"Zog" is a British 25-minute animated short film from 2018, a holiday release from just a few years ago, and BBC always has at least one of these per year, mostly animated. For some reason, I thought early on that this was some little How to Train Your Dragon spinoff, but no it is not and the dragons look different compared to the successful franchise I just mentioned, but the thing that stroke me different the most was the narration here. Because this one made it very obvious what it was because it is so similar to some other projects by director Max Lang in terms of nursery rhymes and the ways in which they are presented. He is a 2-time Oscar nominee and this was not the first time he worked on a film based on a book by Julia Donaldson. This one here did not make the Oscar short list though if it was even available. I don't know maybe for next year.
The animation is fine I think. So is the story. I felt there is nothing that really stands out about this movie, but there is also nothing that sucks. It has some funny moments like when our hero finally thinks he gets the star he always wanted, another dragon comes along and has the ultimate groar. Or how the princess dummy's doll falls off after he "saves" her. A nice reference too about dragons capturing princesses from the creature's perspective here and not from the one of the knight who comes to save her. Anyway, said knight is included too, but not as a major character. He also does not exactly look the handsome hero type. Then again, the princess is not as helpless as it seems as we find out at the very end in a nice little twist. I don't really like films with forced happy ending, but here it felt right and entertaining and also pretty credible.
The cast list isn't too shabby either with Lenny Henry, Kit Harrington and Tracey Ullman and we should not forget this is a small screen release, even if there was never any doubt with the makers' history this would turn into a success. It has some charm to it for sure and well Henry's narration makes it probably a better watch for kids than grown-ups and I am saying this as somebody who really likes animated films and thinks there's so many great ones out there for adults too. This one here is not a failure for adults either, not at all. I am just saying maybe kids are more likely to enjoy it and it's probably not a film that will suck grown-ups enthusiastically into the world of animation. Still, there is no hesitation for me in giving this a thumbs-up. Nice attention to detail for all kinds of production values and I suggest you go check it out. Lang and Donaldson deliver again.
