The One and Only Ivan

I lived in Atlanta for about seventeen years. I visited Zoo Atlanta quite a few times. I remember Willie B. the Gorilla, but I barely remember his fellow Silverback, Ivan. Maybe now I'll remember him after The One and Only Ivan, the film version of K.A. Applegate's novel loosely based on his life.

Ivan the Gorilla (Sam Rockwell) is the star of the Big Top Mall owned by Mack (Bryan Cranston). His fellow performers include Stella the Elephant (Angelina Jolie), Snickers the Poodle (Helen Mirren), Henrietta the Chicken (Chaka Khan) and Murphy the Rabbit (Ron Funches). There's also a stray dog, Bob (Danny DeVito), who secretly lives with Ivan. His closest human friend is Julia (Ariana Greenblatt), daughter of the Mall's janitor.

Anyway, life is good for Ivan until the Mall starts to lose business. Mack gets a new baby elephant, Ruby (Brooklynn Prince) to draw in customers. She's a hit with the audience, especially when paired with Stella. But Stella soon succumbs to old age and asks Ivan to set Ruby free. How will he do it? It just so happens that Ivan likes art. Julia starts sharing her crayons with him and soon, he's drawing some unique works. Mack rebrands the circus with Ivan's artistry. Ivan advocates for the troupe's freedom with art.

Director Thea Sharrock (Me Before You) works from Mike White's screenplay. It's a cutesy family film with a touch of seriousness. That's not a bad thing. Ivan's friendships with Stella, Julia and Ruby are endearing. His relationship with Mack is OK, while Stella's death is genuinely sad. The climax is so compact it's simplistic, but the last scenes are moving. Any crass jokes in between didn't affect my enjoyment at all. It's an engaging story even if you've seen some of its clichés before.

The film's Oscar-nominated Visual Effects visualize some good CGI animals. These animals lack dull surprise unlike The Lion King's CGI menagerie. They were believable both as characters and as animals. The CGI is somewhat obvious but the emotiveness more than compensates. Any scene with Ivan and his troupe is a highlight.

There's a strong cast here. Ivan and his troupe are a likable bunch of animals. As for highlights, Ivan and Ruby are compelling co-leads, Bob is pretty funny while Snickers is a delight. Cranston headlines the live-action cast pretty well as Mack. He's a bit rough with the animals (he hates Bob!) but he's still a good man. Greenblatt and Ramon Rodriguez, as Julia's father George, were likable too. Owain Arthur is good as Castello the bumbling security guard.

The One and Only Ivan debuted on Disney Plus back in August. It's still ready for you to press play. It's a crowd-pleasing story about talking animals and their human friends. It's not as emotionally devastating as some animal films are. But prepare to feel a bit. It's a relatively short movie at 95 minutes and it'll never lose your interest.