Goat (Movie) – Review | MKAU Gaming

From the studio that brought us Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and KPop Demon Hunters, Sony Pictures Animation now introduces Goat, an original story inspired by the life of NBA star Stephen Curry, who is considered to be one of the G.O.A.T.s (Greatest Of All Time). Directed by Tyree Dillihay and starring Caleb McLaughlin, Gabrielle Union, Aaron Pierre, Nicola Coughlan, David Harbour, Nick Kroll and of course, Stephen Curry, Goat is now slam dunking its way into cinemas worldwide. 

Will Harris is a small goat with big dreams to one day play in the professional basketball league known as Roarball. Many doubt him for being undersized, but his exceptional skills are soon noticed by Flo Everson, the owner of the Vineland Thorns, who saw the viral video of him taking on a pro Roarball player, Mane Atraction, and almost wins the one-on-one match. She offers him the opportunity of a lifetime to train and play on the team and with his favourite player, Jett Fillmore, whom he has idolised since childhood.

Jett is a star player in the league, but feels her position is threatened when Will joins the team, especially since her best years are behind her and Flo recommends retirement. This causes friction not only between Jett and Will, but also among the rest of the team, who feel undervalued by Jett’s selfish attitude. Other challenges and complications also arise, and the Vineland Thorns must figure things out and come together as a team to bring home the Roarball trophy, the Claw. 

Will Harris, a small goat, is voiced by Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin, who conveys the humble beginnings and struggles of the main protagonist. Will always remains humble, never losing sight of who he is and where he came from, going from being down on his luck and struggling to pay his rent to making the most of the opportunity to play in Roarball. His positive attitude helps him fit in with the team, except Jett, but even her reluctance doesn’t stop him from looking up to her. 

Gabrielle Union lends her voice to Jett Fillmore, a panther and star player in Roarball who’s desperate to stay in the spotlight and not pass the torch to the next generation. Her selfish attitude undermines her team and makes everything about her, often disregarding game plans during matches and doing all the work herself, even if it causes more wear and tear on her body. 

Jett and Will have excellent chemistry on screen. Both are talented basketball players, but they are polar opposites in their personalities. Will has mostly grown up poor after losing his mother to an illness and was living in a small apartment building meant for Gerbils before being signed, while Jett has been living a life of luxury as a Roarball superstar. They have vastly different approaches to life, and Jett slowly begins to warm to Will’s humble personality and starts to rethink her outlook.

The other team members of the Vineland Thorns include Nicola Coughlan as Olivia Burke, David Harbour as Archie Everhardt, Nick Kroll as Modo Olachenko and Stephen Curry as Lenny Williamson. They each have vastly different personalities that reflect their natural animal instincts.

Olivia is a fast and energetic ostrich, both on the court and with the way she speaks. Archie is a rhino, the team’s muscle, and a father to twin girls, Adi and Ari, both voiced by VanVan. Modo is a komodo dragon with an Eastern European accent and personality who is comfortable in his own skin, no matter how many layers he sheds and is easily the funniest on the team. 

The movie may be loosely based on Stephen Curry’s life, but he instead voices Lenny Williamson, a giraffe who is also trying to build his rap career on the side. Curry may not be an experienced voice actor, with only a small role in an episode of Family Guy in 2017, but he’s surprisingly good as a voice actor, giving Lenny plenty of character, even if it’s a supporting role. 

Aaron Pierre stars as one of the main antagonists, Mane Attraction, a horse and the MVP of Roarball, who was upstaged by Will in a one-on-one, making them rivals. Mane is a memorable villain, marked by his aggressive nature, arrogance, and high opinion of himself.

Various other stars lend their voices in the film, including Jenifer Lewis as Flo Everson, Jelly Roll as Grizz, Sherry Cola as Hannah, Eduardo Franco as Daryl, Ayesha Curry as Carol, Wayne Knight as Frank and Jennifer Hudson as Louise Harris, Will’s late mother. Other NBA and WNBA players, including Dwyane Wade, Kevin Love, Angel Reese, A’ja Wilson, and Andre Iguodala, also star in the film as various characters from other teams. 

Goat will get a lot of comparisons to Space Jam, mainly because of anthropomorphic animal characters playing basketball, but Goat is incredibly different and manages to stand out on its own with its unique art style, complemented by the low frame-rate animation. The low-frame-rate animation style has become a defining feature of Sony Pictures Animation, with some other animation studios adopting it for their own films. The same studio also made Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and KPop Demon Hunters, both of which received high praise for their animation. Goat, using that same animation style alone, makes the film worth watching.

The character designs stand out from other films, making their natural animal instincts part of their diverse personalities. The basketball characters also use their unique features as part of their skills, going from being anthropomorphic to running on all fours. Even seeing them perform mundane tasks and reacting to certain things based on what animal they are is creative and entertaining, such as Jett sipping water from a bowl and Olivia burying her head in the dirt. 

The art style utilises a painterly look for the environments, set pieces and backgrounds. Everywhere they go, from suburbs, towns and cities, they are mixed with nature. Every building, big or small, will have trees, leaves or other plant life as part of it, not just decorated with them.

The basketball arenas are a sight to behold, each with different themes based on forests, fire, ice, earthquakes and more, all with their own hazards adding to the chaos of a basketball game. Roarball is certainly not your average basketball league, and it’s interesting to see how the characters interact with the environments around them. The art style is best described as urban and nature becoming one. 

The story of Goat may feel like a cliché coming-of-age story, but audiences will see it is much more than that. The film explores Will’s humble beginnings and unexpected rise to stardom; Jett, a seasoned player, and her desperation to hold onto her fame as her career comes to an end; the importance of teamwork; appreciating what you have; and self-discovery and soul searching. Politics and corporate greed also come into play, possibly affecting the team’s future in Roarball as if staying on the team and winning games weren’t already hard enough. 

Audiences will experience the highs and lows of the main characters, each with their own struggles. The film manages to fit many different elements into the story, though some feel squeezed in, making it feel rushed in parts. Some flashback scenes are shown of Will as a kid with his mother before she passed, being part of his motivation, but as good and as heartwarming as they are, it feels like those scenes could’ve been extended to feel more impactful, instead of moving quickly to the next scene, and there’s a few other times when the movie moves too quick. Some emotional scenes could’ve been more impactful if they had let the audience take the time to process and absorb them. These are only minor gripes, however, and barely hinder the overall experience. 

Goat as a movie may not be the G.O.A.T., but audiences are guaranteed to have a great time in cinemas. It gets so many things right from the talented voice cast, diverse character designs, Sony’s signature low frame-rate animation style, various story elements, an urban/nature mixed world and the exciting and exhilarating action-packed basketball scenes on courts filled with hazards, all creating a basketball movie unlike any other. It is aimed at kids, but it’s a film that anyone of any age can enjoy, perfect for families and groups of friends. Goat is an absolute slam dunk of a movie about a small goat who dared to Dream Big.