GOAT

 

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.