Oh, nWave Pictures; welcome back, old friend. Having covered
two of this studio’s previous features, and considering their 2013 effort The
House Of Magic was part of my rather formative initial year at this reviewing
biz, I can make a pretty solid claim that they are one of the most unnecessary
animation houses working today.
At their worst, they can provide aggressively annoying
nonsense meant to placate kids, and even when they find their groove, they
usually only end up shining when it comes to animating chase scenes. Everything
else ends up in the realm of dead-eyed plastic (or, in the case of The Wild
Life, dead-eyed pottery). With all this in mind, their latest is somewhat of a
surprise, as it’s definitely a lot riskier than their usual. However, chasing
that risk results in one of the most horrifically misguided ‘family’ films I’ve
ever watched.
