Michael's Movie Grade: B-
I am going to be honest when this Disney + Original Movie started I had little to no faith that I was going to enjoy this at all. Live action talking animal films have honestly been terrible lately and I thought this was going to be another failure in the long string of misses lately. When the animals started telling terrible jokes, horrible flashbacks of Doolittle started to settle in. I was completely ready to hate this, when something strange happened, I started to find myself involved with the story. It wasn't the most original story, but the emotion felt so real and I discovered underneath the horrible jokes, Ivan and Ruby were very likable and relatable. While the other animals were simply there for reasons of terrible jokes, they are kept very much in the background, while the two animals I cared about held this story together. I was also pleased that the ringleader was not the one dimensional villain he could of easily been. Though he sometimes loses his temper (like any of us do) and his desire to put on a perfect show makes him do less than likable things, you actually get the feeling that he cares for these animals, even if what he thinks is best for them isn't always what is best. The humor never gets better and there is entirely too much of it in this movie, but this movie overcomes its faults with a good heart and likable lead characters.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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