Basketball Animation Fun, But Not Quite the 'GOAT'

Sony Animation continues to shine despite lackluster story

Basketball, for unknown reasons, seems to have put a stamp on animation that other sports like football or baseball (sorry Everybody’s Hero) has never achieved. It began with the Harlem Globetrotters unmasking foes with Scooby and the gang. Then, we got Space Jam in 1996, which has remained a millennial cultural touchstone and an artifact of a bygone era. That film got a sequel in 2021, which successfully prefigured the feeling of AI slop, and the sport appeared again in 2022 in the brilliant anime movie The First Slam Dunk. Where could the medium go next with hoops? GOAT and Sony Animation manage to simultaneously do a lot thanks to the studio’s groundbreaking style and not quite enough to fully place it in the modern animation pantheon.

Stranger Things’ Caleb McLaughlin stars as Will Harris, a goat who dreams of being a roarball player like his idol Jett Fillmore (Gabrielle Union) but is routinely turned away due to his small stature. Roarball is a cross-species and co-ed version of basketball hosted in increasingly dangerous arenas themed to various natural biomes. Like its real world counterpart, the sport tends to favor the big and tall. Unlike it, there is no tanking for draft picks. Thanks to a viral video and a desperate team owner (Jenifer Lewis), Will is able to become the first “Small” animal in roarball.

The underdog narrative, which is most strongly reminiscent of the Apple TV+ hit Ted Lasso, is about as standard as can be, even down to the notes of the score. Will is not actually much of an underdog, especially as the film reaches the conclusion. The message here is more about having confidence in one’s team even if others do not and being willing to sacrifice for them. Will is set up well in the first act, but the script seems to forget about him as it switches focus to the washed-up veteran Jett, who symbolizes the theme more. In any event, do not expect to see anything new from this take on the trope.

Where GOAT works best is in its animation and comedy. Sony Animation has again proven themselves to be the only studio in feature animation doing anything new with the possibilities of the medium. The synthesis of 2D and 3D alongside a watercolor-esque background brings this world and roarball to life. Will’s hometown of Vineland looks like an urban center after an apocalypse has left it overgrown and filled with Zootopia-type visual gags, as apocalypses are wont to do. The arenas are also a lot of fun ranging from one underground where stalactites fall onto the court to a lava-filled one that starts to crack up and move as the game goes on. The story does not use these environments for anything more than visual flourishes, but they are exciting to look at.

The comedy appeals to all viewers from children to parents to basketball superfans. There is certainly a smattering of lowbrow toilet humor which is balanced out by smart one-liners and goofy characters like Nick Kroll’s Eastern European and deranged komodo dragon. The voice cast in general is solid, not outstanding. Kroll again is the highlight. Patton Oswalt is also great as the team’s head coach, but he is essentially playing himself. Caleb McLaughlin and Gabrielle Union are fine. Everyone gets the job done.

A troubling trend I have noticed in recent animated films, including K-Pop Demon Hunters and this one, is how editing is clearly adapting to shrinking attention spans. While it is hard to blame companies for trying to keep the TikTok generation engaged, I would personally not show this to my son until I felt it would not impact him as much. The pace, besides a few slower team-building scenes, feels like a speedrun. A few key moments, especially during the games, would have been better served by more breathing room. This rushing left me feeling a little unsatisfied with some of the third act resolutions.

In the basketball animation canon, GOAT is the best Western entry far and away, even if the whole ends up feeling lesser than the parts. Nevertheless, families are likely to have fun and good material for discussion afterwards about the power of self-sacrifice. One disclaimer, though: there are some jokes about relationships and marriage that may be seen as normalizing things Catholics would be uncomfortable with. It would probably go over kids’ heads, but I could definitely see some families skipping the film because of it.

GOAT is now playing in theaters.