In 2018, there was something quietly revolutionary about the animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. Not only did it employ a unique and spectacular visual schema which located an aesthetic sweet spot between the handmade and the digital, but it also ported that boldness over to its story, which offered a witty twist on the done-to-death superhero origin story. In the interim we’ve seen multiple major success stories made in a similar way, from the Awards and audience behemoth, KPop Demon Hunters, to the extremely lovable goof-about, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
Tyree Dillihay’s feature debut, GOAT, uses the same animation style as those films, but sadly settles for a rather anodyne story that never quite gels with the dynamism of its visuals. We’re in a world where the sport of roarball rules the roost – it has the same rules as basketball, but the court is something closer to American Gladiators, with all manner of obstacles and deathly traps. Will Harris (voiced by Caleb McLaughlin) is a goat, referred to in the hyper-aggressive world of roarball as a “small” and, as such, could never make it as a player going up against horses, crocs, gorillas and bears.
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Will’s dream is to play roarball for a living, and his hero is the iconic black panther Jett Fillmore (Gabrielle Union), the greatest player in the league who captains Will’s own local team, the Vineland Thorns. His endless tenacity and love of the game ends up leading to a viral video which lands him a social media-friendly spot as the sixth player on the Thorns, but playing alongside his hero ends up being a psychological nightmare, especially when he starts to outplay the ageing legend.
The film offers a checklist of all the supplemental anxieties that come from being a professional sports star, such as the make-or-break qualities of social media, the theatrical façades of the star players and how the folks at the boardroom level really don’t give two figs about the interpersonal intricacies of the game. Yet its treatment of all these things is superficial at best, settling instead for visual gags, musical montages and the predictable journey of a not-that-interesting central protagonist.
There are some sweet moments here with a couple of obligatory comic side players, but the sentimental story ends up lacking for a true purpose. It begins a celebration of the lil’ guy, and how determination and persistence will lead to those big dreams being fulfilled. Yet when Will makes it to the team about a third of the way in, that thread is dropped and it becomes about Jett leaning too heavily on her individual star quality at the expense of the team. A couple of really random and contrived twists in the fourth quarter make it hard to invest emotionally in the climactic, must-win game, though there’s just enough humour and heart to scrape a last-second win.
