In 1997, the
documentary Air Bud broke the shocking story of a dog who had
learned how to play basketball. The loophole that allowed the golden retriever
to help the Timberwolves triumph in the championships was closed as soon as the
series stopped being lucrative, and Buddy “Air Bud” Mankowitz was forced into
an early retirement just as he was hitting his stride. But you can’t keep a
good boy down, and eventually Buddy spread knowledge of basketball to the rest
of the animal kingdom, and thus “roar ball” was born. That’s how I choose to believe
the backstory of GOAT goes, anyway. It’s a kids’ movie about
animals playing basketball, and that’s all the backstory you really need to
know.
Calling the animal version of basketball “roar ball” is dumb.
Naming the trophy that the champions win “The Claw” is also dumb. These two
phrases are indicative of the general uninspired nature of GOAT—the
plot is predictable and the messages of believing in oneself and working as a
team are pedestrian and basic. But this doesn't make it a bad film; it just
makes it a safe one.
Created by the same team that did the Spider-Verse films
and K-Pop Demon Hunters, GOAT is very much in the
same style and is just as visually stunning as those movies. The exaggerated
action on the basketball court reminded me of Space Jam, and in
some ways GOAT is just that for a new generation. Well, no,
that’s not a fair comparison, because really GOAT is far
superior. For one, its stunt casting of a basketball legend works much better,
as Steph Curry shows more aptitude for acting than Michael Jordan ever did, and
the character in question is not the focus of the film. It lies instead on
Will, a goat (surprise!) with hoop dreams who is voiced by Caleb McLaughlin
of Stranger Things fame and Jett, a panther/fading star with
something still left to prove voiced by Gabrielle Union. These are just two of
many familiar character archetypes found in GOAT, and they don't
really get any more creative than that.
GOAT tells its basic story with
its basic characters well, though. What the story lacks in originality it makes
up for in heart, and my nephew said that if he had his way, he'd put this movie
above Zootopia 2 in his own personal ranking (why he wouldn't
have it his way I have no idea… the mind of a nine-year-old is a mystery to
me). Sometimes a kids’ movie doesn’t need to be super complicated; sometimes it
just needs to do its job well, and GOAT does its job just
fine.
GOAT is now playing in
theaters.
