Big Trip (2019)

Directed by: Vasiliy Rovenskiy, Natalya Nilova | 84 minutes | animation, adventure | Dutch voice cast: Ivan Pecknik, Paul Boereboom, Dieter Spileers, Jonathan Demoor, Jelle Amersfoort, Bas Keijzer, Luca van Ammers | Original voice cast: Drake Bell, Pauly Shore, Danila Medvedev, Jonathan Salway, Bernard Carl, Katherine Marie, Brodey Evan, David Andrew Grout, Stephen Thomas Ochsner, Joseph Sell

One animation film is not the other. Because it is not easy to make an original film, many filmmakers follow the adage ‘better stolen well than badly conceived’. But that ‘good stealing’ is not so easy either. This is proven by the Russian animation film ‘Big Trip’ (2019) by director Vasiliy Rovenskiy, who is mainly active in his own country and, in addition to animation films, also makes rather flat romantic comedies. For ‘Big Trip’ he teamed up with the American Billy Frolick, who in 2005 co-wrote the successful ‘Madagascar’ and can still take the credit for the many spin-offs and sequels. The films he makes (for example ‘Monster Island’ in 2017) follow a similar pattern: a colorful company of clashing characters goes on an adventure together and has to overcome the necessary obstacles along the way. In Russia, that formula apparently works like a charm and so Rovenskiy and Frolick wrote the screenplay for ‘Big Trip’ together. Where the protagonists in ‘Madagascar’ are a lion, a zebra, a giraffe and a hippo, this one revolves around a bear, a moose, a tiger and a rabbit who go on a mission and encounter the necessary colorful – and above all busy – encounter animal characters.

Mic-Mic is a grumpy bear who prefers to be left alone (those who know ‘Masha and the Bear’ know that animated Russian bears suffer from this more often). The one who mainly gets on his nerves is the other-worldly hare Oscar, who has taken it into his head to fly to the moon with a self-crafted spaceship. That plan, to Mic-Mic’s dismay, is of course completely ruined. But then a bundle ends up on the doorstep of the grumbler, containing a newborn panda bear that has been delivered to the wrong house by a stray stork. Mic-Mic is maddened by the panda’s howling, but Oscar manages to silence him wonderfully, so as long as the panda is with them, Mic-Mic is at the mercy of Oscar to get some rest. Because the baby has to go to his parents as soon as possible, the two decide to take the boat to China. Along the way, they meet a chatty pelican (with no ‘switch off’), a timid wolf, a mole who is not blind but deaf for a change, and a poetic tiger who likes to quote Shakespeare and Byron. Mic-Mic finds them all equally exhausting, but also realizes that only together can they manage to bring the panda bear home.

In the field of animation films, the bar is set very high, thanks to innovative or headstrong studios such as Disney/Pixar, Studio Ghibli, Laika and the Irish Cartoon Saloon. The Russian makers of Big Trip are nowhere near that. Everything shows that their technical skills do not extend as far as the aforementioned competitors. In fact, here and there it looks quite amateurish what Rovenskiy and co show. Moreover, the characters are not very appealing – except for the frightened wolf perhaps – and above all very busy. The team behind ‘Big Trip’ seems to be thinking; let’s disguise our inability with a suffocating sound and color explosion, then it might be less noticeable. But that noise and bustle make the film very tiring. The balance is also skewed: on the one hand the film focuses on the smallest viewers (who might even find all that bouncing amusing), on the other hand there are ‘jokes’ and references that will go completely over the top (the tiger for example). And the message that the film wants to convey is one from the ‘thirteen-in-a-dozen’ category. All very original, but not really. As inspiring as some animated films are made, ‘Big Trip’ is so flat. You tend to think that this film was made purely for commercial purposes. Unfortunately, the public can easily see through that today.