PLAYMOBIL: THE MOVIE
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(15) (U) A YOUNG woman goes on a quest to save her little brother in this depressingly unambitious musical animated adventure based on the plastic toys, and aimed at easy-to-please five-year-olds.
Anya Taylor-Joy and Gabriel Bateman play siblings Marla and Charlie, who begin as real people but are magically changed into living toys when they’re transported into an animated realm full of pirates, cowboys, Vikings and dinosaurs.
Despite this seemingly difficult-to-get-wrong premise, it quickly runs out of energy, interest and fun.
Taylor-Joy has been terrifyingly great in dark horrors such as Split and The Witch, and thankfully she isn’t fazed by the change in gear required here. She brings bouncy enthusiasm and gloss to the weak script, which offers Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe a one-note supporting role.
When I was a kid, Playmobil was always a distant second choice to LEGO. And in terms of technical expertise, animation, songwriting, warmth and humour, this lags a long way behind either of the LEGO movies. Oscar nomination last year for playing artist Vincent Van Gogh in At Eternity’s Gate, and here there’s an impressive painter’s eye in the composition of scenes, the evocation of rural life and the capture of landscapes.
By substituting plot in favour of a discourse on the relationship between reality, filmmaking and memory, this may test the patience of the casual viewer
However, this is a far more sensitive and spiritual portrait of Mexico than is usually offered by Hollywood, without a drug cartel gangster anywhere in sight.