Film Reviews

Alpha and Omega

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Danny Glover
• Details: US/88mins G

A cheap-feeling animated farce, that's overly-familiar and generally devoid of charm, this half-assed film will only amuse the very young, and find you cursing yourself for wasting clams. The extra dough you'd need to cough up to pay for a 3D ticket will only add further insult to your already annoyed wallet.
Justin Long and Hayden Panettiere voice two wolves in the Canadian wilds, who have had a flirtation since, eh, puppyhood. But she's being primed by her Alpha father to take over leading the pack, and he's a bit of a prankster, who seemingly exists solely to amuse the Alpha's. When they're captured and released back into the wild hundreds of miles from home, they must team-up to find their way back, before a war breaks out with another pack.
The first thing that strikes you about Alpha and Omega is the shoddy looking animation. It's not that it looks like it was scribbled in crayon or anything, but the filmmakers obviously didn't have the budget to make it look even moderately realistic. The familiar tones of Danny Glover, Long and Panettiere can't really enliven a mediocre script, and the comic relief raises little more than a sharp exhalation of breath, masquerading as a chuckle.
It's not completely awful, and the very young will find something here to enjoy, but with Despicable Me out at the same time, there's no real competition here.

Review by Mike Sheridan