Smallfoot (2018)
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Smallfoot Movie Review
Smallfoot is a 2018 animated musical adventure film produced by the Warner Animation Group. It’s a solid movie that has its obvious weaknesses, but also some big merits.
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“Their minds are really tiny“
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It follows a group of Yeti who come across a human whom they call Smallfoot and in this world each species thinks of the other as just a myth. The movie is surprisingly clever and sophisticated in its themes and metaphors. It teaches children very valuable messages about respecting others’ differences and especially different cultures and the communication between different people. It promotes open-mindedness as well as new ideas and I really appreciated that.
Unfortunately, the plot itself still ended up being subpar. Yes, the themes are great, but most of its plot beats are so familiar and that bothered me quite a bit. I liked the mythology of the Yeti world quite a bit and that was really impressively pulled off, but we do not spend enough time in the adventure department and the movie should have been longer, more adventurous and more fun in my book. And also less predictable.
The characters are also so-so. Some are good, but others not so much. Migo is your typical protagonist who is okay, but forgettable. Percy is overly annoying at times and not particularly likable, though James Corden did a good job in the role. Meechee is good and in particular Zendaya’s voice performance is the best of the bunch, both in singing and in acting terms. The Stonekeeper is your typical close-minded rule and all of the other supporting characters and sidekicks are unfortunately rather underutilized.
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Smallfoot has a particularly strong animation. The world building is very good and this entire Yeti world and the mountains and especially the interiors of the places look polished and intricate. I loved that mythical scene which serves as the explanation for the humans and their history with the Yeti, that was so well executed.
The movie looks polished and very pleasing, but the character designs ruined it for me. These Yeti are simply ugly looking with the slender body type and particularly the smaller eyes stitched too close together all being really unfortunate artistic choices that were bad ideas on paper and in execution.
Smallfoot is above all else a musical so let’s discuss it in those terms. It’s a mixed bag with some songs really working and with others being dull and forgettable. They were all too similar to each other and the use of rap was unnecessary. Perfection, Crazy, Moment of Truth and others are all not worth talking about as they are so bland, but Let It Lie is actually a very solid number which is cool and rather catchy in tune while accompanying its great sequence so well. But the highlight is naturally Wonderful Life which is wonderfully sung by Zendaya, that scene is so well animated and the message behind the number is respectable.
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Smallfoot definitely is not all that well paced and not as entertaining as it should have been. Yes, the themes are great, but the dialogue and characters interactions needed to have been better to pull them off. The movie is not adventurous enough, though it’s solid as a musical. Visually speaking and thematically, it’s really good, but it needed better direction and more original plot points. Warner Animation is continuing their solid attempts, but they still need to hit a home run.
Smallfoot has overly familiar plot beats, not particularly memorable characters and simply atrocious, ugly looking character designs, but the animation is otherwise polished and strong, the world building is good, the movie has some fine themes and even though many songs are weak, Let It Lie is quite fun and Wonderful Life is so well sung and it has a great message.
