Combat Wombat

source: Combat Wombat

For a small production to reach the universe building and character depth this movie does is pretty good, at times it felt like it was almost wanting comparisons to zootopia or kung fu panda sometimes felt like Hamilton Mattress, but overall the story just didn't hold up and left the viewer wondering how such a good premise and design team were squandered on that story. I don't know why they didn't use fur textures too, seems like corners were cut choices were made and the result is a forgettable experience that was so close to being more and a damn shame for Australian animation industry potential. Better off rewatching old episodes of Blinky Bill, that universe felt more fleshed out.

I had the opportunity to sit down here late in 2020 to watch the animated movie "Combat Wombat" together with my 10 year old son. So, of course I did that, despite the fact of never even having heard about this animated movie prior to getting to watch it. So I didn't know what I was in for, nor did I know what to expect. Well, I will say that "Combat Wombat" was watchable, though it appealed more to my 10 year old son than it did to me. I suppose that is the purpose of animated movies as a rule of thumb, but some animated movies just have that particular appeal that sits well with children and adults alike. "Combat Wombat" wasn't one such animated movie. The storyline in "Combat Wombat" was pretty straight forward, and my son was enjoying it. I found it to be watchable, for sure, but it wasn't by any means particularly outstanding or memorable. Nor do I reckon that this is an animated movie that I will be returning to watch a second time. I will say, though, that the art style was definitely good. I liked how the animation worked out and how things looked here. That was definitely something that worked in favor of "Combat Wombat". All in all, "Combat Wombat" was watchable and mildly entertaining. But it just wasn't an animated movie that managed to captivate me like other animation movies of 2019 and 2020 did, for example. I am rating "Combat Wombat" a mediocre five out of ten stars.

This is the first thing on tv that my son has watched and laughed out loud at what is happening. For some reason he loves Sweetie and can't get enough of him. This 10 star rating is from him.

A badger befriends a wombat after accidentally falling into her burrow. They grow up and get married. They lived happily until something caused a cave-in. The badger managed to save his wife, but he was killed when the tunnel collapsed. The wombat tries to access the police case files to find him, dead of alive, but they are classified, so she is not allowed. In a parallel plot, an ostrich kicks some bad guys and is regarded as a superhero in the city, though he has no actual superpower or anything. He appears everywhere, in banners, ads and products. His story doesn't cross the protagonist's until 39 minutes into the film (three minutes away from the exact middle of its 1h25min length), when the wombat realises that the ostrich, being regarded as a superhero and, therefore, helping reinforcing the law, is allowed to read the case files. Deciding to play the superhero role to gain access to the case files, the wombat, with the help of an annoying sidekick, gets some stunts done and attracts attention of the ostrich's "talent manager", which provides all the sponsorship for that superhero. The manager is greedy, and almost has "evil" stamped on her forehead. Anyone can immediately tell she's the villain, no surprises there (nowhere near the subtlety of the villain in "Zootopia", 2016). The wombat is framed of committing a robbery, after refusing to get sponsored by the evil manager. Things go down the drain and, eventually, all characters meet for a showdown. The manager reveals she has super strength, and can turn herself into a giant monster. The fight ends with the wombat climbing up a really high mountain (how she manages to outrun the huge monster is not a mystery, it's just a plot device), then throwing the monster down to her death... How? Because, apparently, the evil manager exchanged brains for muscles when she turned herself into a monster, because she goes from criminal mastermind to me-hulk-me-smashes, and that's pretty much it. No explanations attached. So, the end was predictable, as the evil manager turned out to be the villain, but it was also unpredictable, because they added the twist of her being, actually, some kind of huge brainless demon that lets herself to be pushed to her death. The badger doesn't magically resurrect in the end (because, no, this is not a Disney production), what is the only good thing about the plot. So, with a body count of two deceased, this may not be a good material for some kids. The characters' design are not the worst I've seen (if you don't know what I'm talking about, check "The Adventures of Acela", 2020), the animation is smooth enough, but finishing is mostly lame for 2020's standards (I don't know what rendering software they used, but even open-source Blender does amazing fur simulation, while these characters all have plastic-smooth textures, that is, no texture at all) and it's full of unexplained and unexplainable plot devices, so it's also not suited for grown-ups. It has many things happening most of the time, but the story advances very slowly (for example, it takes 17 minutes for the protagonist to realise she could gain access to the case files if she played as a superhero, 17 minutes of the annoying sidekick almost literally scrubbing on her face that she could/should/would be a superhero). In the end, the case files' subplot is simply forgotten. Summarising, it's not hideous like some "things" that have been spat out as "CGI animated features" lately, also not as irking as "Xi you ji zhi da sheng gui lai" (Return of the Monkey King, 2015) or "Next Gen" (2018), or as boring as "Kung Fu Master 3" (2018). I'd say it's on a "Frozen 2" (2019) level of boring. It's certainly not something I would ever recommend to anyone to watch.

Would've put 11/10 if I could have. I loooooooove this movie.

Animation its wonderful, great lesson of friendship, love and dedication. You will defenetly enjoy it. We really like it 🙂

Bon film !

Combat Wombat