This gets a non-committal "eh"

Rating: 5/10 (6 April 2005)

I was told by several friends to go buy this sight unseen. "Don't bother renting it. Just buy it." Boy, am I glad I didn't. This movie was average in the extreme.
On the plus side, yes, the animation is excellent. The close up facial features and attention to detail is fantastic. Jason Lee's voice work was excellent, as well. However, the story never really took off. I wanted more time spent on the children, giving me more details about their problems so that when they came into their own later in the movie, it would mean more. I didn't get it. Worst of all there was very little humor. In the past, Pixar has been known to have a good dose of wit in their movies. This one had almost none. Had I gone in knowing this was 99% drama, I probably would have been much less disappointed.
Don't get me wrong, this is still a pretty solid film. It isn't really "bad" by any means, but it is just not as good as the hype would lead you to believe.