Disney rehashes pretty obvious story elements from its other oceanic based films The Little Mermaid and Moana as well as The Fox & The Hound; there just isn't much novelty to the story. While I love the actors involved (Jack Dylan Grazer really shines as one of Disney's most seamlessly funny comic relief characters), they did a much worse job than a film like Coco of blending languages in a way that is both appealing and purposeful, especially with the choice of American actors.
While the film has some fun Studio Ghibli vibes in the style, it takes a half-baked approach to doing a more foreign style film because they still want to appeal heavily to their U. S. base audience. I love the director's work in this project, especially as the one whose personal life heavily influenced the interesting summer friendship dynamic. The design of the movie is pretty great, but the overly simple plot and overtly familiar story trends make it more narrowly appealing to a much younger audience than it could have been. It carries the extraordinarily dumbed down adult trope to a level I haven't seen since 90s Nickelodeon. While the aim seems to be to promote a theme of nondiscriminatory inclusivity, the simplistic nature of the film mostly serves to dampen a lot of credibility to the motivations of its characters.
I have read comments from people elsewhere that they were unsure of the film's quality within the first 10 minutes, but soon came around to really enjoying it. However, the awkward and rushed start can definitely serve as an off-putting exposition that doesn't draw the viewer into the story.
While the film has some fun Studio Ghibli vibes in the style, it takes a half-baked approach to doing a more foreign style film because they still want to appeal heavily to their U. S. base audience. I love the director's work in this project, especially as the one whose personal life heavily influenced the interesting summer friendship dynamic. The design of the movie is pretty great, but the overly simple plot and overtly familiar story trends make it more narrowly appealing to a much younger audience than it could have been. It carries the extraordinarily dumbed down adult trope to a level I haven't seen since 90s Nickelodeon. While the aim seems to be to promote a theme of nondiscriminatory inclusivity, the simplistic nature of the film mostly serves to dampen a lot of credibility to the motivations of its characters.
I have read comments from people elsewhere that they were unsure of the film's quality within the first 10 minutes, but soon came around to really enjoying it. However, the awkward and rushed start can definitely serve as an off-putting exposition that doesn't draw the viewer into the story.