An animal-rights parable in ‘The One and Only Ivan’
A sweet if sleepy adaptation of Katherine Applegate’s 2012 children’s book, Disney’s “The One and Only Ivan” is a talking-animal film that takes the lives of its characters a lot more seriously than, say, “Beverly Hills Chihuahua.”
Directed by Thea Sharrock (”Me Before You”) and scripted with characteristic sensitivity by Mike White (”School of Rock,” “Enlightened”), the film initially seems like the expected stuff of snarky CGI animals. Ivan (Sam Rockwell) is a 400-pound silverback gorilla who lives in the corner of the Big Top Mall, a shopping center with a struggling circus act on the side. (Given that multiplexes have long similarly abutted malls, “The One and Only Ivan” — which premieres Friday on Disney+ — could serve as an unwitting metaphor for a fading brick-andmortar reality for movie theaters.)
“The One and Only Ivan” seems at first fully invested in whether their owner, Mack (Bryan Cranston), can turn his show around. But it pivots to sink deeper into the interior lives of the animals in his care. Their caged homes don’t seem oppressive; a mangy stray dog named Bob (Danny DeVito) keeps Ivan company. But Sharrock bathes their restricting confines in claustrophobic shadow. The outside world feels far away. Taking up painting, Ivan colors a dreamed-up forest. But there’s an uncommon mournfulness to “The One and Only Ivan” that tugs at the question of where can these animals go? They plot an escape to the woods across the street only to find it’s a small green patch surrounded by development. Give “The One and Only Ivan” credit for trying to bridge “Dumbo” with “Blackfish.”
“The One and Only Ivan,” a Walt Disney Co. release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for mild thematic elements.