User Reviews

Well made movie , lovely hearing real Irish accents and also some of our amazing landmarks and the lore behind them, great way to pass 90 mins!! Animated well storyline could he a little better but both me my wife and kids (8+5) loved it !! Think the low ratings are harsh for what it is.

I'd give this movie more props but some things just didn't really help with the story or make any sense. First off, why have the frogs and the sheep?! They don't add any charm or sense to the story whatsoever, second, I feel like if the producers/writers/crew got more Irish voice actors, that'd add more depth to this movie, third, we needed more songs/dances, for example: Thunderstorm, the Irish Deer help Keegan see that even in dark thunderous storms, the skies will clear. Also the "huntsman" what makes him so intimidating? He's an obese guy with no backstory. All in all, I'd say this a decent movie, love the songs and dances in it.

We love music and this one hit the ball out the park. There's always self-doubt, but learning through various experiences is what this movie teaches. Never miss an opportunity to learn.

In the Irish village of River's End a boy named Keegan (Sam Hardy) is raised by his Grandma (Pauline McLynn) and Grandpa (Pierce Brosnan) and grows up learning of Irish traditions and tails such as the legend of the Megaloceros Giganteus whose dancing keeps the river and life alive and of the lighthouse which keeps the emissary of darkness, The Huntsman (Brendan Gleeson), at bay. When Keegan's grandad passes away, Keegan finds himself soured on the traditions he used to take joy in and becomes depressed. Keegan's friend from Spain, Moya (Hannah Herman Cortes), takes it upon herself to cheer Keegan up, and she takes him to the Megaloceros Giganteus where they meet their king Patrick (Pierce Brosnan) and two others with Penny (Lily Singh) who struggles with Riverdancing, and Benny who's self-conscious about his small antlers and short rotund physique. Keegan, Moya and the Megaloceros Giganteus' engage in dancing, curling, and other activities unaware The Huntsman has made his way to their domain.

Based on the stage show of the same name by Bill Whelan and Donal Lunny, the song Riverdance was first performed as an interval act on the 1994 Eurovision with lead performers Michael Flatley and Jean Butler where it was a rousing success receiving a standing ovation from the 4,000 attendees and spurring expansion to a full length show. The expanded Riverdance: The Show became a massive success and its success lead to performances in New York City and the United States and becoming a stable of the 90s whose legacy endures to this day. The show serves as a showcase for predominantly Irish Folk music and dance as well as some bits of The Russian Dervish, Spanish Flamenco, and even Gospel. Production began in 2016 as a joint UK-Ireland venture with The Riverdance Company including Bull Whelan who returns to do the music with two new original songs. Initially released on Sky Cinema in the UK in May of last year, Riverdance: The Animated Adventure makes its debut internationally on Netflix. While the movie does feature the music and choreography of Riverdance, it doesn't really work all that well with this rather slopy narrative they've wedged it into.

Riverdance primarily being a showcase for Irish dance and music didn't really have any overarching narrative or story to it so it's understandable to a degree the filmmakers would create one, but the movie feels really misguided with its opening death of Keegan's grandad which is treated with the weight it needs for about 20 seconds before immediately transitioning to the song Riverdance and its accompanying choreography, and when I say immediately I mean still in their funeral clothes. There's this really uncomfortable subtext throughout the movie where Keegan is bombarded with all this bouncy exuberance from the community and festivities and it plays really tone deaf in this context because grief at the death of a loved one isn't something you can just "dance away" and the fact that this is all happening seeming mere hours after Grandad's funeral is just really grating. The movie is written by Dave Rosenbaum and Tyler Werrin and co-directed by Rosenbaum who've done production work on a number of Illumination Entertainment films and "mini-movies" and there is definitely a feeling that they're trying to capture that same bouncy aesthetic to the animation and it just doesn't work for something of this tone.

Outside of the ill advised take on loss of a parent/parental figure, the movie has ill advised comic relief and slapstick elements with Lily Singh and Jeramine Fowler as Penny and Benny playing a Megaloceros Giganteus "comedic" duo who obnoxiously spout slang and modern day dialogue in some of the most grating performances I've heard in a recent animated film with some truly cringe worthy lines like "Pull the alarm cuz Penny's on fire" or "O-M-G". We also have a number of creatures such as frogs and sheep who do very minions-esque humor that only provides more excuses for tonal whiplash including multiple fart jokes and a scene where the sheep do the "ball thing" from Critters 2.... I'm not even joking. The one element I thought worked reasonably well was Pierce Brosnan's dual role as Patrick and Grandad which while not executed flawlessly did at least seem like it had a nugget of a good idea, and despite sporting a character design that looks like a mixture of Elmer Fudd and Doctor Robotnik, I rather liked Brenden Gleeson in the role of The Huntsman even if he wasn't used all that well.

I will say the songs and choreography are reasonably well done and they do try to capture the form and energy seen in the show, but with the show being what it is, it often feels like the movie often stops dead just so it can have a dance number from the actual stage show because when the dances are done our main characters of Keegan and Moya often are pushed to the background while it happens and it's basically a dead stop in the story until the dance ends. The story is also pretty thin because the major source of conflict is resolved in the hour mark and the movie keeps going for another half hour fifteen minutes of which is made up of credits. If that's not an admission that this movie's not anorexically thin, I don't know what is.

Riverdance: The Animated Adventure takes the largely plotless stage show and painfully adapts it to bouncy slapsticky animation that feels like an Illumination imitation with the Riverdance songs and dances crudely inserted. The movie tackles thematic elements it's not capable of properly addressing, and while the Soundtrack and Choreography of the show are captured in movie, they often feel like tangents from the movie's anemic narrative and stop what little story there is dead in its tracks. If you want to expose your kids to Riverdance just show them one of the stage show recordings, if you want to show them a quality animated film about Irish culture, watch Wolfwalkers, Song of the Sea or Secret of Kells.

Having stood in a nightclub watching the original Riverdance play on a tv with no sound but nevertheless being transfixed by the pure originality and in following years loving the extended show that was spawned from it. I was really looking forward to watching this title. I should also point out that I'm Irish born and bred!! I had hoped to see something along the lines of the amazing Brown Bag studios titles such as Book of Kells, where the animation was amazing and the voice cast matched the local dialect and accents, however, this film failed. While a handful of the voices were Irish they were almost "hammed" Irish and then the rest of the voices were American or at least very American soumdong. This disappointed me greatly. I'm sure kids will enjoy it and it may spawn another rush of people wanting to learn "new" Irish dancing because this was not even close to what I spent 8 years suffering through during my primary school years. But with a more clinical and critical viewing this is by far not the best animated Irish story. I will say that through extreme screening of the animated characters danving almost all the steps look accurate even that of the dancing deer. On the whole I will be digging out my dvd copy of Riverdance the human version and enjoy that a billion times more.

I love the premise, and the animation was good. Hence the initial 2 stars. The execution however... utter rubbish.

I know it's aimed at children, but ffs! How about being a bit more genuine in the story telling. A bit more Irish! Don't you think Irish folk can tell a tale?

I thought it was a cheap Disney flick, is it by Disney? No? It certainly ticks all the boxes and follows the trite Disney money making formula.

Ancient Irish mega-fauna with American accents and modern American turns of phrase? Pffft... yes, got them.

The typical inept clown sidekick with an African American accent who turns out to be the hero? Yes, got that, it was Donkey... I mean, some chubby deer with munted antlers who can't gallop.

End the race along the dry river bed was straight out of another Disney movie.... something about lions....

All the common tropes and stereotypes used when American writers depict the Irish. Yep, got them in spades. I was waiting for the drunken wife beater and the bumbling copper, missed a great opportunity there guys! Or maybe they were at the start and I missed them. If so, sorry.

The saddest part was that the children watching, aged 8 and 10, were disappointed it wasn't more like the "real Riverdance".

Maybe we are a bit harsh because we aren't the target audience.... citizens of the United States of American with a drop of Irish blood. The sort that get p!ssed on weak green beer on St Patrick's day.

Because I've been so harsh in my review, I'll give it an extra star for the excellent following of the Disney script. 3/10.

Thanks @ionicBreezeMachine for your in depth review of the history of the stage version of Riverdance, the origin of the music by Whelan, and suggestion of irish-based animation such as Wolfwalkers, Song of the Sea, and Secret of Kells.

Your review succinctly explained the reasons I just didn't like this movie despite the beautiful animation in this film. As half-hispanic, I appreciate many of the animated movies that have debuted in the past few years. They seemed to have hired latino voice-over actors, writers and done half a decent job with research of latin american culture.

With the amount of work that went to animate this story, the creators couldn't do the same with Irish actors, writers and researchers? As soon as the two comedic fat deer open their mouths with American accents (one an African American), I cringed. There has to be a million Irish actors that could have pulled them off. Maybe they didn't want to be a part of this show.

I loved the music and dancing but could only get halfway through the movie and started fast forwarding.

I loved the dance and the element of the animation is awesome that's it.

Nice story i liked it.

Worthy of my time.

I'm baffled at some of the reviews here. It's a kids film primarily, nothing like the Mire serious book Of Kells etc, and my young boys loved it! I thoroughly enjoyed it as well. It deals with the grandfather's death beautifully. I am Irish, (have an actual Irish accent) and I didn't notice any pretend Irish accents going on, I really don't get the reviews that mentioned forced Irish accents or brogue Irish..... no American actors were used as Irish characters in this film. Pierce Brosnan's accent has always been slightly unusual in that he slips in and out of Irish, English, and slightly American at times. Aisling Bea really does sound like that. Real Irish accents vary massively, and yes, some Irish people in rural Ireland still roll their R's. We have watched it a few times now, I suspect it will always be a family favourite. Inspired lots of dancing and helpful discussions around old age and death. Recommended.

Watched it with a completely neutral view. I knew of the 1990s phenomena of Riverdance, but wasn't allowing this to have a bearing on my review. I am sorry, but the reviews that give this movie a 10, are either by people connected to the film, or children.

It was complete nonsense and I am sorry I took the time to watch it.

Don't bother as it's just stupid.

1/10.

Believe it or not i anticipated this movie until i actually watched it it was then when they striked me with a tiringly generic story decent at best animation and way too many cartoony sound effects and pop colture references wich just try to compensate for the weak comedy if it wasnt for the dance scenes this movie would get a one out of ten.

I didn't make it all the way through. I have literally no idea what the thinking behind this total madness was supposed to be. I have no idea who wrote this, or who thought this would make for any kind of project. There is literally nothing about this crazy thing that is commendable. I'm still shaking my head, five days after having had the misfortune to see half of it. Insanity. Save your children.

What on Earth!?

You take a beautiful theme as riverdance and Ireland and would expect to be made with some heart and warmth and fun... But this... We were suffering every second of it... I cannot even explain how wrong was every single moment in how many various ways and how offensive that is. Not even having riverdance music could make up for it. Barely managed to half of it, and had to give up, or go mad... Now I have the need to watch Brave or whatever to wash this filth out my brain.

Do not, I repeat, do not waste your time if you have even one brain cell tingling in your head. It will hurt.

Watched this film last night and I spent most of it laughing at how terrible this film is. The forced Irish accents (rolling the r's for some reason?) and the shoehorned attempts to be Irish (like the deers who are American for some reason playing hurling), leave a lot to be desired. Could've done so much more with this concept, instead it's exactly what you would expect an American's perspective of Ireland to be. Not for me.

My four year old (who has Down syndrome) doesn't usually watch animation. I turned this on for her as she loves dancing, and she has been up dancing and completely mesmerised by the whole thing. Lots of great voice actors in this and the animation is lovely.

We live in Ireland, and didn't have a problem with the diverse voice cast.

I'm not really sure what I just watched, but I'm baffled and didn't enjoy it!

I was excited to watch this because I love movies about other cultures. But I was so unbelievablt disappointed.. It feels like a fever dream, everything was rushed and just plain weird. So many side plots like the missing tadpole Adam that just wasn't necessary. And the entire movie's whole climactic moment happened in like 5 minutes. It just...felt like someone was making fun of irish people like this was a joke or for really small children. It's disappointing as it felt like it could've been so good and it was just weird and underwhelming and rushed.

I absolutely love the music and dancing.... That's it! How in the world is there an American black sounding Deer in Ireland?! The voices were horribly cast and they ruined a historical play. Can we stop with this catering bs now please?!

My two boys (5 and 2) absolutely adore this movie. The music and dancing is so fun and the storyline is very sweet with humour added in. It also teaches about loss (my 5 year old is dealing with the loss of his grandad) and this was the perfect movie to give him some comfort.

I'm not sure why there are so many negative reviews. It is meant to be a children's movie. It was very well done in my opinion with beautiful animation.

As a '90s kid, I grew up listening to the soundtrack of the original "Riverdance" show. While I didn't have high hopes for the animated film, I did assume it would have at least something good. Boy, was I wrong. The story - if you can even call it that - is thin and tired. It mainly exists as an excuse to see/hear familiar dances and songs. The Huntsman is a disappoint of a villain. (He's just an obese bully with no backstory.) The comedy is juvenile; the comic relief side characters/plots contribute NOTHING to the main characters/plot. Worst if all, the third acts goes on for what feels like FOREVER. Don't even waste your time with this garbage.

No relations to the Cats musical, but similar to the Cats movie this is based on a broadway smashhit taken out of the form where it works, and trying to add narative to something that had little narative to begin with. The result is a mess. The story is all over the place, with constant excuses for random dancing.

On top of that is slathered a strange and obsetting fake take on Irish culture. It is so fake it hurts to watch, I am just glad I am not an Irish person seeing this insane insult of a tribute to their culture.

I would propose skipping the movie. It has a few nice moments, music and riverdancing. But I am not happy.

This movie is inspired on the stage play River Dance. River dancing actually originated in Ireland and is not necessarily how Americans see the Irish people. It kind of reminds me of step and tap dancing. The animation in this film is incredible. I really don't understand the low ratings on this movie. The plot and the voice acting were both really good. A movie that all ages can enjoy.

Loved the film. The story was glorious and the music absolutely splendid. My only criticism is the need for that american street-speak from the deer....why was this considered necessary? I have no idea why this nonsense needed to be part of the film.