Took my 5 year old son to see this and it was very different than what I had lazily thought it would be from half watching a trailer at the cinema on our previous visit.
We saw a tiger striped penguin and had hoped it would be like the Croods with mish-mash made up animals but more aimed at 5 year old's (Croods to me despite being loved by my son is prime for the 8+ audience).
The film itself was competent enough in entertaining the 3 to 6 year old bracket but misses a trick in its story telling and humour not also targeting the adult and older children whop may want to see it to help create a good market for the film and possible sequels.
The story was a little bland, the pacing a bit all over the place and jokes often misfiring even for the little ones. Having said that the screening was nearly full which these days is rare and I didn't realise until after that this is a TV show as well so maybe that helped re getting the crowd in but it helps that normally there is rarely two kid focused CGI films out at the same time.
The main weaknesses for me was the voice cast most notably Maurice who just seemed to lack any kind of emotion. All lines delivered with the same non-descript do gooder type regardless of the situation. The big Gorillas voice was a little odd to and border-line offensive to listen to.
More background re why Aces were set up originally as the evil Koala was not the main enemy until they had already been established and rejected him in a manner that implied he got beaten up and thrown out of their den which despite his arrogance etc. meaning he deserved to be omitted from the Aces seemed out of place with a team of heroes. This again is another example of the mixed up tone throughout and gave the impression of a film directed in chunks by different people focusing on different audiences. One minute cuteness and light and do gooder feel and the next rather aggressive violence for a 3-6 year old audience. This therefore to me came across as the clumsy attempt to appeal to the wider market age wise rather than the smarter methods we have for the main come to love with the majority of Disney, Lego, Pixar, DreamWorks etc. type animated / CGI family films.
The main strengths was despite the budget and the obvious difference in class between the likes of Pixar type the CGI was spot on for the type of film. The backgrounds were very strong and the design of the main characters suited the film well and were done to a high, if just different to Pixar et al, standard.
I would recommend it when it as there was no real alternative and is still enjoyable enough visit for the 3-6 year old kids to keep them happy but leave alone if the likes of Ninjago are out at the cinema (as is now the case). Worth a buy on DVD but not to rush if its £7-10 - it will soon drop to the £3-5 supermarket price bracket with months.
(4.5/10 - not allowed buy IMDb but there you go)!
We saw a tiger striped penguin and had hoped it would be like the Croods with mish-mash made up animals but more aimed at 5 year old's (Croods to me despite being loved by my son is prime for the 8+ audience).
The film itself was competent enough in entertaining the 3 to 6 year old bracket but misses a trick in its story telling and humour not also targeting the adult and older children whop may want to see it to help create a good market for the film and possible sequels.
The story was a little bland, the pacing a bit all over the place and jokes often misfiring even for the little ones. Having said that the screening was nearly full which these days is rare and I didn't realise until after that this is a TV show as well so maybe that helped re getting the crowd in but it helps that normally there is rarely two kid focused CGI films out at the same time.
The main weaknesses for me was the voice cast most notably Maurice who just seemed to lack any kind of emotion. All lines delivered with the same non-descript do gooder type regardless of the situation. The big Gorillas voice was a little odd to and border-line offensive to listen to.
More background re why Aces were set up originally as the evil Koala was not the main enemy until they had already been established and rejected him in a manner that implied he got beaten up and thrown out of their den which despite his arrogance etc. meaning he deserved to be omitted from the Aces seemed out of place with a team of heroes. This again is another example of the mixed up tone throughout and gave the impression of a film directed in chunks by different people focusing on different audiences. One minute cuteness and light and do gooder feel and the next rather aggressive violence for a 3-6 year old audience. This therefore to me came across as the clumsy attempt to appeal to the wider market age wise rather than the smarter methods we have for the main come to love with the majority of Disney, Lego, Pixar, DreamWorks etc. type animated / CGI family films.
The main strengths was despite the budget and the obvious difference in class between the likes of Pixar type the CGI was spot on for the type of film. The backgrounds were very strong and the design of the main characters suited the film well and were done to a high, if just different to Pixar et al, standard.
I would recommend it when it as there was no real alternative and is still enjoyable enough visit for the 3-6 year old kids to keep them happy but leave alone if the likes of Ninjago are out at the cinema (as is now the case). Worth a buy on DVD but not to rush if its £7-10 - it will soon drop to the £3-5 supermarket price bracket with months.
(4.5/10 - not allowed buy IMDb but there you go)!