Fantastica: A Boonie Bears Adventure

MOVIE TITLE:    Fantastica: A Boonie Bears Adventure 

RATING:  G 

LENGTH:  83 minutes 

Movie Review Mom GRADE:  B-

IN A NUTSHELL:

Viva Kids studio brings The Boonie Bears, a colorful children’s movie, to the Big Screen with some beautiful animation, fantastical creatures, and a magical adventure that kids might enjoy.  The family-friendly film opens June 14, 2019 and on DirecTV.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

• Parents will be bored within minutes. Hopefully, kids will last longer.
• No profanity
• Fighting
• People and creatures in peril

THEMES:

• All things in nature are living.
• Be free and unafraid (lyrics in one of the songs)
• Environmentalism
• “No matter what lies ahead, we can’t be stopped.” – Briar (Mario Lopez)
• Friendship, loyalty

THINGS I LIKED:

• Beautiful animation, especially of nature. The leaves, rocks, and plants had such great detail. Some of the animated people looked so real when they were in “their” world.  In fact, I had to look closely because I thought it might actually be live-action mixed with animation.  Impressive.
• Voice talents include Mario Lopez and Josh Peck.
• The creative world building reminded me of the movie Avatar.  Fantastica was really pretty and wonderous.
• Some original songs.
• The floating mushroom creatures were adorable and kind of reminded me of Spirited Away and Avatar.
• The The Matrix-looking fight scene made me laugh out loud.
•  Young girls will be inspired by the strong female lead.
• I like that Vick reads the book “The Road To Success” in order to improve himself.  Talk to your kids about how they think they could become better each day.  You can even continue the conversation by sharing some of your favorite self-development material with them.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

• This movie makes you remember why Pixar, Illumination, and Disney are so great.
• The movie doesn’t spend much time developing the bears’ characters, as it assumes you already know and love them.  If you have never seen any of their movies before this one, they’ll just seem like goofy characters, just like all of the other characters in the movie.  You wouldn’t necessarily know it was THEIR adventure.
• The animation was really good except for the mouths and voices being disconnected. That was super distracting.
• The voices of some of the characters were strange and didn’t match the characters’ appearances or personality at all.  Maybe that was a deliberate attempt at humor, but it just felt off.
• Some of the editing was choppy.
• There is a bizarre musical montage with forced tears.  The pacing felt really off.  I’m writing the word “off” a lot in this review, eh?
• It takes 39 minutes before you get to see Fantastica.
• Some of the characters’ motivations are unclear and even confusing.
• It sounded like an old Saturday morning cartoon.  Not in a good way.
• There is a character with an Iron Man-like jacket that seemed super random.
• Some things are simply not explained which could be confusing for kids or frustrating for parents.
• Some of the characters at the beginning completely disappear and we never see them again.
• SPOILER: So, it’s because of the evil guys that the special “thing” happens?

FUNNY LINES:

• “If I had legs, you’d be pulling them.” – Coco (Siobhan Lumsden)
• “This isn’t a superhero movie!” – Briar (Mario Lopez)

INTERESTING LINES:

• “A man without a dream is like a fish in a bucket.” – Logger Vick (Paul ‘Maxx’ Rinehart)

Watch Mario Lopez in a Behind-The-Scenes at:

OTHER MOVIES LIKE THIS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:

Boonie Bears, Homeward Journey

Spirited Away

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@TrinaBoice