I have a goal to see all the animated films released each year and 2015 is no exception.  I thought I had a good handle on the films coming out but was surprised today when looking at the box office to see an animated film that had flown under my radar.  It is a Mexican film called Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos.  Being Monday is my movie day I went out gave it a watch.

Gallo (as I will call it) is made by Huevocartoon Producciones and it is done with mostly CG with some 2D dream sequences thrown in (kind of strange the characters dream in 2D?).  Over all, I thought the animation looked pretty good especially considering a 5 million budget.  It’s bright and colorful and tells the story pretty well.  It’s really hard to believe Dreamwork’s Home cost 135 million and I certainly liked this better than that…(Isn’t that just insanity that one movie can cost 130 million more not including marketing than another!).

Anyway, Gallo features a bevy of Mexican stars doing voice performances and to my ear at least they all did a fine job.  The music by Zacarias M de la Riva was also pretty good.

Gallo is about on the level of Minions for me.  The plot isn’t that great and it had way too much adult humor but there was some things to like.  Over all, I thought it was average movie. I’m glad I saw it.

It’s about a rooster named Toto who is the runt of the litter but always dreamed of fighting in the cock fights downtown (evidently cock fights are legal in Mexico).  These cock fights are actually done with gloves like a boxing match. There’s a star fighter named Bankivoide and a former star fighter called The Red Rooster.

A sort of weird element to the film is that the eggs all have personalities and talk.  I was a little bit late so I may have missed an explanation but it didn’t seem like these eggs were ever going to crack which I found strange.  There is also a piece of bacon that moves and talks which was strange. You think a processed slice piece of meat, even if it is pork, might make the chickens a little uncomfortable.

You do see the owner of the farm and her husband has died and they are behind on the mortgage.  Unfortunately this brings us the tired plot we’ve seen a million times of ‘save the farm’. Sigh…

The animals decide to enter Red Rooster in a cock fight to win back the money to save the farm but when they challenge Bankivoide the Godfather Egg (yes, you read right) says Toto must enter the fight.

They accept the offer and Red Rooster tries to find a duck who beat him when he was a fighter.  This leads to a strange section with a rapping Snoop Duck…The star duck has died but his trainer egg is around and he agrees to train Toto.

There is also a sexy chicken that looks like a peacock who sets vultures on Toto and the gang so that they won’t beat Bankivoide.

It’s very predictable and silly but just nutty enough to be mildly entertaining.  However, the kids in my audience did not seem to enjoy it and kept having to go in and out, up and down the aisles (was a little annoying!).

As a movie fan there were some pretty good in-jokes and references to other movies that made me laugh.  The script isn’t that bad. It’s just in the service of a super corny, played-out story.

And there are a lot of inappropriate jokes.  We get jokes like the sexy bird singing about a rooster ‘hitting my sweet spot’ and lots of jokes about cocks and breasts that were completely uncalled for.  It will probably over most little kids heads but that is no excuse.  I hate that kind of content in children’s films.

If your kids speak Spanish then it might be a good experience for them to hear a movie in their language, or if they are trying to learn Spanish it could be a useful tool.  It’s right on that level of Minions.  Bright, colorful, a few laughs and weird choices to keep me semi-interested.  It’s not one to rush out to see but if you get a chance give it a watch.

Here is the trailer to give you more of an idea.

Overall Grade- C, Content- B-