Two by Two Overboard is a sequel to the 2015 animated family film, Two by Two, which followed the animals who missed Noah’s ark. Two by Two Overboard now focuses on the two best friends, Finny and Leah, animal kids, who fall off the ark while misbehaving.
Ms12, Mr8 & Ms5 lay on the couches to watch this with me. None of us had heard of the first movie, Two by Two. We did notice that there were a lot of similarities to other movies – very similar font used for the heading as in Over the Hedge, the jellyfish carried around in a half-coconut is very similar to the fish carried around in a fishbowl in Cat in the Hat, the lion has a voice very similar to Mustafa in The Lion King and looks similar to Scar while the animation was very Disney-like.
The animation and colours are just lovely. The scenes as the animals reach land after being at sea for so long are spectacular, with beautiful vivid colours, making the island look like the paradise they dreamed it to be.
Unfortunately, we found it harder to be as positive about the storyline. Mr8 and Ms5 wandered off to play Lego about a third of the way through – Mr8 was bored, Ms5 could not get in to the confusing storyline, though she had enjoyed it to start with (and not just the popcorn we had) and was talking about all of the animals on the ark. Ms12 stuck it out with me (though she was pretty comfy on the couch, too) but she and I were both asking each other lots of questions the whole way through, right up until the end.
The storyline starts with Finny (a nestrian, which is an amphibian creature along the lines of ALF) and Leah (a grymp, which is a catlike creature) who are opposites in that Finny is a herbivore and Leah a carnivore, but they are best friends who get in to trouble a lot. They end up falling off of the ark and landing separately on a desert island, where Finny is found and cared for by a hidden group of nestrians, living away from carnivores to be safe. Finny then has to escape to find Leah, but Leah has been captured and jailed as a rogue carnivore. Problem is, Leah has discovered the island is built on an unstable volcano which is going to blow but no one is listening to her. Meanwhile, Finny and Leah’s family are looking for them while the ark is running out of food, but just before they run out of food, they discover land, too, and land on the same island…
There is just way too much to the story for kids and seems to have been written by people who have assumed what kids like. Unless you have an understanding of the story of the ark or have seen the first film, there may be a bit of a struggle to understand what is happening. There are also some moments that are too scary for little kids, including a near-death, and an ending that doesn’t quite tie anything up.
While we all really wanted to like it, as the animation was fantastic and the colours and idea were great, the storyline just felt submerged by too many ideas.
Great animation but too many ideas 3.5 stars
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