Rate: 4/5
It's a really good film. Looks like Dreamwork has cooked it again. After Puss in Boot 2, I thought there is no way they can top that. And then they quietly released this. While it's not groundbreaking IMO, it felt like a passion project. There was so much warmth, joy, heart put into this one film. I'm not fond of the talking animal, despite many people claiming it won't work otherwise. I think it could. But the dialogues here are not cringey, well-written so that's alright by me. The animation, oh the a-ni-ma-tion. It is just breathtaking. Wish I had seen it in theater. I saw the movie in my home theater and it still looked amazing. Combined with the soundtrack, beautiful. The plot, on the other hand, maybe didn't gel with me. While I liked the theme of motherhood, maybe the execution is not there. I'm reminded of The Iron Giant, a film with somewhat similar premise. I broke into tears when the giant robot decided to help the boy, the town by colliding with the missle, becoming their Superman. So maybe I'm different.
About the talking animal, I like to raise awareness to the show I'm currently watching, Star Trek: The Next Generation, specifically the episode Darmok from season 5 episode 2. In this episode, Captain Picard and Captain Darmok must communicate with each other in order to survive a harsh environment as a test. So most of the episode is Picard trying to communicate with a species talking in metaphors specific to their culture. That's what I wish for in this movie. For the robot to be the one doing the talking, every animal stays quiet.