Smallfoot

Yeti Tracks, an unpublished book by Sergio Pablos, creator of the Despicable Me movies, is the basis for the mythbusting Smallfoot. It's a decent early fall kids movie. It's not perfect but it'll get you by for a matinee.

Migo the Yeti lives with his fellow Yetis in their mountain village. Everything they need to know is written in stones held by the Stonekeeper. Migo lives and obeys the stones. His dad, Dorgle, is the human cannonball who rings the gong which wakes the sun each day. As far as he knows. But anyway, Migo is ready to follow in his dad's footsteps. He overshoots his first test ring and he meets a human - the mythical "Smallfoot" according to the stones.

Nobody believes Migo. The Stonekeeper even throws him out of the village. Meechee, the Stonekeeper's daughter, and her friends, believe Migo. They help him go below the clouds. Down there, Migo finds a washed-up TV personality named Percy Petterson. They get over their misunderstandings and become pals. Migo and friends bring back their Smallfoot. But while the village enjoys Percy, The Stonekeeper decides to tell Migo the awful truth.

Director Karey Kirkpatrick and his brother Wayne wrote the film's musical numbers. It's a great playlist which my showing hampered with poorly-balanced sound. The music was often louder than the lyrics; that wasn't fun. Despite that, Meechee's song Wonderful Life and her father's song Let it Lie were fun. Heitor Pereira's delightful score stands tall among the musical numbers.

The technical achievements are Yeti-good. The character designs are appealing and unique. The Yeti's mountain village was an artistic winter wonderland. The sound designers' best trick was its depiction of the Yeti/Human sound barrier. The high-pitched mumbles of "human speech" are never not amusing.

What about the story? A lot of the gags, like Migo's protracted descent to Earth, were in trailers for months. But the film had surprises, like an encounter with an angry bear which takes an unexpected twist. Migo and Percy's bonding was nice. The sun-waking ceremony had some funny satire to it. There's some meaningful discussion about blind faith vs logic and the downside of fear. The climactic encounter between Yeti and Human societies resonates among the pratfalls.

Smallfoot's setup gets points for creativity. It bends fear and superstition like a pretzel with its perspective flip. It's a film aimed mainly for kids. But there's quite a bit to think about for the adults. Its 96 minutes are well spent.