Highly Overrated But Still Good

Beautiful, moving film.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I personally thought the story was very well done. I was impressed with character of each of the characters. For me the animation was fine. Had the story been a good one then I wouldn't care about how realistic the characters are portrayed - it's a kid's animation so I don't expect it to look lifelike. The characters in the movie is good. Not the best animated feature I ever seen but it is OK.Thirteen years ago, the evil General Zhong overthrew his noble brother to seize the throne of the planet Bana, using a spacetime anomaly known as a "slick". Slicks were defecated out by a wild creature known as a space kraken. The slick tore whole shards off the planet, and swallowed up many subjects. Among the few survivors were a baby monkey named Spark, a warrior fox named Vix, and a pig mechanic named Chunk.In the present, Spark, Vix and Chunk secretly live on a shard used as a garbage dump, with Vix and Chunk leading insurgency missions against Zhong. One day, Spark intercepts an e-mail sent to Vix about a new mission, and decides to take the mission himself. The e-mail surprisingly leads to the Queen of Bana. The Queen hands Spark a kraken-finder, which Zhong wants to use to find and recapture the space kraken. Spark decides to use it to find the kraken himself, and he tames the creature and brings it back to Bana. However, when he went home, he finds out his home raided by Zhong's forces, who then capture both him and the kraken. Zhong forces the kraken to make a new slick into which he hurls Spark, Vix, Chunk and the entire garbage shard.The trio discover that the slick actual is a wormhole that leads to a desert planet. Spark finds survivors of the first slick, living in the King's old flagship battle cruiser. The Captain of the flagship reveals that Spark is in fact the son of the King and Queen, who entrusted Vix and Chunk to hide him away. The King had died in an accident some years ago. when Spark visits a memorial to his father, Spark finds a special weapon made for the royal family. Spark rallies the survivors to mount an attack on Zhong. The flagship and survivors return to Bana through their own slick, and ultimately defeat Zhong's forces after a prolonged battle. Spark personally rescues his mother, the Queen, from Zhong's own flagship which gets critically damaged during the battle. Spark decides to rescue Uncle Zhong as well, but the Queen then punches Zhong into the slick. The film ends with Spark becoming the new Prince of Bana.

1. Animation quality is poor, foreground action was plastic looking; background was static and flat. 2. Another example of famous actors doing voice overs that don't match the character and sound Hollywood artificial. About emotionally real as daytime game show prompted atmosphere. 3. Simplistic and predictable dialogue at a 4th grade level. 4. Really bad science and a poor way to introduce anyone to science. A mix of human, animal and bizarre made-up characters on a CGI planet that looked more like plastic than anything natural and alive. Planet breaks apart from a cyclone black hole only to emerge out of it as livable fragments. Sorry, would not even pass 6th grade science. 5. Usual plot of bad sibling wants to rule whatever is left of planet. 6. Rarely do you see IMDb give a rating below 5; this one met that rarity.

I personally thought the story was very well done. I was impressed with character of each of the characters. The designs of the characters was good, however the backgrounds in the movie for being CG were definitely on the low budget side, but everything else was really pretty top notch, especially with not having the financing available for other studios. The story was full of very well thought out comedy, not over the top, but quite funny. It was nice also to watch a kids movie that wasn't trying to slip in nasty jokes or situations that should never be in kids movies. There were a few transitions in the story that could have done with a little bit more filler to make the transitions smoother, maybe to due needing to get the movie released, or to make it fit within a certain time frame, or just not having unlimited resources to do more animating. Watch the movie with your kids or just know that it will be safe for your kids to watch on their own. I'm 50 and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it, of course I never truly 'grew up' as I still like to watch all kinds of movies, even if they are cartoons.

This review of Spark: A Space Tail is spoiler free** (2/5)IF CURIOUS GEORGE and Space Chimps left you feeling frustrated at their fun ideas yet dodgy final execution, which was perhaps left unfinished. Then writer-director Aaron Woodley's Spark: A Space Tail will leave you furious, an uncharismatic CG animation with a lot of ideas but left with a dodgy final execution. Opening with Spark (Jace Norman) a high-spirited teenage chimpanzee who believes he can save his lost planet Bana - which was sucked up by a space kraken. He and his two best friends - a chubby Walrus Chunk (Rob deLeeuw), perhaps as a remake on the titular chubby Goonies character and a tough-hearted skinny fox named Vix (Jessica Biel). Together they go on a quest to save their homeland from evil overlord Zhong (A.C. Peterson). Plot-wise it's WALL-E and Star Wars, Spark lives on a distant planetary shard used as a junk yard, among his friends he has a green cockroach and a clunky old robot - Bananny (Susan Sarandon) for company. Quickly changing formula to another sci-fi epic namely Spark wielding a double-sided light sword perhaps as a reference to Darth Maul, yet a far less memorable one.The ideas pile on from other references to sci-fi to pop culture, a lot goes on at any given moment but even the most fluid moments fail to finish or at least spark inspiration. At its best the animation is mediocrely primitive looking like it came out in 2005 - given that it shines the brightest light other ideas are left in the shadows. The third act shines the brightest, here the ideas come to a halt and it looks the most original, shining in the full glory of creativity. Here Spark learns of his true heritage, he learns that he is more than he thinks he is - armed with this knowledge he turns out to be a stronger leader. Along with the piling ideas coming to an end there are a couple of gags namely Patrick Stewart's The Captain pulls the most laughs - hilariously getting struck by lighting and losing all memory of he is "Outstanding" he says when he learns pinnacle information about his body. He shines the brightest light; he proves to be the most charming and brings smiles to this bland animation. Spark: A Space Tail is a bland, uncharismatic and unmemorable animated comedy which has the space for creativity but lacks the spark of inspiration that it desperately needs to liftoff.VERDICT: A mishmash of space romp combined with half-ish references, unfunny one-liners and an unremittingly charmless all-star cast which fails to achieve liftoff.