Back to Gaya (2005)

This movie is so cute! It has all the stuff the rest of the CGI animated stuff has except for the humor displayed. But, we must keep in mind this is the first German CGI animated flick ever. So, maybe some of their humor is different from ours in the USA. Still, it makes it to nice, fun level.I loved all the characters, and the facial characteristics of them were wonderful and a delight to see. I will admit the rats in the chase sequence would be a bit scary for the wee ones, but I saw Bambi and cried my eyes out at their age. So, I think maybe the kiddies will be tough enough for this.I give it an 8 out of 10. Keep the kids under about eight from watching it. The rest? You've said worse around your kids by that time. Let them have a romp through Gaya, why not?

This is one of my favorite movies, and is my current obsession. My family also loves it. "Boo, Zino & The Snurks" (or as I'd rather call it, "Back to Gaya") is an awesome little movie, if you know what to look for. The makers of this movie were aiming for something a bit more realistic than Pixar and added several little details that put them over the top. The 3D artists had a nice "realistic but not TOO realistic" style, here. The script was the same way. It was lacking in constant outrageous and wacky comedy (ie: Shrek; The Incredibles), but that's not a bad thing! Since when was this supposed to be a wild comedy, anyway? The movie gives a nice friendship and teamwork message, not to mention the whole "discrimination is bad" issue. Great for the young and the young at heart. I believe that the only thing the movie was missing was good advertising. The DVD cover is definitely nothing special. A 9 out of 10 from me, but only because the English version has been heavily cut apart, unlike the German version. I wish there was more of this movie (or at least more on the same subject) to see. (... And that people would stop picking on it so much...)Though now that I'm reading through other peoples' comments... Maybe you just need to have the mind of a child to see how good this movie is (or at least was supposed to be), despite the things that may be wrong with it.

This may contain a slight spoiler or two."Back to Gaya" was rechristened "Boo, Zino and the Snurks" for its UK release, making it sound less like a bold fantasy movie and more like a bad animated series on Children's ITV or Fox Kids or whatever. In fairness, the movie does unfortunately play like a very long episode of a bad animated series on Children's ITV or Fox Kids or whatever, not the result the producers of Germany's first computer animated movie were hoping for (even if it hadn't opened here the same week as "Shark Tale" it would probably have bombed).The movie's premise - the stars of the hugely successful TV show "The Adventures of Boo and Zino" (which is so successful that they apparently have their own channel called Gaya TV) are brought into the real world by a mad scientist - isn't hugely original (as Rocky and Bullwinkle can attest; the upcoming Fat Albert movie is also based around that idea), but something could still have been done with it. One or two interesting ideas do come up, notably the notion of TV characters whose entire lives have been patterned out for them by other hands suddenly realising that they can function on their own, but they don't ultimately come to anything and the movie just lies there; the characters are all one-note clichés despite the attempts to graft some kind of emotions onto them, and the voicework isn't anything to write home about either.The animation itself isn't actually too bad, and the design is okay (though all the voices are English or American, the unnamed city the movie's set in has some European stylings) but the producers failed to get a point that Pixar fully understands; if there's nothing in the script for the animation to be based on, it won't work. Everything from the cheating in the race at the beginning to the climactic showdown is heartless, derivative and humourless, and the writing's unforgivably slack (not to mention refusing to make sense on its own terms; the villain who brought them from TV to the real world took them by mistake while getting Gaya's power source which will give him the power to take things from TV and bring them into the real world... but how did he manage to pull things from TV into the real world in the first place? Can you say "paradox"? I knew you could). The posters claim this uses writers from "A Bug's Life" and "Hercules," but they must have been on an off day.Is there anything to like about this movie? Well, this was one of two movies Michael Kamen was working on before his untimely death (the other being "First Daughter"), and his score does try to give the movie an epic touch that it doesn't deserve. Plus it's amusing to see that two characters look like a hollowed-out Kim Wilde and the guy with the mustache from Hale and Pace. And Alanta, the female Gayan on the trip - who's a tough lady, surprised? - is pretty fanciable; I think the producers must have thought so too, since the end credits finish with "Any resemblance to actual human beings is purely coincidental. Which is a pity, in the case of Alanta." But if you aren't a film music devotee or attracted to cartoon characters, skip this.And besides, in what universe could "The Adventures of Boo and Zino" really be a smash hit? I refuse to believe German TV can be THAT bad.

I've heard the producers say: "Hey, we don't want to be 'like Pixar' or like anything else ... !"OK. But in 2004 you have to reach certain technical standards. And the makers of "Gaya" didn't. The kinematics is wooden, the camera movements make you dizzy and the lip-sync is disastrous. I mean -- this is a German CGI movie, so why are the German voices out of sync? Even movies like "Shrek" or "Ice Age" have been dubbed with German voices without visible glitches like that.Aside from the technique: It's a nice animation film, but the plot is a bit thin and the characters are a bit weak. "Back to Gaya" is OK, but it's not more than that.