Didn't work for me

Rating: 4/10 (26 July 2013)

I finally saw this film almost four years after its original release, and have to say it did not work for me, for exactly the reasons that kept me from going to see it in the theater back in '09.
The animation is good for the most part, but the changes to the story are forced and unnecessary, the voice acting by the all-star cast is shockingly bland and uninspired, and the whole thing is, in a maddening way, quirky just for quirky's sake. After the tenth time, the "laconic comment followed by five seconds of awkward silence" gag just isn't funny any more. Same with most of the music, it was just a placeholder for the Benny Hill Theme, because playing that over all the repetitive scenes of "Foxy" and his gang just moving about randomly would have been a little to obvious even for this flick.
And yes, like many other reviewers I'm a huge fan of the book, but even when viewing this as a work of it's own - maybe especially then - it just does not hold up. It tries way to hard, its parts don't fit together nearly well enough, and it left me without any strong feelings whatsoever. It was overshadowed at the box office by "Twilight 2" and "Chipmunks: The Squeakquel", and as someone who hates both of these movies with a passion, I still have to say I understand why.