The Ape Star

source: The Ape Star

I spent a nice moment with my daughter (5). He also enjoyed the movie. There was no moment when I thought it could be too tense for her. The story isn't very original but nonetheless a few themes are reviewed which children may reflect on. All in all no masterpiece, but this is something you can go watch with your kids (4 to 6-7ish) without a problem.

This is the first time I ever write a review for a movie on IMDB, but I feel compelled. This movie has had high praise from Swedish media outlets and has two our greatest Hollywood-quality actors, Stellan Skarsgård and Pernilla August (and multiple other actors I hold in high regard) as characters, and the movie is produced and directed by a well established Swedish childrens' movie director. The praise has been for the story, the "charming animation" and so on. I saw it in the cinema with my two children, aged 6 and 9. -- This is the worst movie I have ever seen. The voice acting is downright horrible with loads of grunts and unnatural sounds, and despite (or because of?) having done the acting work live, together in a recording studio, the acting seems forced, out of sync and with a slow, strange pacing. At multiple places, several minutes goes by with just "sounds" from people. Stellan Skarsgårds acting is slightly above the rest, but with the script and the directing, he is just barely above 1 star anyway. The "charming" animation is choppy, unnatural, unrealistic, childish and simplistic. And none of this in a "charming" manner but in the worst way you can interpret it. It just looks bad. But the worst part of the movie is the story. It is repetitive, awkward, makes no sense (in a bad way), and is extremely slowly paced. I almost fell asleep several times. One could easily have condensed this movie to 15-30 minutes, and it would have improved it a lot. I think the high critic score is due to political reasons, we are supposed to like it due to the actors and the budget, but it really is a train wreck of a movie.

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