Goat review: A delightful sports comedy for all the family
Thanks to their recent animated successes with KPop Demon Hunters and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, I felt pretty confident about Sony Pictures latest animation Goat.
This sports comedy tells the story of an anthropomorphic goat named Will (voiced by Caleb McLaughlin), who has always dreamed of playing for the Thorns in the basketball-like game roarball, only he is a “small” and roarball is considered a game for big animals. However, when his ball skills go viral, Will is hired by Thorns team owner, warthog Flo (Jenifer Lewis), to mix things up amid a losing streak, much to the annoyance of Will’s longtime idol, the GOAT Jett Fillmore (Gabrielle Union), a black panther.
Like Zootropolis, I really love how Goat gives animals human qualities and considers how different animals live, go about their day and interact with each other. While they are mostly humanised, they have some of their true animal traits, such as Jett preferring to sleep in a tree rather than a bed, teammate Modo (Nick Kroll), a Komodo dragon, often shedding his skin at awkward times and ostrich Olivia (Nicola Coughlan) literally burying her head in the sand. It’s interesting to see how these different animals – including giraffe Lenny (Stephen Curry) and rhino Archie (David Harbour) – work as a sports team.
Unfortunately for the Thorns, they’re not working well as a team at this moment. They’re on a terrible run and a lot of fans are calling for Jett to retire, which she refuses to do because she feels she has more to give. But this has made Jett very selfish and not a good team player; she hogs the ball, has no faith in her teammates and (unsuccessfully) tries to win each game by herself. Naturally, she’s furious about Will’s inclusion (having a small is humiliating!) but he manages to bring them all together and help Jett see the power of working as a team.
I really appreciated the fact that the Jett – the greatest roarball player of all time – is female. I just naturally assumed the character would be male, so I was pleasantly surprised when she started talking. Union really grounds the story as the super serious character surrounded by the sweet, naïve Will and a bunch of oddballs. However, my favourite voice actor has to be Lewis as the no-nonsense team owner Flo because she does not suffer fools.
Goat is an enjoyable family film with plenty of jokes, bold, vibrant visuals, sports action sequences and a great message about teamwork and dreaming big. It doesn’t reach the highs of KPop Demon Hunters, Spider-Man: Into/Across the Spider-Verse or Zootropolis, but it’s still a fun ride.
In cinemas from Friday 13th February