Director – Tyree Dillihaye – Co-Director – Adam Rosette – 2025 – US – Cert. PG – 100m
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A goat sets out to prove that despite being small he can play professional roarball just as well as the big guys who populate the sport – animated feature is out in UK cinemas on Friday, February 13th
In a world where ‘smalls’ and ‘bigs’ live side by side, Will Harris (voice: Caleb McLoughlin) is a small goat who wants nothing more than to play roarball, and is thrilled when his mum (voice: ) takes him to see his first game with local team the Vineland Thorns. Their star player is Jett Fillmore (voice: Gabrielle Union), a leopard. Like most of the played, she is huge. Much, much bigger than the comparatively tiny Will. The Thorns’ nemesis is Magma, who likewise have their own huge star player, Mane Attraction, who looks like a cross between a lion and horse. Bigs dominate the world of roarball, and keep smalls out of it with the simple motto, “smalls don’t ball.” But Will is the determined sort, not one to take no for an answer.
Other members of the Thorns include: Olivia Burch (voice: Nicola Coughlan), an ostrich depressed by fan comments on social media who deals with the problem by burying her head in the sand. Archie Everhard (voice: David Harbour) is a rhino whose unstoppable charging has been somewhat tempered by his becoming the father of two adorable small rhino girls. Modo Olachenko (voice: Nick Kroll) is part Russian Oligarch and part Komodo Dragon, an unpredictable force with whom to be reckoned. Lenny Willaimson (voice: Stephen Curry) is the tallest player on the court by virtue of being a giraffe. Proboscis monkey Dennis Cooper (voice: Patton Oswald) is the team’s awkward and indecisive coach.
Will grows from boy to man and finds himself renting a room from Frank (voice: Wayne Knight), a jerbil whose wife produces babies as fast as is jerbil-ly possible. His home is occupied by hundreds of the little critters, which means that. Although he’s essentially a nice guy, he’s unable to cut Will any slack on paying his rent – and Will is struggling to keep up with his rent. Will’s spare time is partly spend at The Cage, a local Roarball training facility where you can practise shooting hoops. Will is pretty good at it too – but can only practise when no-one else (i.e. no bigs) is around. The rest of his time is spent in the home of his two best mates Daryl the capybara (voice: Eduardo Franco) and Hannah the aardwolf (voice: Sherry Cola) playing video games. When Will finds himself challenging Jett at hoops in The Cage, and doing pretty well at it too, his two mates film the incident and turn in into a viral video.
Suddenly, the Thorns’ owner, stylish warthog Flo Everson (voice: Jennifer Lewis) has Will sign a contract. He’s on the team. His next challenge is to get the others, in particular Jett, to let him actually play in a match. Which they won’t do as a matte of course because, as everyone knows, “smalls don’t ball.”How is he to achieve his big dream of playing on the field for the Thorns?
The city in which Will lives is a mix of Brooklyn and Brazil. An unlikely combination, perhaps, but a highly effective one not like anything seen previously elsewhere in the movies.
Outside of the roarball fixtures themselves, the artistry of the animation itself is a joy to behold. Once you get onto the pitch with the players, the action is so fast and frenetic that the games become impossible to follow.
That’s a shame, because the filmmakers clearly have strong ideas about, and a desire to show, roarball, but the game is so confusing, they might have been better off sticking with the more familiar basketball.
More material explores the constant use of smartphones; as someone who owns a smartphone, but doesn’t actually look at it all that much, I couldn’t really relate. This movie is designed for a smartphone- / social media-addicted audience with a near zero attention span. If you’re not constantly on and off your mobile, and I’m not, you may find watching this a chore, and I’m afraid I did.
There is one scene where the action slows down as Will spends time to reflect on his roarball career, fast going nowhere, to the tune of (a cover version of) Crowded House song Don’t Dream It’s Over. This scene came as a most welcome and enjoyable moment of relief as te action slowed down and, for a brief three or so minutes, the action became much easier to follow..
Goat is out in cinemas in the UK on Friday, February 13th.
Trailer: