The One and Only Ivan Review

"The One and Only Ivan" is a Disney Plus movie that most people have probably looked over due to it 

being a film with realistic CGI talking animals. The cast features Bryan Cranston as Mack the adopted 

father and keeper of the one and only Ivan who is a special silverback gorilla with a unique artistic 

talent voiced by Sam Rockwell. Among the cast is Angelina Jolie who plays a key supporting 

character, Stella the wise old elephant. The movie starts off by showing off each individual animal at 

the circus including Ivan. Unfortunately, it looks like over the years people have lost interest in the 

circus causing Mack to get a new animal for the circus. This is when the baby elephant Ruby is brought

 into the circus, who instantly steals the thunder from Ivan who use to be the main headliner of the 

circus show. Naturally Stella is the one that takes care of Ruby in her first few weeks but not long after 

Stella passes away but not before getting Ivan to promise her to bring Ruby to the wilds. The rest of the 

movie is about Ivan transforming from a jealous Gorilla to a father figure for Ruby and attempting to 

find ways to not only help the circus but eventually set Ruby free into the wilds. That is the main plot 

of the movie, but along the way, we get to learn about Ivan's relationship with Mack and his tragic 

backstory. The other animals at the circus play minor roles but the main focus is on Ivan and Ruby 

supported by Bob the dog. 

The One And Only Ivan Disney+ Trailer Shows Sam Rockwell As A Particularly Great Ape - GameSpot

This movie really makes you feel sorry for animals stuck in captivity especially those in circuses. In

terms of human characters, Mack is the most important alongside a girl named Julia who spends her 

time talking to Ivan and giving him art supplies to draw and paint. Honestly, the movie made Mack out 

as very greedy, but when we are given more insight into his and Mack's history it becomes very 

confusing to why he is depicted as so since we know he cares about his animals. Besides that, I thought

 Bryan Cranston played his role fine but the film really didn't do Mack as a character justice. At the end

 of the day, he lost everything but I guess since this film is based on real events, I can't really complain 

about how Mack is as a character. Seeing Ivan grow to be a very father-like figure to Ruby was very 

nice and his dynamic with Bob were the best parts of the movie. The animals in terms of visuals looked 

life-like despite being completely CGI, I really felt like they were real animals being filmed. I thought

 that overall the movie was pleasant and got you to feel for captive animals in real life. I would give 

this movie a 7 out of 10, a pleasant film that has decent dialogue and story for a family movie. With 

how little there is on Disney Plus in terms of new original content, you can do a lot worst than "The 

One and Only Ivan." 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Glitch Techs Review

Glitch Techs a Netflix original animated show created by Nickelodeon is a love letter to gaming. It is a show about two teenagers named Five and Miko who are hardcore gamers that get recruited to a Men In Black like-organization that fight against game glitches instead of aliens. Like MIB, they have cool gadgets including the ability to mind wipe people which is straight up from MIB, not to say its a bad thing, in fact, it totally works with the premise of the show. Initially going into this show I thought that it would be more gear towards kids, but although it does appeal to kids there are a lot of things such as references that people who grew up playing games in the 80s & 90s would appreciate that kids now wouldn't know about it. For instance, one episode is entirely dedicated to Castlevania and throughout the series there is chock-full of references to all types of games not just Castlevania such as Dragonquest, Pokemon and Metal Gear Solid. The writing i...
Read more

Glitch Techs Season 2 Review

Image
Glitch Techs is awesome and I couldn't praise it enough. If you haven't watched the series yet, go watch  it now. Regardless, before you read any further, spoilers await you if you haven't watched season 2 of  Glitch Techs. Season 2 of Glitch Techs is an improvement in all aspects besides the environments and   diversity of settings, this is disappointing considering that the first season had the most amazing  game inspired environments such as the Castlevania dungeon and Dragon Quest inspired location.  Besides that the animation is cleaner, the writing is better and more character-focused. This season gave a lot of development to Five, Miko, Mitch Williams, and Phil. It also introduced a new character that is fairly important in terms of fleshing out the world of Glitch Techs. This character is an illegal  modder named Ridley who introduces the concept of hacking Hanobi tech and creating their own  glitches which will surely be important for fut...
Read more

Kipo Season 2 Review

Image
Wow, Kipo season 2 really took what was great about its first season and took it up a couple of notches, making an even greater season than it's first. Season one took it's time world-building and introducing us to our main cast of characters. It also most importantly set up questions that would be ultimately be answered in season 2. One of the best parts of season 2 was the payoffs to the questions set up by the first season. From Kipo's powers to Kipo's mother to Scarlemagne's relationship with Kipo's parents and much more. Not only did we get big payoffs to a lot of questions but we also got huge payoffs in terms of character arcs. Kipo's arc this season is very derivative of the chosen one stereotype where the main character has learned to control her powers in order to save everyone but has to overcome mental barriers to do so. This in itself is very common in coming of age stories but the way that Kipo's arc is tied to learning he...
Read more