GOAT

The “Thorns” aren’t doing so well in the “Roarball” league despite the presence of the legendary leopard “Jet” so when owner “Flo” sees a video of the feisty young goat “Will” giving one of the sport’s other celebrities “Mane” a run for his money, she decides to sign him up. It’s a combination of American football and basketball; it’s quickly paced and occasionally violent so needless to say captain “Jet” isn’t impressed with their diminutive and attitudinal young signing. Initially, the whole team are fairly disdainful of their new buddy and she leaves him on the bench, but with the team still struggling maybe it’s time to let him try to prove his worth? This is all fairly procedural stuff and I didn’t love the style of animation - it seemed a little jittery to me and the perspective looked a bit all over the place at times as the story touches predictably on elements of adulation, aspiration, team playing, trust and even some good old greed as it marches along for I felt was quite a long hundred minutes. Aside from the goat and the leopard, there isn’t really much effort put into characterising the other team mates and it could have had more fun with aspects of just how ruthless and venal the business of global sport can be, win or lose, which could have added a bit of depth to it. It’s watchable enough and the plucky "Will" is quite engaging, but it's nothing special.

Full review: https://movieswetextedabout.com/goat-movie-review-caleb-mclaughlin-and-gabrielle-union-shine-in-a-visually-stunning-underdog-tale/

Rating: B-

"GOAT doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it manages to soar through vibrant technical execution and a palpable emotional chemistry between its leads. It’s a film that shines brightest when it focuses on Will’s personal growth and Jett’s necessary redemption, even when it stumbles over expository dialogue or a predictability that cools the impact of certain twists. It’s an inspiring tribute to all those who daydream in small contexts, reminding us that true greatness isn’t measured by someone’s height, but by the indomitable courage of those who refuse to accept the limits others have placed upon them."

I am very split on this movie. It's not bad, but also nothing special.

First off:
The visuals and character designs are lovely! Like several recent Sony Animations movies, this one was visually really nice and the animations were nice once you get used to the "stuttering" animations style. (similar to "Supa Team 4" or the combat scenes from "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish."

The general story is the really basic "underdog", or, undergoat story including all of it's tropes and stereotypes: "person with the wrong size/race/species/upbringing wants to do skill x, everyone laughs about them, until they show them they're awesome at it". Done for every sport, every craft, etc.

That's not bad, per se. The problem for me is mainly the movie's first half: You know how these movies always have that one angry, asshole person that tells the protagonist they're never gonna make it, that never takes them for serious? Like Tigress in Kung Fu panda, and every "rival" in underdog movies?
Officially that's "Jett" in this movie. But factually it's EVERYONE in the first half, except the main character's "best friends".

And while having ONE doubting ass can be a cool thing to overcome, having basically a whole team's personalities reduced to "you don't care about this guy" made me really wonder if the movie will feature any non-assholes at all.

AS SOON as the second half starts, the moment where the protagonist finally shows off his skills and the characters suddenly get actual personality, the whole movie becomes MUCH better.

Sadly this happens far too late, and instead of showing so long-winded how nobody thinks he can do it, they should've cut that short and instead used the free time to draw out the actual emotional scenes longer. Because THOSE have potential and show much more personality, but one very important emotional part is even cut short into a montage, and that's just...really a pity.

In addition, based on the German dub, the movie heavily relies on modern "youth slang". To me this felt very, well, "cringe". But I accept that I'm most likely not the target audience and I'm willing to take a seat and accept that it's a thing of the current time which I'm not a part of anymore, so, I won't judge that harshly. 😅

Oh, also, gods, SO many product placements! I'm used to Xperia phones in Sony movies, but damn, phones, cars, clothes, I hate product placement in movies, and here several camera shots were very obviously done just to show off brand logos.

So, yeah. The movie is fine. It gets much better once the characters finally show personality and get emotional. This should happen much earlier and deeper, because it was when the movie was its strongest.

The story combines every single underdog-movie trope and features every underdog character stereotype. If you're fine with that, I'd say, watch the movie for its cool visuals. Not necessarily in an expensive cinema, though.

All that said: The diner sheep is a lovely motherly figure, I like her. Modo is fucked up in all the best ways possible.

And the aardwolf girl Hannah is the cutest, coolest, most awesome character, and I want more of her! ❤️

Sony Pictures Animation is still the "goat" of making stylized animated movies, because this one was extremely entertaining! On the surface, it feels like a typical underdog movie-small protagonist tries to prove himself, a major team gives him a position, they all win-it's pretty much laid out there from the start. But that's where things change. You see, once the main character of Goat, Will Harris, joins the Thorns, his favorite roarball team (yes, that's what they call basketball in this movie), it stops being about Will trying to prove to his team he is a great addition and starts being more about teamwork. That is what separates Goat from other underdog sports movies, and what makes it so entertaining from start to finish. The animation, of course, is really awesome, it's very funny, has lots of emotion, and a stellar voice cast. Oh, and the soundtrack is lit. Goat is definitely gonna be one of my favorite movies of this year and maybe in general. Who knows?