SYNOPSIS:
What
makes for the ultimate road trip? Hitchhiking, truck stops,
angry bears, prickly porcupines and a golfing goose with a
duck caddy. Just ask Kate and Humphrey, two wolves who are
trying to get home after being taken by park rangers and shipped
halfway across the country. Humphrey is an Omega wolf, whose
days are about quick wit, snappy one-liners and hanging with
his motley crew of fun-loving wolves and video-gaming squirrels.
Kate is an Alpha wolf: duty, discipline and sleek Lara Croft
eye-popping moves fuel her fire. Humphrey's motto - make 'em
laugh. Kate's motto - I'm the boss. Back home rival wolf packs
are on the march and conflict is brewing. Only Kate and Humphrey
can restore the peace. But first, they have to survive each
other.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Besides the bigwigs like Disney/Pixar, DreamWorks and Blue Sky Studios, there are also lesser-known animation studios like Starz Animation (the upcoming Gnomeo and Juliet), Vanguard Animation (Space Chimps anyone?) and Crest Animation vying for the lucrative family audience box-office dollar. “Alpha and Omega” is the first in a series of animated films by Crest and Lionsgate, and going by the looks of it, they’ll need to do a lot more to stake a place in the crowded marketplace.
In almost every aspect, this maiden product falls short of the standards one has come to expect from an animated feature. For one, the visuals just can’t measure up. Whether the more brightly-coloured Omega wolf, Kate, or the slightly duller-coloured Alpha wolf, Humphrey, the characters look strangely unappealing and nondescript. The lacklustre quality of the animation is even clearer during the action sequences, when the characters seem to move out of tandem with their backgrounds.
Though directors Anthony Bell and Ben Gluck have several animations to their name, these consist of TV episodes, and the duo don’t demonstrate much visual inspiration in the various sequences- be it in a forest, a valley, a rubbish dump or even on board a truck- that make them stand out. Even with the location changes therefore, there’s little by way of visual entertainment from scene to scene to pique one’s interest.
It doesn’t help that the script by Chris Denk and Steve Moore isn’t terribly fresh or funny. While animations are mostly built around familiar story arcs, the screenplay does itself no favours by having little imagination in its storytelling or character development. There’s little doubt that the unlikely Alpha and Omega will get together at the end, but the least the writers could have done is to make the journey to that predictable destination worthwhile. Unfortunately the best they could come up with for Kate and Humphrey’s trek home is a heavy downpour and a bear attack (double yawns).
Despite an enthusiastic voice cast (including Justin Long, Hayden Panettiere, Christina Ricci, Danny Glover, and the late Dennis Hopper), the film remains a dull and leaden affair that is probably good only as distraction for the tots. But that’s scantly enough these days, given that this year’s animation offerings like “Toy Story 3” and “Despicable Me” have proven that animations these days can be fun for young and old alike. “Alpha and Omega” is no better than a Saturday-morning cartoon, so leave this on for your kids if you need to and go do something better with your time.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
NIL.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The visual look of Predators is stunning and despite the night setting for the most part, details and black levels are fantastic. Dialogue is clear and balances well with the rest of the ambient sound effects and the dynamic noisy gunfire and explosions in the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Gabriel Chong
Posted
on 30 January2011
|
