Smallfoot Movie Review: Is This Movie Too Small-Minded?

With a fluffy Yeti called Migo voiced by Channing Tatum and punchy Disney-esque tunes, Smallfoot looks cute and worthy of its own merch, but why do kids films have to come with an agenda?

In Migo’s village, the town understands their existence through stories and rules written in stone (Moses anyone?). Opening with a quick history lesson from the carvings, Smallfoot explains yetis were “birthed out the bum of a yak” and live on a mountain island held up by mammoths.

Watch: Review of Smallfoot

Each day Migo’s Dad wake’s the sun with a gong, and the town sing about making another perfect, questionless day. Migo upsets the system though, discovering the infamous ‘Smallfoot’ – aka ‘Human’ – which the stones say doesn’t exist. Banished by the Stonekeeper until he can deny what he saw, Migo instead befriends an underground community of “truth seekers”, trying to prove ‘Smallfeet’ are real.

With toe-tapping singalongs and astute observations about what becomes a cultural norm, Smallfoot has some elements of a good family film. It encourages us to be curious, and not to believe whatever we’re told by leaders blindly. Bringing Yeti’s and Human’s together it implores us to be kind to people who are different and realise we can be wrong about them sometimes.

Sadly though, any moral value is overshadowed by an apparent mockery of religion and disrespect for generational wisdom. Migo and his band of buds are celebrated as ‘the enlightened few’, rebelling against the ‘untested’ beliefs of their people and declaring it’s time for a new way.

By Smallfoot’s standards, if you can’t answer a question with your own intellect, you can’t believe the conclusion you come to. There’s no space for godly faith or anything more significant than yourself.

Little kids may not pick up on more than the soundtrack – and it’s a fun one – but older viewers may start unnecessarily asking, “But why?” a whole lot more.

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There are pros and cons to Smallfoot, but I’d be choosy about who you take to see it.

Smallfoot is rated G and in cinemas now
Release Date: 20/9/2018
Running Time: 96 mins
Director: Karey Kirkpatrick
Cast: Zendaya, Channing Tatum, Gina Rodriguez