Stunned that this Dutch talking-animal cartoon has a whole extended sequence where the titular cat teaches the dumb dog not to obey his owner blindly - they even play a game where she gives him a command and he has to do the opposite, to train him to be disobedient - and become a little anarchist like her, this is not the bland harmonious messaging we're used to. (It shows up the hidden pro-authority bias in Hollywood's ostensibly individualistic, 'inclusive' toons, imo.) Maybe Europe isn't totally doomed after all. #CatPersonForever
Story and Characters: 3.5/5Animation: 3.5/5Soundtrack and Other Elements: 4/5Level of Enjoyment: 4/5Overall Score: 15/20 Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Rating: HotSong: “C'est La Vie” by Claude (Obviously, given both this song, and the movie are mainly from The Netherlands)Well, the surprises keep on coming, isn’t it? I recently published an essay talking about how pretty much the non-mainstream animation industry is moving away from the Americanisation of non-mainstream animated movies by taking risks, innovating their animation style and treating their audience with respect, resulting in higher quality animated movies that can compete with the big Hollywood animated movies. Even for family-friendly foreign CG animated movies which usually suck most of the time, some of the more recent family-friendly foreign CG animated movies, such as Jumbo, Chickenhare and the Secret of the Groundhog and Night of the Zoopocalypse, are so much better than your typical low-quality family-friendly foreign CG animated movies, which bodes well for that sub-category considering how many of such movies I covered for the past few years. Miss Moxy is yet another good example to add to family-friendly foreign CG animated movies that punch above its weight way more than first thought.Man, between this and Benjamin Bat, The Netherlands is producing some true hidden gems worth seeing. It is a movie on a simple concept, story concept wise, but despite the simplicity and the short runtime, Miss Moxy made use of the entire runtime in such a well-developed and efficient manner. This movie takes its time to establish the narrative and develop it in such a fun and respectful manner that even adults who had to bring their kids to see this will appreciate the amount of effort put into the writing. It’s a movie that does not have a lot of jokes, but it helps to prevent distracting the moviegoers from the enjoyable story, as well as likable characters that moviegoers can vibe with, not to mention being another rare family-friendly foreign CG animated movie with a good English dub (especially if you know my constant complaining about bad English dubs of most family-friendly foreign CG animated movies in the past).It is also great to see another animated movie adopting a stop-motion feel to this CG animation a la Seal Team and Scarygirl. While it’s apparent that Miss Moxy does not have a high budget to begin with, I am happy to see the animators adapting to their circumstances by adding a level of charm to its character designs with this limited animation style. The animation isn’t perfect, yes, but, there is so much care and charm in the animation that I am willing to forgive its limitations. I am surprised by how good the songs are. It’s rare for a family-friendly foreign CG animated movie to have good musical numbers, but this movie not only has enough musical numbers to not overwhelm the audience, but the songs are well-crafted and not too annoying. As for my level of enjoyment, for a small family-friendly foreign CG animated movie, it is easy to dismiss it as yet another one of those movies, but Miss Moxy has a lot of charm, care and love put into this animated movie. You can tell this is not yet another disposable family-friendly foreign CG animated movie, but one that was produced with so much love and dedication to tell a good story that most cinemagoers can appreciate.After being fairly disappointed with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie a couple of days back, Miss Moxy is the medicine I need to once again re-ignite my love for animated movies. While definitely produced on a lower budget than The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Miss Moxy delivers on its simple premise thanks to a well-developed story, fun and interesting characters, a decent animation style, and a great soundtrack. It may be yet another family-friendly foreign CG animated movie, but it’s definitely one of the better ones out there. Well done, Phanta Animation! Instagram Reel Reaction Full Review
