Author: Dan Stalcup

I am totally amped about the increased stylization and experimentation of all mainstream American animated films, especially Dreamworks movies, but this is the first one where it feels like the obsession with visual energy and innovation completely outstrips any consideration for the narrative. (Trolls 2 is also bananas, but determinedly so.) Anyways, I felt like I’d eaten a bowl of candy after I watched it, but I am still encouraged by it (if this is what the oddball stinker looks like for Dreamworks in the 2020s, how far they’ve come). That’s not the same as saying it’s good, but it’s close.