I guess I’m just a big kid, because I love animated movies. So when I saw “A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventure” I got quite excited as it looked promising. But that wasn’t the case..
.. Well, for me anyway. I’m not quite sure what it is about this animated movie that left me a bit disappointed. The last animated movie I saw was How To Train Your Dragon and I loved it to bits. So much so, that I think I’ve seen it close to half a dozen times. It had a simple, straight forward plot was an action packed ride.
With Sammy’s Adventure, I figured by looking at the quality of animation and storyline, I was in for an “animated adventure”, I was wrong. I’m sitting here thinking about the movie and how to write this review, and I’m a bit confused to say the least.
A sea turtle who was hatched in 1959 spends the next 50 years traveling the world while it is being changed by global warming.
By reading the brief plot outline, one would assume the movie is about what’s stated (which most movies are). Yet, I’m thinking otherwise. First and foremost, I have to say that this animated movie is really strung out, even though it only went for 1.5hrs, it really felt much longer. The company I watched it with agreed, I think some were starting to fall asleep at one point.
Secondly, I feel they tried to fit too many concepts into this film. From chasing after a female ‘Sammy’ meets at the start of the movie, to finding a so called ‘secret passage’, all mixed in with ecological and environmental messages which I must say became cliche after a while. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good thing that these messages were put in, but it almost felt like they were being shoved down our throats after the first two.
Thirdly, one could clearly tell this movie was intended to be watched in 3D with the amount of specific visual sequences present. I counted at least 5-6 sequences where a character was isolated purely to ‘pop-out’ at you and display the visual effects of 3D. I was only able to see the movie in 2D, so I was a bit bummed about that.
In terms of characters; I think they could of done a lot more in this area. Some ques from Finding Nemo would of come in handy.. Where the main character talked to some other characters, they didn’t even verbally respond. Only in action or gestures. Now, I’m not sure if this was intentional but it just seemed out of place for some reason. One example were some additional voice dialogue could of made an action sequence a bit better was when a great white shark was chasing Sammy, I think it would of added a bit more ‘thrill’. I didn’t really find myself becoming attached to any of the characters either.
In saying the above and whilst this is not a Disney or Pixar production, overall it was very well made. But perhaps it was simply intended for kids.
Filed in Delayed Movie Reviews