Playmobil.... basically a bland and boring toy brand version of LEGO, I think I had a few sets when I young but I was more a LEGO person, so I don't remember all that much about it, anyways with that said, how can you make a good animated film about toys, well Phill Lord and Chris Miller manage to do that incredibly well with the LEGO Movie and that film was a huge success and it's one of my favourite animated films of all time, so now a lot of animated films are taking what made that film a masterpiece and just doing the same thing, like Trolls and this year with Uglydolls, they don't do their own thing they are coping something that worked in the first place and so Studiocanal decided to team up with the Playmobil company to make their own version of the LEGO Movie, only with Playmobil, so they were nice enough to release it in the UK yesterday, which is weird I swear you lot in America don't get it until December..... how strange.., anyways, I saw it today and..... what were you expecting?, a good movie?, pffff no!, it's just as annoying, dumb and blatantly ripping-off the LEGO Movie with it's similarities, in other words it's terrible...... so let's talk about it!.
Marla (Ana-Taylor Joy) and her brother Charlie loves playing together with Playmobil toys and they really want to travel but after a certain incident with their parents, Marla has to look after Charlie and doesn't have enough time to play with him, but after Charlie tries to run away from her but comes across a toy fair where even more Playmobil is, but after both him and Marla get sucked into the Playmobil world where they both turn into Playmobil characters, but after Charlie gets super strength and gets kidnapped and taken to the ruler of the world Emperor Maximus (Adam Lambert), who wants to use him to battle the big beast, so Marla needs to rescue him, along the way he gets help from other characters like truck driver Del (Jim Gaffigan) and Secret agent Rex Dasher (Daniel Radcliffe), so she goes through a lot of magical nonsensical lands from the Wild West, to a fairytale world and so muc-oh who care?, seriously this movie fails from start to finish, it's so cliched and predicable, really unfunny, tries too hard to be dramatic but it didn't effect me, it has a lot of elements that are taken from the LEGO Movie and uses them to try and be it's own thing when really you can tell it has LEGO Movie written all over the place, it doesn't hide the fact that it's the LEGO Movie only replaced with Playmobil, it doesn't help either that is so much blatant foreshadowing, which can be done if it's clever and well hidden, but here it's very obviously at what will happen, so why care about the story and execution, speaking of, it's executed in a lazy way that it makes no sense at all and it feels boring, I'll admit I got a few chuckles and and one or two laughs, but the humour is rather lowbrow and juvenile and copying the LEGO Movie's humour in a way, the writing, the directing, the story, everything feels lazy and in a clueless way, which shows here that they were "trying" to make a movie, only to rip-off the LEGO Movie instead!.
The animation and the live-action visuals are the closest things to being good, while it's not as amazing as the LEGO Movie, the animation is pretty good, not great but not awful, it has bright colours, nicely done character animation and designs, they expand on the world of Playmobil and do play around with it, with the figures, animals and the different magical and unique lands in the world, the facial expressions are also good, with the real life figures having a bland expression, here they have full expressions and it works in a film like this, not only that but with the live-action secnes are well shot, especially when Marla and Charlie are in the Toy Fair with the Playmobil toys, it's quite well done, however despite the good animation, it also looks generic, it's not very movie-y quality, it looks something that belongs to Netflix or YouTube, also unlike the LEGO Movie where the detail in the animation is supposed to look exactly like actual LEGOs and it's meant to have that feel of a kid playing with a toy, here it's just..... a basic bland looking animated Playmobil film, many towns and areas feel very similar to the LEGO Movie... again, but regardless the animation certainly does it's job as a Playmobil movie, it has a lot colours, good character designs and well done fight scenes too, that and the live-action scenes look nice enough, although basic and bland looking and nothing special, the animators did somewhat try with what they got.
The characters are the very definition of "just toys for kids to buy", with maybe one exception, Marla is just the generic protagonist who has no redeeming qualities, like at all, Charlie is just even worse as the kid who thinks everything is "cool" and "awesome!", he's super forgettable, Del is a annoying comic relief, he does everything a awful comic relief character do, be funny, try and help, think about other things then be serious for a moment, Emperor Maximus can be a tad bit entertaining, but is overall a annoying villain with motives that make no sense at all, the other characters like Bloodbones (Kenan Thompson), Robotitron (Lino DiSalvo), the Fairy-Godmother and other comedic characters are pretty much useless and have very little screen time, the only character that mildly enjoyable is Rex Dasher, he at least has a personality, good comedic timing, charm and in a way cool!, easily my favourite character in the entire movie, the voice acting is not good, Ana-Taylor Joy is good as Marla, but nothing special, Jim Gaffigan as Del is just playing himself as a Playmobil character, not as good as Van-Helsing from Hotel Transylvania 3, but not as terrible as Ping from Duck, Duck Goose, Daniel Radcliffe is great as Rex Dasher, Adam Lambert is annoying as Maximus, Meghan Trainor is decent as the Fairy God-Mother, Kenan Thompson (why am I seeing his name appearing in a lot of animated films now?, first Tiffany Haddish, now Thompson, I wonder what else lies in his contract...) is okay as Bloodbones, basically everyone expect Radcliffe and Joy do a decent job, so with characters that no one cares about and voice acting that is underwhelming, it's just embarrassing, I mean I like Rex Dasher, Radcliffe and Joy do a good job with their performances, but it's not enough to save these dumb characters.
There are a few musician numbers that are forgettable and awful, except "Give The People What They Want" that was alright, but not enough, Heitor Pereira's score is beautiful and "Run Like the River" by Meghan Trainor is quite good, but it doesn't stand out at all really, just by the numbers, bland and very basic songs.
Why did I even waste my time watching this cash grab of a rip-off?, Playmobil: the Movie is just awful, with a lazily written story, juvenile humour, basic and generic animation, forgettable characters, voice acting that is not very good and really dumb musical numbers, sure it has a moment of comedy, a few chuckles, animation is good along with nice looking live action visuals, Rex Dasher being the best character in the film, along with two good performances and decent music, but I'm afraid they don't save this trainwreck of a movie, it's just the Playmobil version of the LEGO Movie, only dumber and worser, I really hate this movie, not the worst animated film ever or one of the worst I seen, but it is quite close to being on the top five worst animated films of all time list!, please don't go and see it, there are better animated films out there, go see Angry Birds Movie 2!, that one was surprisingly decent, Toy Story 4 is still playing and I love the movie, this movie doesn't deserve your money, funnily enough I was thinking about the Emoji Movie while watching the Playmobil: the Movie, which is a very bad sign, I just hope studios stop making junk and start making original films instead but.... that might not happen anytime soon, thanks to this film, I have lost hope....
This dumb thing easily gets a 2.9/10!.
Marla (Ana-Taylor Joy) and her brother Charlie loves playing together with Playmobil toys and they really want to travel but after a certain incident with their parents, Marla has to look after Charlie and doesn't have enough time to play with him, but after Charlie tries to run away from her but comes across a toy fair where even more Playmobil is, but after both him and Marla get sucked into the Playmobil world where they both turn into Playmobil characters, but after Charlie gets super strength and gets kidnapped and taken to the ruler of the world Emperor Maximus (Adam Lambert), who wants to use him to battle the big beast, so Marla needs to rescue him, along the way he gets help from other characters like truck driver Del (Jim Gaffigan) and Secret agent Rex Dasher (Daniel Radcliffe), so she goes through a lot of magical nonsensical lands from the Wild West, to a fairytale world and so muc-oh who care?, seriously this movie fails from start to finish, it's so cliched and predicable, really unfunny, tries too hard to be dramatic but it didn't effect me, it has a lot of elements that are taken from the LEGO Movie and uses them to try and be it's own thing when really you can tell it has LEGO Movie written all over the place, it doesn't hide the fact that it's the LEGO Movie only replaced with Playmobil, it doesn't help either that is so much blatant foreshadowing, which can be done if it's clever and well hidden, but here it's very obviously at what will happen, so why care about the story and execution, speaking of, it's executed in a lazy way that it makes no sense at all and it feels boring, I'll admit I got a few chuckles and and one or two laughs, but the humour is rather lowbrow and juvenile and copying the LEGO Movie's humour in a way, the writing, the directing, the story, everything feels lazy and in a clueless way, which shows here that they were "trying" to make a movie, only to rip-off the LEGO Movie instead!.
The animation and the live-action visuals are the closest things to being good, while it's not as amazing as the LEGO Movie, the animation is pretty good, not great but not awful, it has bright colours, nicely done character animation and designs, they expand on the world of Playmobil and do play around with it, with the figures, animals and the different magical and unique lands in the world, the facial expressions are also good, with the real life figures having a bland expression, here they have full expressions and it works in a film like this, not only that but with the live-action secnes are well shot, especially when Marla and Charlie are in the Toy Fair with the Playmobil toys, it's quite well done, however despite the good animation, it also looks generic, it's not very movie-y quality, it looks something that belongs to Netflix or YouTube, also unlike the LEGO Movie where the detail in the animation is supposed to look exactly like actual LEGOs and it's meant to have that feel of a kid playing with a toy, here it's just..... a basic bland looking animated Playmobil film, many towns and areas feel very similar to the LEGO Movie... again, but regardless the animation certainly does it's job as a Playmobil movie, it has a lot colours, good character designs and well done fight scenes too, that and the live-action scenes look nice enough, although basic and bland looking and nothing special, the animators did somewhat try with what they got.
The characters are the very definition of "just toys for kids to buy", with maybe one exception, Marla is just the generic protagonist who has no redeeming qualities, like at all, Charlie is just even worse as the kid who thinks everything is "cool" and "awesome!", he's super forgettable, Del is a annoying comic relief, he does everything a awful comic relief character do, be funny, try and help, think about other things then be serious for a moment, Emperor Maximus can be a tad bit entertaining, but is overall a annoying villain with motives that make no sense at all, the other characters like Bloodbones (Kenan Thompson), Robotitron (Lino DiSalvo), the Fairy-Godmother and other comedic characters are pretty much useless and have very little screen time, the only character that mildly enjoyable is Rex Dasher, he at least has a personality, good comedic timing, charm and in a way cool!, easily my favourite character in the entire movie, the voice acting is not good, Ana-Taylor Joy is good as Marla, but nothing special, Jim Gaffigan as Del is just playing himself as a Playmobil character, not as good as Van-Helsing from Hotel Transylvania 3, but not as terrible as Ping from Duck, Duck Goose, Daniel Radcliffe is great as Rex Dasher, Adam Lambert is annoying as Maximus, Meghan Trainor is decent as the Fairy God-Mother, Kenan Thompson (why am I seeing his name appearing in a lot of animated films now?, first Tiffany Haddish, now Thompson, I wonder what else lies in his contract...) is okay as Bloodbones, basically everyone expect Radcliffe and Joy do a decent job, so with characters that no one cares about and voice acting that is underwhelming, it's just embarrassing, I mean I like Rex Dasher, Radcliffe and Joy do a good job with their performances, but it's not enough to save these dumb characters.
There are a few musician numbers that are forgettable and awful, except "Give The People What They Want" that was alright, but not enough, Heitor Pereira's score is beautiful and "Run Like the River" by Meghan Trainor is quite good, but it doesn't stand out at all really, just by the numbers, bland and very basic songs.
Why did I even waste my time watching this cash grab of a rip-off?, Playmobil: the Movie is just awful, with a lazily written story, juvenile humour, basic and generic animation, forgettable characters, voice acting that is not very good and really dumb musical numbers, sure it has a moment of comedy, a few chuckles, animation is good along with nice looking live action visuals, Rex Dasher being the best character in the film, along with two good performances and decent music, but I'm afraid they don't save this trainwreck of a movie, it's just the Playmobil version of the LEGO Movie, only dumber and worser, I really hate this movie, not the worst animated film ever or one of the worst I seen, but it is quite close to being on the top five worst animated films of all time list!, please don't go and see it, there are better animated films out there, go see Angry Birds Movie 2!, that one was surprisingly decent, Toy Story 4 is still playing and I love the movie, this movie doesn't deserve your money, funnily enough I was thinking about the Emoji Movie while watching the Playmobil: the Movie, which is a very bad sign, I just hope studios stop making junk and start making original films instead but.... that might not happen anytime soon, thanks to this film, I have lost hope....
This dumb thing easily gets a 2.9/10!.