Buffalo Kids

Adventures, humor, fantasy and action in this 3D cartoon film, this is a blockbuster movie that younger people will appeal. On the day the Statue of Liberty is inaugurated, Tom and Mary, two Irish orphan brothers, disembark in New York to join their uncle in California. To get there, the young people will sneak on a train that is carrying other orphans to be adopted by other pioneers of the Wild West. During the trip they will meet Nick, a new and surprising friend who will change their lives and are pursued buy a gand led by outlaw villain Wilson who bears remarkable resemblance to the late actor Lee Van Cleef. The film is based on authentic events and is dedicated to the memory of the real Nick, director's son Nico, who had the same disease.

Innocence, joy, positivity, adventure, action and emotion are the keys to this spectacular film that in 2024 achieved the best box office opening for a Spanish animated film since 'Mummies'. There's non-stop entertainment with frenetic action, good staging, various Wild West characters modeled after villains, Indians, and adventures of all kinds with three protagonists: the two likeable brothers and their wheelchair friend Nick. Juan Jesús García Galocha, director of Mummies and Pedro Solís Garcia, the multi-award-winning director of ¨Cuerdas¨ (Guinness record for the most awarded short film in the world), direct this exciting animated adventure for the whole family. Buffalo Kids (2024) has ¨the adventure, action and humor of ¨Mummies¨ and the emotion and sensitivity of ¨Cuerdas¨, as explained by Pedro Solís. The film is technically notable with a colorful and popular approach accentuated by contrasts of time and space. The story, with basic positive messages, action enough and continous amusement, it does stand out for its inventiveness in humor, originality or the keys it handles.

There's a good and lively musical score by the presitigious Fernando Velazquez, adding some catching song, such as: "Show Me" . This 'Feel Good Movie' was well directed by Juan Jesús Garcia Galocha and Pedro Solís, getting some deserved nominations in festivals : Goya Awards, Gaudí Awards, Shanghai International Film Festival, London Critics Circle Film Awards . Galocha was the creative director of the first two installments of ¨Tadeo Jones¨ and made the successful ¨Mummies¨. While Pedro Solís has participated as a 3D Artist in the animated shorts "Tadeo Jones" and "Tadeo Jones and the Temple of Doom". With "The Bruxa", his first film as director and screenwriter, he was awarded with the 2011 Goya Award for The Best Animated Short Film and some other important prizes. "The Adventures of Tad Jones" was performed in 2012, film in which he worked as a Director of Production. He has worked as Director of Production, in the space fantasy adventure "Capture the Flag" and the second installment to 2012's "Tad, the Lost Explorer." And of course he made the acclaimed animated short ¨Cuerdas¨. Rating: 8/10 , the movie is dedicated to Nico, who passed away in 2021. A film especially aimed at little ones and lovers of animated action.

This is something a bit different to all the animated movies out there. It has a more grown up plot and storyline and is quite rough and tumble, navigating some pretty heavy stuff for the younger audience like kidnapping, killing, and that's the sort of language used. It isn't trying to be Minions where everyone is made of rubber and can fly through walls, it tries to get you invested in a real tale of life or death heroics.

That said, it fails to achieve that in the first half. The pacing felt way off in the first half, parts which should grab you fall flat, feel rushed or incoherent in the editing. The cinematography in these scenes had the same feeling, as did the expressions of the characters. Everything falls a little flat early on and the indifference in the cinema when we saw it was palpable in the early stages. I suspect a lot of footage was cut or quickly edited to reduce the runtime, and it felt like they picked the wrong stuff to cut. It was a shame because the movie really delivers in the second half.

Once they reach the scenes set in the mine, things changed. Everything improved. The pacing, the cinematography and the characters came to life.

All in all, a good family movie, well worth a watch. Don't give up on it in the first half, things begin to flow much better as it progresses.

"Mary" and "Tom" arrive in New York from Ireland only to find that their uncle "Niall" isn't there to meet them. Indeed, the only acquaintance they do make make hanging around the docks is a small dog that she takes a bit of a shine to and names "Sparky". Concluding that he isn't likely to show up, they decide to take a punt and go to California and find him. Problem? Well the trains don't take punts - only dollars, so they have just an hour to raise the fare. Or... Well maybe they could just blend in with a group of travelling children and blag their way onto the train. It turns out that these kids are orphans too, being relocated to kindly families along the route. Except, perhaps, for the paralysed and wheelchair-bound "Nick" who isn't exactly top of anyone's adoption list. Between playing games with their new friends and avoiding the ticket inspector, they gradually make progress until disaster strikes. Disaster that puts them into the clutch of the deadly Cheyenne before befalling some even more ruthless bandits whose leader looks a lot like Lee Van Cleef, and who run a gold mine populated by slave labour. How to rescue themselves, their fellow miners, "Sparky", "Nick" and still find uncle "Niall" - well that's the fun part in this quickly paced and engaging big-eyed animation. It combines the intrepidness of the pioneering spirit with some good old fashioned wild west adventure scenarios and provides us with a little bit of "Temple of Doom" (1984) into the bargain. Apparently it's based on some real-life sibling experiences and readily passes ninety minutes raising the odd smile as we travel the breadth of a vast and untapped wilderness looking for a needle in a very large haystack.

Giving this an 8/10 rating

This film is Super fun and charming, just like "DragonKeeper' try and watch the original language version or catch the UK English dub with voices of Alisha Weir, Gemma Arterton, Sean Bean and Stephen Graham and the rest, as the do a bang up top job of it.

Not a boring moment in this film, with so much adventure going on, it packed to the rail road with action and laughs, and the kids are just great, and the look and character designs just simply work, a real wacky Lee Van Cliff looking one here too.

From start to finish, you will be finding joy and it does not mess about either, no preachy message here, just some quite wacky stunts, mostly from the wheelchair action, even the villains are well likeable and done well. Do not miss this film, I am going to see this again. Spanish animated films are doing really good things and have been for the past years now, Warner Bros have got into a good thing with these collaborations, and are up there with Disney, Dreamworks and Illumination, this film really needs to be a hit and we can see a lot more good cinema like this.

Go see this film and support good animation and good films.

I have seen just about every animated mainstream animation I couldfind over many years...I love Brave, The Book of Life, Coco, the Warrior King, just a load of animation...this is special, and I mean that in every sense of the woed. Not only is the art smooth and enjoyable, but is enhances the lovability of almost every character, even the villains. And having the head of the company's son portrayed as Nick in the story, just made the sweetness of this story just that much sweeter As someone who has re-watched Natural Born Killers many times, I love the occasional break from Debbie Downer movies. Watch this movie, then tell me it didn't get you involved... .