Directed by: Reinhard Klooss, Holger Tappe
Starring: James Corden, Stephen Fry, Dawn French, Joanna Lumley, Jim Broadbent and Vanessa Redgrave.
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distributed by: Arc Entertainment
Release Date: Exclusively at Walmart, April 3, 2012, Street on June 5th, 2012
Running time: 93 minutes
Film: 3 out of 5 stars
Extras: N/A
If you feel like you have never heard of this film, don’t worry you haven’t. “Animals United” is Germany’s first RealD 3D Animated Feature Film. Although this English language version does not come with the 3D. I think that this is a very poor decision because I have seen an high def 3D version of this film and it works much better. I feel like it is a mix between “Madagascar” and “Ice Age”, except doesn’t really come close to their charm. Of course let’s not forget this film is aimed at kids and as long as it comes packed with action and talking animals they will be happy.
The film is based on the 1949 book with the same title by Erich Kästner and takes place in the African savannah where all of the animals are looking for water. Billy the Meerkat and his best friend, Socrates the Lion set out in search of water. They get help from their friends Angie the Elephant and Giselle the Giraffe and set out on an incredible journey. Along their way they meet a motley group of animals that are new to Africa like a rooster, polar bear, kangaroo, koala, Tasmanian devil and two turtles. They all team up to find what happened to the water and to get it back.
The US release voice cast is impressive. James Corden (“The Three Musketeers”) plays Billy the Meerkat, the amazing Stephen Fry (“Alice in Wonderland”) voices Socrates the Lion, Jim Broadbent (“Harry Potter” series) plays Winston the Tortoise , Vanessa Redgrave (“Letters to Juliet”) plays Winnie the Tortoise and lastly Andy Serkis (“Lord of the Rings” series) voices Charles the Rooster. Also if you are looking for special features, guess again, this is a complete bare-bones release.
