Not really a bad movie, children will appreciate some overarching lessons about human relationships if they're not too confused by the conflicting details. Irony is that what's perhaps most dissatisfying about this movie is where it does resemble Hans Christian Anderson's original fairy tale, the meandering from one
apparently unrelated scene to the next in order to fill out the prerequisite playing time of a feature-length story. Adult aspects of storytelling seem to be tempered for younger audiences, resulting in implausibly denied reality: a predator is evil and deadly, then suddenly friendly. Another predator appears to have killed and then victim turns up alive. Similarly another villain turns out not to have wanted to kill them at all. Sudden growth spurts turn the title "duckling" into different personalities overnight, again hearkening back to Hans Christian Anderson's original story wherein the character becomes a swan whether or not preceding learning experiences have contributed to his becoming a better, or at least more attractive, person. Lesson here is for parents to identify with their own dealings with growing kids, but logistical problem of starting out with one character and then abandoning it is a jarring technical point the audience is going to resent. Admittedly, The Ugly Duckling and Me! is attractively filmed and animated, a plus for its acceptance by younger audiences, however intelligent these kids are. Voice actors are talented and well cast. Little tweaks in the writing of the dialog might have smoothed over inconsistencies.
March 25, 2009
