Nate At The Movies

Day 2 of the Valentine’s Day Weekend Theater Crawl has come and gone, and GOAT was second on the docket. I’d actually become more and more excited about this one since it was announced last year. At that point, it seemed gimmicky and simple, but my tune changed once I turned my brain back on and remembered that Sony’s has been on fire lately. With their stellar, experimental animation and a basketball-centric story produced by Steph Curry, how was I not always behind this one? It was a good time.

From the jump, the animation and world-building stood out as the film’s best qualities. GOAT’s style was inspired by the Spider-Verse and KPop Demon Hunters but had its own unique flourishes, too. Like KPop Demon Hunters, the action sequences (roarball, in this case) were really well-choreographed and super fun to watch. Beyond the great animation, though, I loved the world-building. This world felt so thought-out and lived-in, with every team having unique environments, stadiums, and players. Roarball was just different enough from basketball to keep everyone’s attention, and even before they introduced Roar2K did I wish so badly that this was a video game. I’d love to play!

The story was pretty simple but did a good job balancing journeys for two different and opposing characters. The lessons offered to younger audiences were plain—“dream big, no matter who you are” and “put the ego aside and work as a team”—but delivered cleanly, albeit at way too fast a speed by the end. The pacing was a little rough, but it could’ve easily been fixed if the meandering opening was tightened up so the finale could breathe. The movie was also funny in spurts, but not as consistently hilarious as something like a KPop Demon Hunters or The Mitchell’s vs. the Machines. GOAT did a great job developing their meaningful side characters, though—a compliment which can’t always be given to the animation giants, especially Disney and Pixar recently.

GOAT was a real crowd-pleaser, and thank goodness for the crowd I saw this with today. Whether it was the long weekend, the quality of the product, or the rain that led them to the theater, it was so much more fun to see this with a big, family-heavy audience that really enjoyed it. I had a good time with GOAT, even if it was a slight step down from the heights that Sony Animation has reached in the last few years. The basketball culture was thick (I loved the real-life basketball references, the NBA/WNBA voice cameos, and “what’s this? They’ve added time back to the clock!”—we all did that) and the soundtrack was predictably bangin’. As a basketball lover, this was really fun, and as a moviegoer, it was pretty solid there as well.