Bunyan and Babe (2017) Reviews

• Wow -- a full length animation ACTUALLY meant for kids!!

  A_Different_Drummer2017-03-08

  Sorry to make such a fuss about this. But I see a lot of movies, I review a lot of movies (and TV) but this is the first full-length animation with A-list voice actors ACTUALLY MEANT FOR KIDS that I have seen in many DECADES. Somewhere in the 70s, I think, the animation studios arrived at the conclusion that, if you were going to spend all that money anyway, why not write in some references, jokes, and other references to pop culture that would give the adults a kick too...? Once one studio tried that, of course, the race was on ... and every animation I have seen since seems to be trying to outdo the other with clever scripting and gags. (My favorite throw-away line of dialog meant for adults, for example, is something one of characters in WRECK IT RALPH mutters while leaving a scene -- "The selfish man is like a mangy dog chasing a cautionary tale." It has nothing whatsoever to do with the story. But it is memorable!) Anyway, back to the review, this film has none of that, no attempt whatsoever is made to appeal to adults, and that alone makes it noteworthy. Strange. But noteworthy. Also, while all the voice acting is solid, Kelsey Grammar gives an astounding performance playing two different characters, one of which sounds almost nothing like him. Rating:7 No surprises, pleasant, and possibly great fun .. if you're a kid anyway.

• Two Stories Both About Greed with no Substance

  nammage2017-08-02

  I don't know who Elias Zubair is (reviewer who gave it 10/10) but either they worked on the film or this is the only film they've ever seen in their life. There's nothing really special about this film. It's average. The comedic element is tame; starts out with a protagonist who wants to take over a small town and its farms and ventures from there in showing how farm life is great. I live in a farming community, myself, cartoons like this only show the happy parts; like it's all fun and games. While those aspects can be there from time to time, it's mainly hard work. The animation is pretty good; I've seen worse. The script is bland in the sense of paint-by-numbers. I think this film is more for 10 and under. I really don't see it holding the attention of anyone else. It barely held mine. If there were laughs, I probably forgot them or didn't laugh. Not good. The opening scene of the kid playing the car racing video game is prevalent later in the film where the kid is in a car chase on a bicycle. Apparently a kid on a bicycle goes faster than a goon in a car as long as there are obstacles. Kind of reminded me of the scene in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial but I enjoyed that one better. So, the film is about two children (brother and sister) who spend a few weeks on their grandparents (the grandpa is voiced by Mark Hamill) farm where the protagonist is really just one man and his magician brother (voiced by Kelsey Grammar (website keeps changing it to 'Grammar', I know it's with an 'e')) but representing some huge corporation who wants a town and its farms because big companies are always good as bad guys and poor uneducated farmers and townspeople are always good as the heroes. They want to build the biggest factory-mall in the world because the world always needs more of those. Throw in a couple of kids, Paul Bunyan (voiced by John Goodman), and a blue Ox (voiced by Jeff Foxworthy) that talks and we got a winner! This film, as a kids film, sure does have a lot of name-calling in it. Mainly by the main protagonist against the farmers and townspeople. Is there an underlining point to this film? Probably. Could be greed of people; the Paul Bunyan character does talk about the greed of people in his day. Then, you have the main protagonist wanting all that land and town all for himself to be "filthy rich". Oh, he even has the water poisoned. There are two separate stories here which they attempt to connect toward the end; the protagonist story which is: corporations are evil and bad and just want everything, and the Paul Bunyan and blue Ox story. I think the latter story (Bunyan/Ox) would have been a better story to tell, I mean: they're the title of the film. Seems a no-brainer. While it is true there are bad companies out there that are purely in existence for profit, and nothing else it doesn't actually work in this film because it's actually not the greed of a corporation but of one person who runs the corporation. If it was such a big bad corporation then the protagonist would have all the means to do all the things he sets out to do and not have to illicit the help of his fake magician brother whose apparent skill is hypnosis. So, that story doesn't even work. Now, the other could have worked (the main title story) if the other story wasn't injected into it. I probably would have loved watching that but instead they mesh two opposite stories together and try to make it political. I have no problem with animated films having a political slant to them, Wall- E is a great example of a politicized animated film, and it's a great film. This film: not so much.

• Its cute

  princessstrickland212018-10-12

  Love the voice acting, story is ok, but I this would be more fun for kids 4 and up. I still like the story of a boy meeting a folk legend (voiced by john goodman) and helping him save his grandparents farm by an evil hypnotist (voiced by Kelsey Grammer) I did enjoy it, but not as much as younger children would. fun for any age. Great voice acting. Good story. Still good and cute. ????????????

• WARNING BRAIN CELLS WILL BE LOST

  dinklestein2018-07-29

  All the characters are extremely annoying and the story that's playing out is boring, stupid and generally far fetched near the end. I watched it for a family movie night and everybody who watched it had nothing good to say about it, and the voice acting is so terrible it makes me question if they made it bad on purpose.

• Don't bother watching it!

  rajimrahman2017-08-23

  I presume that the guys who had given 10 stars or mentioned this animation to be exceptional to be from the marketing team of this nonsense piece of work. To be frank, for every work that comes out, effort do come in but then when you are planning to bring it to the big screen, at least try to make it worthwhile and not create from cartoon network quality stuff. Nothing against cartoon network channel but then it ain't like before anyways. They do telecast crap now. This animation is far below average. Even the PC games are better than this. so, don't waste your time on this. You are sure to quit watching soon after the opening scene.