Rated: G
Directed by: Lino DiSalvo
Screenplay by: Blaise Hemingway, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland
Story by: Lino DiSalvo
Produced by: Aton Soumache, Dimitri Rassam, Moritz Borman, Alexis Vonarb, Axel Von Maydell, Timothy Burrill and Bing Wu
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Jim Gaffigan, Gabriel Bateman, Adam Lambert, Kenan Thompson, Meghan Trainor and Daniel Radcliffe.
‘I’ll be the girl I used to be.’
Marla (Anya Taylor-Joy) has her whole life in front of her and expresses this enthusiasm to explore the world by singing with her little brother, Charlie (Gabriel Bateman).
Oh yeah, Playmobil The Movie, is a musical (see the score by musician Heitor Pereira (Despicable Me trilogy, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, The Smurfs movies, Minions, Smallfoot, Angry Birds Movie 2 and original songs, co-written by Anne Preven).
Then the film takes a dark turn when tragedy strikes the brother and sister.
Fast forward four years later and Marla no longer has her fresh, wide-eyed view of the world, her little brother accusing her of not knowing how to have fun.
It’s all a bit cringe-worthy until the duo fall into the Playmobil world where the characters turn into live-action Playmobil figurines.
Finding themselves in an action-adventure with car chases and villains and dinosaurs, all the Playmobil® toys that have been around since 1974 come to life as brother and sister fight alongside Vikings and a suave James Bond. So the film’s about finding the excitement and zest for life they both lost when Marla had to become sister and parent.
The animation from ON Animation Montreal (Julien Bocabeille (How to Train Your Dragon 1 and 2, Puss in Boots, Rise of the Guardians, The Croods, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3, Penguins of Madagascar and The Boss Baby)) is well put together using the stiff toys then adding movement and life with materials like cloth, and there were moments of fun with villain, Emperor Maximus (Adam Lambert) sitting behind a buff body painted on one side of his chariot.
But this is a film directed at a young audience so there wasn’t much for me to enjoy except some fun changes in genre along the way.