Official Synopsis
A clumsy new species of Nestrians, led by patriarch Dave and son Finny, find themselves left off the list of animals allowed to board Noah’s Ark. With rough waters ahead, the father-son duo scramble in disguise to sneak onto the boat. Caught up in all the excitement, Finny accidentally steps off the boat and gets left behind leaving him and a few new friends to embark on an incredible and harrowing journey to reunite with their family. With the aid of creatures big and small, Dave must turn the Ark around to save his son in this heartwarming adventure of biblical proportions.
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All Creatures Big and Small is a cute film. It plays a lot humor in a safe and concise manner, while still maintaining an even keel of entertainment through the ancient story of Noah’s Ark. While I can’t say it’s in the same boat (pun intended) as Ice Age or any Pixar film, I will say it’s above average than its biblical brethren that sometimes try too hard to deliver both message and a healthy dose of entertainment (see any Veggie Tales for details).
Let’s break this sucker down.
The film starts out with the odd looking Nestrians, a species sporting long noses, flat tails and colorfully spiraling fur, preparing for a long journey to find out if they made the list to be passengers on Noah’s Ark. Traveling long and far, the older Nestrian, Dave (Dermot Magennis), hopes that he and his son, Finny (Callum Maloney), can finally put a soon-to-be flooded world behind them. When they finally get to the Ark, they meet up with a pair of wolves (called grymps), who are waiting for the animal leader, a snobby lion, to pick and choose who gets on the boat.
The movie starts off on the right note, as the Nestrians are introduced and are fascinating enough to spark interest in the story. The fact that they’re on their way to Noah’s Ark makes the journey a little bit sweeter because it’s implied that they probably won’t make the cut. The back and forth between the two Nestrians and the light humor that is garnished from the group of animals they meet keeps the mood in check for the beginning of this film. Nothing is too over the top, nor is it shallow and humorless. It’s just in a decent range of entertainment. What I particularly like about this approach to a clearly religion driven animated film is that they don’t push any religious agenda into your face. It’s just decent, light humor with a religious wrapper attached.
For me, that starts the movie off on the right foot.
As act two rears its head, Finny and the youngest grymp find themselves, after a terrible encounter with a pair of hungry bats, off the Ark. They have to figure out a way to get back on, while avoiding the bats and the endless amount of water. Along the way, they run into a large, legless creature with a snail on its head, who do their best to get Finny and the grymp back on the boat.
The second act, while entertaining a good majority of the time, seemed to drag in the middle. I am sure it was tough to figure out how many situations you can put Finny and his grymp friend into while a large amount of water, and bats, are trying to kill them. The separation from their parents was a bit alarming at first, because that would be a nightmare situation for both parents/children, but it becomes tedious nearly 20 minutes in. Having the pair show some semblance of a solution would have helped, even if said solution failed multiple times, but the story just seems to drag to that solution and tries to cover up the lack of proper story build with odd characters (large animal/snail friend) and repeating problems (the bats). By the time the story is reaching towards a climax, and into act three, you’ll feel more than ready to conclude.
The third act tries to make the long journey worth your attention’s effort. You’ll finally get to see what the Nestrians are, while uncovering a few things along the way before finishing on somewhat of a high note. The third act brings some good things to the shallow, struggling story, and you’ll feel somewhat satisfied with how it all wraps up.
Overall, though, All Creatures Big and Small doesn’t do enough to make it a great and memorable animated feature. It’s entertaining, but it’s not Pixar or Dreamworks Animation Studio entertaining. It doesn’t do enough to fill in the down times of the story. It uses the same problematic issues over and over again in act two, which just seems to drag the movie down a bit. Does that make it a waste of time? Not at all. Mixing entertaining material and religious messages in a film is a difficult accomplishment without the audience feeling like the movie is getting preachy. All Creatures Big and Small surprisingly does a great job with its message delivery methods.