
A small goat with big dreams gets a once-in-a-lifetime shot to join the pros and play roarball, a high-intensity, co-ed, full-contact sport dominated by the fastest, fiercest animals in the world.
Sony Pictures Animation, Unanimous Media, Modern Magic, Columbia Pictures, MACRO, TSG Entertainment
$90,000,000
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/
I am very split on this movie. It's not bad, but also nothing special.
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?