Great voice acting and visual effects save this otherwise average animated adventure

Rating: 5/10 (1 October 2012)

Although I am only 21 I feel I am too old when watching these new children's animated films. What looked like a fun, entertaining movie ended up being disjointed, manic and sentimental. It's like all the kids these days have ADD and can't concentrate on a well-told story so the filmmakers feel the need to have almost no pause in the action and just go from scene to scene with no breather, inserting pop-culture references everywhere. Even my eight year old cousin who I took to see this said the movie felt "like it went faster than other movies."
The voice cast is excellent, with Adam Sandler, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Andy Samberg and Kevin James lending their talents. Visually the film is quite stunning, with vibrant colours and hideous monsters sure to scare the kiddies. In terms of the 3D I wasn't really impressed but I haven't been impressed with any 3D movie as I find it adds next to nothing to the experience but hey, the children seem to love it and it brings in more money so I'm sure it's here to stay.
So why does this animated kids' film fail to come together? Bursts of manic pacing steamroll over most of the wit in the story, and by the end the whole movie is bogged down by parental mush about trusting one's kid to make her own discoveries. It really is a shame that this was just average, but hey, you could do worse these days.
2½/5