A film suffering from the syndrome of being a sequel for the sake of it. It's made up of saccharine set-pieces and musical numbers very loosely held together by an (almost) arbitrary plot. It is a mass-produced feeling animation with no real soul or conviction.
It isn't cute, original, or entertaining in the way the first film was, and even my 4 year old daughter found a lot of it quite dull. A lot of the musical references point to 90s and early 2000s boy bands that completely miss the target audience on subject matter, and are painfully "try hard" on offering something to parents. The "moral" of the story is unclear also, without wishing to lay on any spoilers it's either an extremely crude jab at animal cruelty or plagiarism, or a lazy, generic "family" message. I am none the wiser.
The big name cast is simply inoffensive, but without any prior knowledge you'd be hard-pressed to identify anyone. Again, unsure who they're trying to sell to with that but if a 4-year-old is unimpressed and their parents don't care then who is it for?
Ultimately it's harmless fun and nothing more, and younger children will enjoy the songs and dancing for the 90 minutes they last. They'll probably have forgotten it all by the time they're back home, and parents will enjoy the nap.
It isn't cute, original, or entertaining in the way the first film was, and even my 4 year old daughter found a lot of it quite dull. A lot of the musical references point to 90s and early 2000s boy bands that completely miss the target audience on subject matter, and are painfully "try hard" on offering something to parents. The "moral" of the story is unclear also, without wishing to lay on any spoilers it's either an extremely crude jab at animal cruelty or plagiarism, or a lazy, generic "family" message. I am none the wiser.
The big name cast is simply inoffensive, but without any prior knowledge you'd be hard-pressed to identify anyone. Again, unsure who they're trying to sell to with that but if a 4-year-old is unimpressed and their parents don't care then who is it for?
Ultimately it's harmless fun and nothing more, and younger children will enjoy the songs and dancing for the 90 minutes they last. They'll probably have forgotten it all by the time they're back home, and parents will enjoy the nap.