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James Marsh

3/5 stars
For more than a century, movies have been adapted from novels, plays, television shows and real-life historical events.
But recently, cinematic spectacles have derived from board games, toys, emojis – and now biscuits.
Dream Animals: The Movie is a colourful, family-friendly animation inspired by the Japanese snack of the same name.


The bite-sized animal-shaped cookies emblazoned with words such as “lion”, “monkey”, and “rabbit” – in English – have been a beloved confection around the world since they were first launched by Japanese food giant Ginbis in 1978.
Until now, they have existed solely as a snack, but writer Tetsuhiro Ikeda and director Hitoshi Takekiyo have conjured up an entire action-packed universe for these animal crackers to inhabit.
Set in the magical world of Sweets Land, where humans and sentient confectionery exist side by side, Dream Animals are a world-famous pop group composed of anthropomorphic mammals.
Fronted by charismatic lead singer Lion (voiced by Genta Matsuda), Dream Animals have just completed a sell-out world tour.

But on their return home, they discover, to their horror, that their home city has been overrun by the Gottons – villainous sticky balls of candyfloss intent on world domination.
Putting aside the petty infighting that looked to threaten the future of Dream Animals, Lion, Monkey, Chick, Hippo and the rest of the menagerie band together with a young girl (Liliana Ono) to save Pegasus (Akari Takaishi) and restore peace to Sweets Land.
As far as fantasy narratives go, Dream Animals: The Movie is surprisingly thorough in its world-building and characterisation, whipping up a fast-paced and occasionally humorous adventure that comes together with impressive ease.
The script sets out the rules by which the animals can transform from biscuit to animal form and back again – a revelation to the characters themselves – while also making time for introspection on the part of protagonists and antagonists alike.

The animation is bright and fluid throughout, while the Dream Animals themselves are so irresistibly cute and fluffy they go so far as to sing chart-topping ditties about it.
It comes as quite the surprise that what could so easily have been little more than a crass and vacuous feature-length commercial to shift a few more boxes of biscuits is actually a wholesome bite of sweet-natured fun.
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This cute animated film could have simply been an advertisement for the snacks it’s based on, but instead delivers thoughtful family-friendly fun


This cute animated film could have simply been an advertisement for the snacks it’s based on, but instead delivers thoughtful family-friendly fun.


Asian cinema

Film reviews

Cinema

Japanese anime film reviews

What to do in Hong Kong

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Animals

An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


Review

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}This cute animated film could have simply been an advertisement for the snacks it’s based on, but instead delivers thoughtful family-friendly fun

This cute animated film could have simply been an advertisement for the snacks it’s based on, but instead delivers thoughtful family-friendly fun