Robinson: Una aventura tropical

It may not be fair to compare an independent Belgian animation to industry dominators like Pixar, but the film industry is competitive.

This film has excellent animation considering it was made by an independent company. Many vibrant colours are featured, and although the don't burst of the screen like Rio, it does add to the aesthetics of the film. Yet, it does feel like the film is very self contained, but it doesn't impact it in a good way. The setting explored (or not) has a lack of scope and the film clearly suffers from this. But for kids, this will not be a problem.

Despite strong design and animation, the direction is nothing notable. There are a maximum of two slightly interesting ideas (in the form of transitions) but other than that, everything else seems average, with no courageous attempts add to adding anything to the story.

Unfortunately, the film falls flat on the storytelling (particularly through dialogue) which just results in everything being cliché and predictable; it brings nothing new to the table. It appears that the writers just gave up, a shame considering if the dialogue wasn't so forced then the film wouldn't suffer so much. There isn't even an innuendo to keep the adults entertained.

This film is a good way to keep the kids occupied for 90mins, but nothing that adults will obtain any pleasure from (unless you are in awe of the animation which I doubt you will be).

Robinson Crusoe, or the wild life is an animated retelling of how Robinson Crusoe become stranded on a desert island. A story of which is told from the pov of a parrot and a band of animals that you would not think would be n a island, like a goat wearing glasses. The animation was pretty decent and in some ways was better than more mainstream films. I thought the voice cast could have been slightly better, though strong they needed to sound more like what a talking animal would sound like. I'll give it big plus points for not including a bloody rap song and I thought overall it was a decent family animation.

This movie is one of the best 3D movies ever made, there're simply tons of pop out effects. Actually this is 3D done right - you're constantly experiencing both pop out and depth effects. So the story is what it is, neither bad nor fantastic - but if you're seeing this movie in 2D, then I'd probably not bother, this is a 3D movie, the movie is completely designed to the 3d format, and this movie needs 3D to come to life. After so many years with mediocre 3D movies it's great to see a movie truly using 3D - and then they cancel all 3D TVs, argh... :-)

Is it fair to judge a kids movie on its appeal to adults? On the other hand, with all the good animated movies that came out recently which also appeal to adults/parents and have quality that can be reviewed by "older" people to a better degree, I'd say all is fair. So consider this when seeing the rating and make up your mind, if it's important or what's important in its appeal.

Having said that, there is also the very real thing of having "star" names of German comedy or cinema taking on major roles here. People have made the argument, that there are professional animation dubbers, who know their job. Depending on your liking or disliking for that matter, someone like Schweighöfer will get a reaction from you. Again, as a kid you won't care, but probably also not read this. So it's the parents who if the kids want something new and you want something that they can watch by themselves, there are worse choices than this

This is a movie that definitely will entertain the kids. Superb animation, colorful characters and beautiful score. The storytelling is at an easy pace which differs from some other titles targeting the same audience but is highly appreciated by the kids at least in the theater where I saw the movie. The story is loosely based on the story of Robinson Crusoe by the book of Defoe. Earlier work from the same studio was pretty good as well but this one tops the former ones. Curious to see their next feature and nice to see that a small studio from Belgium makes films that can stand next to Pixar and DreamWorks. In short: great animation - go see it in 3D though - for kids and yes, parents will enjoy it as well.