Smallfoot captures small hearts
Smallfoot (PG, 96 mins) Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick Reviewed by
Graeme Tuckett ★★★ 1⁄2
All my life I’ve kind of hoped, even as the dreams of childhood fade, that one day some hardy type will come down from the Himalayas with definitive proof that Yetis and Bigfoots really do exist.
I know it’s nonsense, but I also believe that part of our collective soul still yearns for monsters and mysteries and the things that go bump in the night to be something other than a possum in the dunny.
So any movie with Yetis (or Dragons. Especially Dragons) starts out as a potential winner in my eyes.
Smallfoot is based on a great idea. We know it’s a great idea because it is basically exactly the exact same one that Monsters Inc is based on. There is a community of monsters, and to them us humans are objects of wonder and fear.
In young Yeti Migo’s village high above the clouds on an unclimable chunk of mountain, humans – ‘‘smallfoots’’ – are only a legend. So when Migo spots one – a luckless parachutist – he is banished from the community until he learns to ‘‘tell the truth’’.
From there, Smallfoot proceeds as it must, with Migo and then his friends making their way down the mountain and into the world of the humans. All while finding the time to sing a quite unfeasible number of songs.
With Channing Tatum, James Corden, Zendaya, Common and – yes – Danny Devito onboard voicing various Yeti and tangata, and Karey Kirkpatrick – writer of
Chicken Run and the surprisingly game-changing Smurfs 2 – in the director’s chair, there really was no reason to worry that Smallfoot wouldn’t do the business.
Even if the film’s pace lurches a little, none of the songs struck me as a showstopper and the storyline is nothing if not predictable.
So while it might have all looked a bit yeah-nah to my jaundiced eyes, I can also report that this all singing, all dancing, daffy and good natured film was greeted with absolute rapture by the under-9 crowd.
And although it might be you coughing up for the ticket, the popcorn and the car park, it really is only their opinion that matters, aye?