Abominable

This review may contain spoilers!

A film with a brilliant concept that doesn't quite manage to capture that Dreamworks magic. I would give Abominable a 5.5/10.

Abominable follows Yi, a young girl who is still dealing with the grief of losing her father, and the Yeti she discovers: Everest. Together this unlikely duo must work together to get Everest home to his family in the Himalayas before he is recaptured by the villainous animal researchers hunting him down. The film very deftly handles Yi and the story around the loss of her Dad; it's a very mature storyline and presented in a manner that you can really connect with. Yi struggles to feel grief in the way she believes is normal, instead she has worked herself to the bone to afford a trip around China that her Dad had always talked about taking her on. Throughout her travels with Everest, Jin and Peng she is able to connect with this dream and her grief in what is the strongest narrative of the film. The animation used throughout has several pitfalls but there also moments in which you really feel a rise in the form presented, often in scenes where magic is being utilised or the violin is being played you can visually see more detail and a warmer colour palette. The score and soundtrack for the film is undoubtedly the true strength of this animated feature, how music was utilised as a tool for the plot to convey Yi's connection to her father was extremely moving.

Albert Tsai, who voiced Peng, is one of the funniest characters in the film; Tsai's ability to bring a ton of energy to a scene or keep some consistent gags about his character's love of basketball made for a very fun role. Tenzing Norgay Trainor, who voiced Jin, certainly came across as a little more sure of himself and arrogant at first; yet I liked seeing this role develop to become more selfless as he realised what was truly worth caring about. Tsai Chin, who voiced Nai Nai, is really fun to hear as the bossy grandmother of Yi's household; Chin manages to cut away from this role being a strict stereotype and finds a balance of authority and love that is endearing. Michelle Wong, who voiced Yi's Mother, doesn't have a huge presence in this film but certainly leaves an impression; Wong really shows the depth of sadness this family is feeling and the need to reconnect with one another that they all seem to be avoiding.

However, the best performance came from Chloe Bennet, who voiced Yi. This protagonist is such an active and inspiring character to follow throughout this adventure. Bennet does a really good job of portraying how capable and quick to action Yi is, often seeing her role get through multiple jobs/chores in a day or barrelling into danger to help Everest. Yi feels like one of the most capable characters in the cast, she is determined and at times headstrong, but she's a figure with a lot of heart and the best possible person to help this young Yeti. I really loved how Bennet depicted her character's way of processing her father's death, it felt very grounded and honest which isn't always something that works in an animated film.

Abominable shows a lot of spirit in some big scenes but a lot of the time it feels like the story we get never really seems capable of matching up to the concept. The entire premise of this young girl saving a Yeti is brilliant but you don't feel the struggle that the journey should be. Our main characters have a very easy time of achieving their ultimate goal in the narrative and any time the film might have something it really wants to say it tends to undercut itself with a weak punchline. In fact the humour used throughout this movie felt like it was meant for an entirely different film, there weren't really any jokes that were genuinely funny just very easy silly punchlines. In fact the humour seemed to be used to stretch out the run time which really hurt the pacing, gags like the whooping snake didn't really need to find their way into the film. Even the villains lost almost all of their menace because they were goofy and so bad at catching our heroes that you never felt any sense of conflict, danger or tension. Abominable had some moments in which it looked quite good but at other times the background seemed hazy and lazily inserted while the character models really lacked detail, looking like a step back from Dreamworks usual standards.

Eddie Izzard, who voiced Burnish, seems almost like an oddly sinister parody of David Attenborough at the best of times; Izzard doesn't really handle the revelation of his character not being a villain very well and it just comes across as an abrupt twist for the sake of it. Sarah Paulson and Rich Dietl, who voiced Dr. Zara and Goon Leader respectively, just come across like bumbling henchmen for the entire first act of the film; Dietl seems too goofy to be a convincing villain while Paulson's sudden switch to antagonist is jarring and does no wonders for this film.