Nate At The Movies

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

Animation fans have been blessed over the last decade. I hate to simplify too much and give all the credit to the Spider-Verse films, but since Into the Spider-Verse came out in 2018, animation has been the medium of creative risk and experimentation. Though it feels like every major animation studio has been pushing the envelope for the last ten years, there are a few whose stagnation has left them fighting for scraps. Skydance Animation is among them—with stinkers like Luck and Spellbound—but things may be turning around, if Swapped is any indication.

The first sign that Swapped may be different was in the casting of newly-minted Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan as the main character. Jordan brought a prestige to this movie that Skydance hasn’t had before, and his chemistry with Juno Temple and Tracy Morgan was evident. Jordan likely won’t be doing much voice work moving forward, but he was a big plus here. Each performance across the pretty small cast was solid, and a lot of characters were elevated by the great animation and character design. Both Skydance and Illumination have largely failed to experiment in their animation style—which makes sense, considering where Lasseter and Meledandri came from and what they’re trying to emulate—but the landscapes and creative hybrid characters of Swapped was a clear step in the right direction for Skydance. There were some truly breathtaking shots, and the lighting was on point.

It was obvious that the story was going to tread familiar ground from the trailer, but the routes the story took to get to those familiar places were new. The film still drove home the lessons of “don’t judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes” and “we’re better together” that you’d find in Freaky Friday or The Wild Robot, but the film’s ability to clearly communicate both themes at the same time was impressive. The movie was a bit lacking in both really funny and really emotional moments, but that also meant that the few emotional moments were never undercut by shallow comedy. I hate when animated films think that their audience can’t absorb an emotional scene without a dumb joke or two, and Swapped surprisingly understood the assignment. Tracy Morgan led the sparse comedy as Boogle, and the twist villain was also quite the surprise. Morgan’s voice as a really scary villain took some getting used to, but he eventually settled in.

If I could make one change, though? The movie should’ve ended about five minutes before its actual ending. I won’t say why, but if that had happened, we’d be talking about a 4-star movie instead of a 3.5 star one. One of my favorite quotes is “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit”, and this movie had a chance to be my favorite representation of that quote in a movie. They missed the mark to satisfy the masses, I imagine, but it would’ve made me very happy. I may just pause the movie prematurely next time to get the ending that I want!

The last time that Netflix and Skydance Animation put a movie out together, it was pretty underwhelming, mostly because the talent surrounding the movie—Rachel Zegler and Alan Menken—felt so squandered. That was not the case with Swapped, thankfully, which ended up being a pretty cute, wholesome, and heartfelt adventure that took full advantage of its talent. The voice acting was solid, the animation was shockingly great, the story and its themes were succinct and clear for kids, and Siddhartha Khlosa’s score was able to glide and satisfy in its simplicity. I was pretty hopeful for Swapped coming in because of Jordan, and I’m so glad that he wasn’t the only good thing about this movie.