JamesLP’s review published on Letterboxd:
At the start of the year I had this pegged for my film of the year and boy did this live up to expectations.
The animation was absolutely gorgeous, I don't know what has happened at Dreamworks recently but they have been cooking! The animation in general was gorgeous but there were some specific scenes were the stylised choice just made things pop, the butterfly scene for example. But also when they changed up the animation for certain scenes it was still amazing.
The otters were super cute and were the first thing we see which my gf is gonna love! But running with that, all of the films characters no matter how big or small a role they had were written to literal perfection. The beaver was comedy genius. The mother possum was super wholesome but also dead funny. I could go on about each of them but this review would get too long.
The story was the cherry on top or maybe just the whole cake now that I think about it. Going from the first segment where Roz becomes a mother has equal parts comedy and emotional undertones and after such a powerful opening shared between 3 characters when that plot point reached its conclusion I worried that the story would taper off. Spolier alert, IT DIDN'T
The second segment where Roz becomes a protector is SO GODDAMN GOOD like I am never gonna get sick of a selfless main character.
And then that third act, when the forest comes together to return the favour- and some of the pay offs. Chefs fucking kiss
I was newrly in tears at the end to cap ot all off.
A couple bonus points-
I love the focus on protecting the wilderness and how all the animals work together to keep the ecosystem alive
Fink was voiced and written to perfection
The hunter robots design was spot on
The butterfly scene
The migration scene
The 'I am Iron Man' scene
The hug scene
Cute otters, cute possums, cute rabbit
So in short, this is the best film of the year
