|
|
ABOMINABLE (2019)
Director: Jill Culton Cast: The voices of Chloe Bennet, Albert Tsai, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Joseph Izzo, Eddie Izzard, Sarah Paulson, Tasi Chin, Michelle Wong MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:37 Release Date: 9/27/19 |
|
Review by Mark Dujsik | September 27, 2019 In forgoing the establishment of actual characters and a real sense of magic, Abominable misses out on the emotional resonance it so clearly wants to engender. Writer/director Jill Culton would rather brush past all of that in order to rush to a series of action and comedy scenes. This is a movie that begins with a subjective shot from the perspective of the yeti alluded to in the title. Inserting us into the creature's point of view immediately attempts to make us sympathize with it, as the frightened beast tries to escape from the laboratory where it's held captive. Everest (voice of Joseph Izzo), as the creature is later dubbed by a human companion, ultimately possesses little personality, though. He laughs at slapstick humor and otherwise acts like a big, hairy child, but the yeti is basically a MacGuffin that just happens to be capable of performing magic. There's a similar path for the central human character, too. She's Yi (voice of Chloe Bennet), whose father recently died. She has been working assorted odd jobs, in order earn enough money to pay for a trip, planned by her dad for them, across China. There's some real weight to the early sections featuring this character, as we see her dedication, learn of her plan, and watch her mournfully play her father's violin on a rooftop. When she soon meets Everest, who is being hunted by the seemingly villainous mogul Burnish (voice of Eddie Izzard) and the seemingly kind zoologist Dr. Zara (voice of Sarah Paulson), Yi is basically along for the ride and nothing else. She does offer plenty of interjections ("Whoa," and "Wow!"), as the yeti and two of her friends try to return the beast to his Mount Everest home. We wonder what happened to the character who had been so quickly but firmly established. The two friends—Peng (voice of Albert Tsai), the blunt comic relief, and Jin (voice of Tenzing Norgay Trainor), a preppy and self-absorbed teen—are even more thinly developed. The story becomes all plot, and the plot is all about the chase. That chase is given occasional life by Everest's ability to control nature (The image of the quartet riding a boat along a growing wave of flowers is lovely, although just another beat in the pursuit), but Abominable is just a routine and shallow adventure tale. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
Buy Related Products Buy the Soundtrack (Digital Download)
|
(for some action and mild rude humor)
