★★☆☆☆
THIS visually pleasant but otherwise generic and repetitive animation is a big screen outing of a successful French TV series, dubbed here into English. It follows Maurice (voiced by Kirk Thornton), a penguin taken into care at birth by courageous tigress Natacha (Dorothy Fahn), covering himself in painted stripes so that he can feel as brave as the one who raised him.
One day the devious, jet pack-wearing koala Igor (Keith Silverstein) endangers peace in the jungle by threatening to destroy it using his collection of explosive mushrooms and an army of obedient baboons. With the help of his titular group – including his adopted goldfish Junior, Miguel the childlike gorilla and Batricia the accident-prone bat – Maurice sets out to stop Igor once and for all.
There’s nothing wrong with a silly, carefree adventure aimed squarely at a very young demographic. But the problem here is that right from the off it feels annoyingly hyperactive.
The not altogether coherent storyline is derivative of many other far better animated films. Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Zootropolis and Happy Feet are just some of the movies it makes you wish you were watching instead.
The narrative somehow manages to feel both restless and painfully slow at times, jumping from pedestrian set-piece to set-piece and half-cooked one-liners making outdated references to Mission: Impossible and Indiana Jones without ever showing the self-awareness that made Penguins of Madagascar so entertaining.
There’s no real sense of the friendship-fuelled duty that’s supposed to bond and motivate the eponymous team. That’s just one of the many themes the film tries and fails to illuminate for a target demographic that deserves, and has already been served, far better.
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