definitely had the potential to do better. Not all films need to have a meaning or ten solid reasons why we should watch it, this falls under that category.
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