JacobsonCinemas

Sports have never really been my thing but if you had to make me choose one it would be basketball. GOAT is about a young goat named Will who wants to compete in a basketball-like game called roarball. After playing a one-on-one game against Claw champion Mane Attraction, he is signed up to play on the Thorns roarball team with his idol Jett Fillmore. As you can see from the plot, GOAT is kind of your basic sports film about an underdog that wants to join the big leagues. The only difference is that the characters are animals. I also thought the humor was kind of your basic kid’s film humor. There’s a lot of product placement, influencer jokes that usually make me cringe and even an unfunny fart joke. I was really hoping that this film wouldn’t have that damn goat scream joke, but it sadly did.

The animation was what hooked me on to this film when I first saw the trailer. This film uses the same animation style as the Spider-Verse films and it looks absolutely gorgeous. Goat is still   able to stand on its own without anchoring too much on Spider-Verse’s success. Another thing that stood out to me were the roarball stadiums. This film could’ve gone the easy route and just make design each stadium basic to look like your basic basketball stadium and the awesome animation would’ve been the only think to help them stand out. But that’s not what Sony Animation did, instead they went all out by designing each stadium to be unique and full of personality. There are stadiums that have stalactites, vines, ice, and lava. It reminds me a lot of the districts in Zootopia. The unique stadiums really help the film’s worldbuilding and it makes you want to visit this world. I also really like the Thorns team; each member has their own unique design personality and little arcs. Modo is my favorite character.

I wouldn’t say Goat is the “GOAT” but it is still a very fun sports animated film. While it has familiar story beats and typical children’s film humor, it makes up for it with a visually amazing world, great animation, and likable characters.

Verdict:

+The animation

+The stadiums

+The Thorns

-Familiar sports film story beats

-The humor

Score: B+