In 2017, Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus had their final performance. I have no nostalgia for the circus, only going once when I was an adult, but even then you could tell that things were beginning to end for that particular brand of entertainment. There were a lot of factors that led to the end of the circus, but at the forefront was their treatment of animals, with accusations of mistreatment and forcing them to perform to noisy crowds across the country. Interestingly, Animal Crackers, the new animated film about the circus from Netflix was originally scheduled for US distribution in 2017, the same year circuses were folding up the big tops for the last time. There are some admirable things about Animal Crackers, some impressive vocal performances, inspired design choices, and some decent jokes, but there are elements that are difficult to overlook. There are some frustrating inconsistencies, a subplot that feels like it’s going nowhere, and some uninspired songs (with one notable exception.) But at the core is the way that it treats animals at the circus. While magic gives the story a workaround to having animal talent, having the message of “what is a circus without animals” just feels wrong.
The story of Animal Crackers is a relatively simple one. Owen and his wife Zoe have to save the circus of Owen’s uncle from his other uncle. (Owen is, of course, the offspring of a third, unseen sibling.) At one time the brothers were partners, though one was arrogant and pompous, caring only for fame and wealth, while the other was kind and empathetic, caring about entertaining and making people happy. After the fortune teller’s niece chooses the kind brother and splits the circus apart. The couple runs a successful circus thanks to, what we later find out, are magical animal crackers that turn you into the animal you eat. After the couple’s mysterious demise, Owen has to decide whether he wants to rehabilitate the circus or impress his father in law who owns a dog biscuit company. Everyone has clear motivations. Owen wants to prove to his father in law that he is worthy of his daughter’s love. Zoe is trying to recapture the magic of their youth when they fell in love at the circus. Horatio wants to exploit his brother’s legacy and take over the circus, it all for the most part works.
This is, in a big way, thanks to some really solid voice performances from the cast of Animal Crackers. While John Krasinski and Emily Blunt aren’t exactly doing anything noteworthy, their relationship is cute and gives a solid emotional core to the movie. But there are other performances that bring a lot to the table. Danny Devito is a lot of fun as Chesterfield, the circus’s top clown, and the narrator who brings big energy to the movie. Patrick Warburton is a smug and smarmy rising executive in the dog food company who makes that particular subplot memorable as he messes with Owen’s master plan of creating dog food that tastes like people food. Sir Ian McKellen brings a comically high level of gravitas to the villain Horatio. He even gets a couple of fun little Gandalf lines thrown in for good measure. But the standout of the movie is Gilbert Godfried as Zucchini. Zucchini is Horatio’s inept number one henchman who thinks he’s the one in charge of the crew. He also narrates everything he does in the movie, which might sound like it could become obnoxious, but always worked for me. Finally, Sylvester Stallone does his best Vin Diesel as “Bulletman” the human bullet who can only say his name.
The other thing that worked was the design of Animal Crackers. There are some pretty clear choices to making things look as cartoony as possible, which is fun in a CGI movie. Many of the characters have weirdly elongated designs and exaggerated features, which makes them all visually unique, and sets feature a lot of strong angles and weird oblong shapes. The designs of the animals were also fun. All of them had slightly exaggerated features which were a lot of fun to see. Also, in the climactic fight, we get some fun hybrid animals when Horatio’s goons eat broken pieces of other animals. The colors too are wild which makes the whole world feel heightened. Animal Crackers is directed by Tony Bancroft, who did a lot of work during the Disney Renaissance, and most notable directed Mulan. There are some fun sequences, including Zucchini riding his moped through a house, which is only enhanced by Godfried’s acting. Coincidentally enough, Bancroft was a primary animator of Iago in Aladdin While the character designs get some taking used to, it was nice to see that the team was making the world feel unique.
That being said, there are a lot of things that didn’t work as well in Animal Crackers. A big one is Esmerelda, the fortune teller. There are some jokes about the Romani people that felt very out of place even in 2017 when the film was originally made. While Horatio had a fun good villain song, most of the movie’s songs pretty forgettable as they played over montages. Also, there were moments near the end that felt like a less clever version of The Emperor’s New Groove as Owen jumps from cracker to cracker transforming himself into animals to fight Horatio’s chimera. Also while the movie is VERY CLEAR that the animals in the show are transformed humans, there was something that just felt weird about watching the crowd demand seeing animals perform. The fact that the success of the whole enterprise rested on the shoulders of animals just felt offputting. There were also big questions that kept getting raised by the movie. The last fight turns out to be in front of a packed house. So are people aware that the amazing animals are transformed humans? Does that make it more exciting? They’re seeing actual magic, in many ways I guess that’s much better. There were also a few big reveals later in the movie that seemed pretty obvious from the getgo, but it’s possible that it works better for the intended audience. At the end of the day, Animal Crackers has some charming voice performances and some unique designs but probably works best for a younger crowd. There are a few jokes here and there for the grownups in the room, but overall it’s nothing memorable.
