Smallfoot

Warner Bros. | Release Date: September 28, 2018

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

60	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Critics

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Film Journal InternationalFrank LoveceSep 26, 2018

Beautiful is the apt description for this hilarious masterpiece that embraces reason, celebrates truth and ultimately believes we're civilized enough to accept both. Read full review

EmpireAmy WestOct 15, 2018

Smallfoot effectively weaves powerful messages into a fun, heart-warming animation that is sure to appeal to audiences both young and old. Read full review

Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattSep 28, 2018

Smallfoot has its own silly, beastie charm. Read full review

Washington PostJane HorwitzSep 27, 2018

This entertaining fantasy has intellectual ballast, but it’s cleverly disguised. Read full review

San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubSep 26, 2018

This is a quality movie, carefully disguised as a mediocre one. It’s a chore to get through the beginning, but builds a strong story, and leaves legitimate good feelings on the way out of the theater. Smallfoot is not a “The Lego Movie”-style surprise classic, but it’s better than most. Read full review

Boston GlobeTom RussoSep 26, 2018

Everyone from Channing Tatum to Danny DeVito to Hollywood transplant LeBron James is here voicing the movie’s winsomely rendered snow creatures, but it’s the creative story more than the routine-if-likable characters that makes this one so engaging. Read full review

Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 26, 2018

It’s not often an animated children’s movie features lessons about critical thinking, especially when the movie on the whole is a zippy, silly, zany, cheery little tale with the obligatory upbeat musical numbers, wonderfully entertaining voice work from the eclectic cast, and a gentle, PG tone with nary a sequence that will have the little ones scurrying for cover under your wing. Read full review

Movie NationRoger MooreSep 22, 2018

A delight, a jokey-smart cartoon that enlightens and teaches even as it entertains. Because we need to learn that sometimes there really are monsters “out there,” and sometimes, the monsters are us. Read full review

Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshSep 27, 2018

Although Smallfoot is formulaic and predictable, what sets it apart is its willingness to dive into the themes of questioning blind faith. Read full review

The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenSep 19, 2018

While it only occasionally rises to the clever levels of its inspired jump-off point, Smallfoot, an animated romp about a civilization of Yetis who make the discovery that the legendary pint-size human isn’t a mythological creature after all, carries sufficient charm and a bit of unexpected depth to justify its breezy existence. Read full review

Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenSep 26, 2018

Smallfoot also features some excellent physical comedy, some of which calls to mind the sight gags prevalent in the old Looney Tunes cartoons once produced by this studio (Warner Bros.). Read full review

The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Fraser AbeSep 28, 2018

Where Smallfoot shines, though, is – like Warner’s Looney Tunes and Animaniacs before it – its slapstick physical comedy. Read full review

The Seattle TimesBrent McKnightSep 25, 2018

It’s cute, it’s cuddly and Tatum is charming as the lovable, well-meaning goof. Young children who haven’t seen every trick and trope done better a thousand times will love Smallfoot, but for the rest, it’s instantly forgettable, like a 96-minute memory gap. Read full review

Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSep 23, 2018

There’s something undeniably ballsy about a children’s film that’s so insistent about pushing young viewers to think bigger, to be open to new ideas and question culturally coded notions of good and evil. Read full review

The Observer (UK)Simran HansOct 14, 2018

The songs are a bum note, but the film does raise thoughtful questions about dogma, fake news and the identity crises that might occur once a community’s core beliefs are challenged. Read full review

The GuardianCath ClarkeOct 11, 2018

The conceit is nicely done, and the film’s unexpectedly heartfelt message about empathy and looking at the world through someone else’s eyes just about makes up for its bland animation, smart-arsed script and generic clappy-blah songs. Read full review

The New York TimesBen KenigsbergSep 27, 2018

The movie, directed by Karey Kirkpatrick, has just enough wit and visual invention to get by. (The “Bad Santa” team of John Requa and Glenn Ficarra are among those credited with the story.) But for all the hints of darkness around its edges, the film is ultimately like its heroes: cuddly, cute and harmless. Read full review

The Film StageJared MobarakSep 25, 2018

It might be hyperbolic to call Smallfoot the most dangerous film of the year, but it wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. Read full review

TheWrapAlonso DuraldeSep 19, 2018

Smallfoot provides more complex food for thought than most mainstream animation, but the overall results are still disappointingly bland. Read full review

RogerEbert.comChristy LemireSep 26, 2018

If only the dialogue and visuals matched the daring of its ideology. Read full review

The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerSep 21, 2018

It’s still mostly just a time-passer for younger kids — and, absent a strong point of view, as much of a hedged bet as its narration-and-song opening. Read full review

Screen InternationalSarah WardSep 19, 2018

It’s a playful inversion of the bigfoot legend, cautioning against unthinking compliance, championing curiosity and encouraging putting oneself in another’s shoes (or feet). Still, this all-ages affair is as blunt as it is busy; children will warm to the movie’s ceaseless energy, but parents might take longer to thaw. Read full review

IndieWireJude DrySep 19, 2018

Smallfoot really flounders with its obligatory message-mongering: a hodgepodge of didacticism about the importance of celebrating differences, asking questions, never fearing the unknown, or judging someone because they look different. Plenty of sound lessons in there, to be sure, but without a singular focus, they all blend into one. Read full review

VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 19, 2018

It’s messy and distressingly unmemorable, which is a shame since there are no shortage of great Looney Tunes-level cartoon gags wasted along the way, including an ingenious rope bridge sequence worthy of golden-age Warner Bros. animation. Read full review

ObserverOliver JonesSep 27, 2018

The humans in the film are blandly generic. But the yetis, while individually distinct, all share a much larger, troubling problem: they don’t have noses. Read full review