GOAT reminds Christian families to cheer for humility over hype

Film: GOAT

Age rating: PG

Runtime: 100 minutes

See this if you liked: Zootropolis 2, KPop Demon Hunters

Summary of the plot:

Will Harris is a literal goat but dreams of being the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) in roarball (aka animal basketball). When he is signed up as a wild card to his home team, he must overcome the giants in his way and bring the team together so that they can win the coveted Claw trophy and prove that you’re never too small to dream big.

Review

Sony Picture Animation has produced some of the millennium’s finest animated movies – Into the Spider-Verse, KPop Demon Hunters, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It also released the Emoji Movie. GOAT is nowhere near the bottom of their list but it doesn’t quite reach the heights of the aforementioned animated giants either.

The concept is a lot of fun and one that awakens the Space Jam nostalgia in me. Animals playing basketball should be a slam dunk, but this movie never quite finds its feet, often dropping the ball on the way.

Caleb McLaughlin (Stranger Things) does a great job voicing Will Harris, a small goat, who dreams big of playing for his home team The Thorns. Struggling to pay his rent to a guineapig with an ever-growing family, it looks like Will’s dream is a fantasy. But after nearly beating the bad boy of the game, Mane Attraction (yep, you guessed it, a horse), he finds himself recruited onto his hometeam.

The animation is gorgeous

However, he faces some big obstacles, literally. The other players are a rhino (Archie), a Komodo dragon (Modo), an ostrich (Olivia), a giraffe (Lenny) and a panther (Jet). Jet is Will’s hero, a panther who has scored many times in the roarball games but has never managed to get her team the victory and the Claw trophy.

Coming out so soon after the mega-success that is Zootropolis 2 (read my review for that here), it’s hard not to make comparisons. Unfortunately, Zootropolis does a much better job at the animal comedy and character development. But that doesn’t mean GOAT isn’t worth a watch.

The animation is gorgeous, Sony’s ambitious 2D/3D hybrid once again creating stunning visuals. The environments are stunning to look at but I wish we had been able to explore the world a little bit more.

Overall, it is a fun film with some good jokes (brodents being my favourite)

Where this film falls down is the directing. I was expecting the roarball matches to be more visually exciting and innovative, but they all felt pretty flat and uninspired in comparison to the fast-paced, inventive sequences in both KPop Demon Hunters and Spider-Verse movies.

The other problem is that the film doesn’t quite know who its protagonist is. This should be Will’s story, rising to the top of the game, but it becomes much more Jet’s story and overcoming her ego to allow the team to thrive. The emotional beats never really hit because you know how it’s going to end.

Overall, it is a fun film with some good jokes (brodents being my favourite) that will likely keep your kids entertained over the half-term break, but it might not become a firm family favourite in the long run.

Faith thoughts

Will doesn’t allow others to look down on him but instead shows them that he is more than capable of playing the game, so it’s a good movie for children who are struggling with being bullied or picked on – they can be reminded not to ‘let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity’ (1 Timothy 4:12). Will shows the others another way to play the game, a way that builds each other up, not by tearing each other down.

Jet struggles with her ego, thinking that she’s the winning formula on the team. Always desperate to make the final shot, she inadvertently makes her teammates feel useless and undervalued. Will teaches her humility and allows the other players to see their strengths. For children, and adults alike, it’s easy to find the flaws in others (Matthew 7:3) but finding the good in others and allowing them to shine ahead of you is a biblical approach to life.

Read more:

‘Golden’ from KPop Demon Hunters gives Christian parents a way to talk about real hope

“HS4 at midnight” frenzy shows Christian parents the power of music for teens

Jesus sent the 72 ahead of him, encouraging them to go off and perform miracles and wonders. Jesus could have done it all, we know he could – he knew he could! – but he knew it was important that the disciples had a chance to do God’s work whilst he was around because soon, he wouldn’t be.

I know that I can be guilty of thinking that without me things won’t go as well as they could. I’ve definitely had times in my ministry when I tried to do everything and delegated very little, feeling as though it was my burden to bear and my responsibility to do a good job. But we have to let others join in the work. We’re not in this alone, we have God on our side, but we also have our church community too, cheering us on, willing to give us an extra hand when we need it and even when we don’t know we need it.