Animals United (2010)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

"Die Konferenz der Tiere" or "Animals United" is an animated film directed by Reinhard Klooss and Holger Tappe. They are joined by writer Oliver Huzly and these three also worked on new version of Urmel movies (Augsburg Puppenkiste) before this film. It is about a group of wild animals including meerkats, turtles, rhinos, monkeys, giraffes, a cock and many more who struggle due to lack of water. This is the central plot, but I felt the film succeeded much more with its sub-plots. I thought the two old turtles were the highlight of the film. The scenes with their deaths and the comets was just amazingly sad. And the voices fit them nicely too. I also liked the monkey who sort-of was with the humans initially. I did not really like the cock, even if I love Christoph Maria Herbst and I could have done without this character. In general, occasionally, it felt as if the movie could have been better if they had simply included less animal characters and maybe elaborated a bit more on these. The small background stories did not work so well for everybody as they did with the turtles. For example, the whole rhino-buffalo fight did nothing really for me.I did not know too many from the voice cast, really only Kalkofe and Herbst (Wixxxer reunion) and I think I heard about Fritsch too in the past. The English dub has the great Stephen Fry which should be reason enough for you to watch it if you're American or British. The father-son relationship between the meerkats was a great idea and I wish they elaborated a bit more on it, maybe by telling us about the two and how they lived together in the past. When the young meerkat is happy in the end that daddy saved the day it felt a bit out of place. Such a shame they did not develop this idea further. It could have lifted the film up a lot. The insect plague at some point almost had something biblical just like the whole animal gathering scenes and how they stayed in peace with each other for a while to find a solution to their thirst problem. The march to the UN building was okay as well.I think as a whole this film may be more suitable for younger audiences, but I believe thanks to its morale it can also make a good watch for adults who like animated movies. I don't think it is half as bad as some people say it is. Some animals were more interesting than others sure, but there were no extremely negative standouts and same goes for the animation. German singer Xavier Naidoo does a good song for the closing credits, but I am a bit biased here I guess as I like his voice in general. I thought the song fit the film nicely. On a completely random note, the final scene at the closing credits with the mole reminded me a bit of the same from "Monsters University". Anyway, solid movie. Recommended.

Apart from everything everyone else has said, its pretty stupid that the Tasmanian Devil is more recognizable as the old Warner Brothers "Tas" than an actual Tasmanian Devil ( that don't really live close to Ayers Rock either ).The real ones actually look pretty cute ( but they sound like devils ).My 15 year old daughter left the room, even though she still likes other kids movies such as Frozen. My 9 year old is tending to criticize it all the way through.Don't be fooled by the names in the cast, its really disappointing that such talent would put their name to a movie such as this. Avoid Do not pay money for the DVD. Its really lame

Pros: The animation is pretty decent. Cons: German humor is lost in translation. This movie has a political agenda,like many movies today (Happy Feet, which I absolutely love, comes to mind), but the difference is that this movie is just one long commercial preaching about human influence on nature. There is no side story, character development or personal journey or growth being undertaken by any of the main characters. The "humans are destroying the planet" message is in-your-face and crammed down the viewers throat. Maybe that's how movies like this should be, but I did not find this entertaining.

**** possible spoiler... although there isn't much of a plot to spoil**** Like another viewer, I created an account specifically to review this horrid waste of time. I love animation and am willing to suspend belief to follow a good storyline, but this movie is one of the worst I have ever had the misfortune to sit through.The graphics are disproportionate, the ecological message bludgeons the audience from the start, and the storyline makes no sense. At one point, there is a chicken, a polar bear, two (what appear to be) Galapagos terrapins, a kangaroo and a Tasmanian devil all floating across some ocean in a rusty bathtub... and no reasonable explanation as to how these creatures all suddenly came to inhabit said bathtub.Trust me, the scene description above is indicative of the entire movie. Worst piece of drivel I've observed in a long time, and I've watched some monumentally bad movies with poor ratings and given them the benefit of the doubt. Save yourself; don't waste your (or your children's) time with this piece of garbage.