Sony Pictures Animation has been brimming with creativity within the medium as of late. Their two Spider-Verse films essentially upended the limits of what is possible in animation, and Kpop Demon Hunters ended up a global hit due to its unique central idea and ethereal visuals to match. Sony’s latest animated feature, GOAT, veers in both similar and distinct directions from Sony’s latest offerings, and the results this time are a bit more hit or miss.
GOAT, like its contemporaries, packs a punch in the visuals department, showcasing its style of basketball in consistently electric animation that’s an absolute wonder to look at. However, the film suffers from its by-the-numbers underdog sports storyline, breakneck pace that rarely lets emotional beats sit, and a world of anthropomorphic animals that feels less clever than it should be. Still, despite GOAT being on the weaker side of recent Sony Animation accomplishments, its insanely energetic visuals and witty parallels to the reality of modern NBA culture elevate it to a solid enough family flick, flaws and all.
GOAT’s main story begins following our titular central goat character, Will Harris (Caleb McLaughlin), who has always dreamed of playing on his hometown’s roarball team, The Thorns. He struggles to make ends meet as a delivery boy for a local diner but persists through it all and worships at the idol of his favorite player on the Thorns, Jett Fillmore (Gabrielle Union), a long-celebrated jaguar player who’s nearing the end of her glory days and has yet to win the Thorns the championship trophy known as the claw.
After Will goes viral for breaking the ankles of the lead player of the Magma team, Mane Attraction (Aaron Pierre), it catches the attention of the Thorns manager, Florence Everson (Jenifer Lewis), who sees signing Will onto the team as an opportunity to pull the team out of their losing streak. Jett and the rest of Will’s new teammates are less enthused to be letting a goat join their team, given Will’s tiny size compared to your average roarball player, but Will is determined to beat the odds and prove that smalls can ball.
Based on that quick setup for the main story surrounding GOAT, you can pretty much predict the broad strokes of everything that goes down in this story. It’s the classic underdog tale we’ve all seen before within most of the film’s confines, and this would matter less considering we have Jett’s story of growing with your legacy and learning to accept your prime days are behind you. This is something that is appreciated in a children’s film, but the movie zips through the dramatic moments between these characters so fast that the themes stick a bit less than they should.
Even whilst having a wide array of unique animal characters, GOAT’s actual anthropomorphic world is shockingly weak. Unless the film surrounds itself in the wild game of roarball, the actual locals of this world of animals are like a less clever version of Zootopia. There doesn’t seem to be much thought behind it besides animals doing what humans would normally be doing in society, with the addition of out-of-place product placement. There aren’t even that many animal puns besides the occasional “too good to resist” screaming goat gag.
Despite these issues hampering it from being more creative on the whole, GOAT still ends up on the winning side, thanks in large part to its animation. We’ve seen the hybrid 2D and 3D mixed animation style throughout various films now, and all sorts of animation studios are using it to their unique advantage, but I love how unique each implementation of the style has been for separate films, and GOAT is no exception.
The roarball games are truly exhilarating, and the cinematography of showcasing a heightened version of such a popular sport is something that can only be accomplished within the animation medium. Every pass, jumpshot, and dunk flows so well with the sketchy stylization, and the insane scale of each roarball court elevates the visuals to be the standout of the entire experience.
Something to also appreciate about GOAT is that, while its broad world leaves world-building left to be desired, there is a clear reverence for basketball culture and the NBA at large. It’s moments of showing off its own knock of a version of the NBA2K series of videogames or recognizing the inspirations from basketball at large, where GOAT is at its most clever.
It’s cool seeing each player on the Thorns fit an archetype you’d normally find in the actual game, like the big paint beast rhino Archie (David Harbour), a speed-oriented player like the ostrich Olivia (Nicola Coughlan), or even Stephen Curry as the lanky giraffe, Lenny, playing completely against his actual role in basketball. These aspects are nothing groundbreaking, but they’re something extra to recognize within the movie’s details.
GOAT’s more cliched story elements and weak humor make it just a step under the quality of Sony Animation’s recent films, but its constant visual flair and showcase of its own unique brand of basketball help it come out as a solid enough family flick. A superior basketball film with cartoon characters to the Space Jam films, and that, in a weird way, is worth a compliment.
GOAT’s more cliched story elements and weak humor make it just a step under the quality of Sony Animation’s recent films, but its constant visual flair and showcase of its own unique brand of basketball help it come out as a solid enough family flick.
Lover of film writing about film. Member of the Dallas Fort-Worth Critics Association. The more time passes, the more the medium of movies has become deeply intertwined with who I am.
