Phil Roberts 
Tyree Dillihay’s Goat is an absolute blast. Sony’s trademark animation brings this incredibly fun, hilarious, and pulse-pounding sports adventure to life with infectious energy. This Roarball tale is the GOAT!
After the success of the Spider-Verse and K-Pop Demon Hunters, Sony Pictures Animation has reset the bar for animated movies. From the casting to the breathtaking signature animation, every project under the studio’s banner has a level of quality hard to emulate. So when it turns its attention to the sports arena, we should sit up and take notice. Enter Tyree Dillihay. The visionary director cut his teeth in the animated arena with projects like Good Times and Bob’s Burgers, but for Sony’s newest epic, Dillihay is making the leap to the big screen.
The collaboration between the director and the studio has delivered GOAT, an epic animated spectacle set in the animal kingdom. The film is a basketball adventure that takes the concept established in Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks and straps a rocket to its back. It pits the biggest and fiercest creatures on the planet and throws them into the professional Roarball arena, where only the best survive. So imagine throwing in a small goat with a big heart! But is the film worthy of Sony’s signature brilliance? Or is this the studio’s first animated misfire?
REVIEW
Fear not, dear readers, because Tyree Dillihay’s Goat is an absolute blast. Sony’s trademark animation brings this incredibly fun, hilarious, and pulse-pounding sports adventure to life with infectious energy. This is a crowd-pleaser with an animated pulse. With its incredible visual spectacle and genuinely poignant moments that highlight family bonds, this Roarball (Basketball) tale is the GOAT! This is a film that will have kids and adults cheering with joy and fist-pumping the air—perfect family entertainment for the half-term break!
ROARBALL FORMULA!
Before we explore the film’s brilliance, let’s talk about the only major flaw I see in it — the formula. Every underdog story features a tried-and-tested checklist to make the film work. We’ve seen it time and time again in Rocky, Creed, and even Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph, and it is used to full effect here again. It’s hard to praise a film for its brilliance and spectacle without being critical of its formula. But in this day and age of reboots, prequels, and reimaginings, it’s hard to avoid the formula. Sadly, Goat is completely unoriginal. It deliberately checks all the boxes needed to make it work, but what it lacks in originality, it compensates for with how it uses the familiar formula to create magic.
However, its target audience probably won’t mind its predictable storyline. During my screening, kids of all ages waved their foam fingers with joy as popcorn flew into the air with every point scored on the court. So, don’t expect it to lose points for originality with this crowd.
GETTING GOATED!
Once you get past the generic storyline, the film quickly proves itself as an animated spectacle of sheer brilliance. Dillihay gets right to work, introducing the characters who will carry the story forward, starting with Will Harris, voiced by Stranger Things’ Caleb McLaughlin. The tiny Boer goat’s mind is blown when his mother takes him to his first Roarball game. After watching the current MVP, an all-star black panther named Jett Fillmore, destroy her opponents, Will declares that he will grow up to follow in Jett’s footsteps and become the best Roarball player ever. His mother encourages this dream and dares him to dream big!
Fast forward several years, and Will’s dream has yet to be realised; his mother has passed away, and he is living in a tiny apartment, working as a fast-food delivery boy. But when one of Roarball’s brightest stars comes to town and dominates the local Roarball court, Will rushes to face him and sets the stage for what will be a rollercoaster ride of sports brilliance.
ROARBALL 101
The film quickly spreads a positive message, urging kids to never give up on their dreams and reach for the stars. Again, it’s all part of the formula, but in this day and age, kids need all the help and encouragement they can get. Thankfully, Goat will deliver that in spades. After answering the current MVP’s challenge, Will’s heroics go viral, prompting the owner of his favorite professional team to offer him a contract, and he accepts without hesitation. But as always, there are ulterior motives at play that stack the deck against him.
His first challenge is earning the respect of his hero, Jett Fillmore, voiced by Gabrielle Union. Although she still commands respect for her position, Jett’s career hasn’t given her what she desires most—a championship-winning medal. This obsession has turned her into something of a control freak, and she sees Will’s appointment as a silly publicity stunt. So, with her career faltering, the team lacking confidence, and an owner with shady motives, Will is thrown into the deep end where he fights to achieve his dreams.
TEAM SPIRIT
From here, the story shifts into a character study of Jett and her teammates. Will, as always, brings youth, fresh ideas, eagerness, and constant optimism to the team, leading to some genuinely hilarious moments. However, with Jett reluctant to relinquish control and her other teammates deferring to her authority and game tactics, Will’s challenge is an uphill battle. Luckily, his teammates are just as colorful as they are funny. We have Stephen Curry playing Lenny Williamson, a giraffe, Nicola Coughlan as Olivia Burke, an ostrich, Nick Kroll as Modo Olachenko, a Komodo dragon, and finally, David Harbour as Archie Everhardt, an Indian rhinoceros. Each team member gets their moment to shine and faces their own internal struggle to overcome. This adds much-needed depth to the characters and raises the emotional stakes, enhancing the impact of the underdog story.
But the main focal point is the relationship between Jett and Will. Will’s energy is infectious, and his mission is to remind her of why she started playing in the first place and how to rely on her teammates to achieve her dreams. Again, it’s a positive message that will resonate with kids of all ages, promoting teamwork, friendship, and self-confidence. But set against the backdrop of some incredible Roarball action brought to life by some of the best animation you’ll see all year.
NOTHING BUT NET!
What comes across most is Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley’s sharp screenplay, which constantly raises the stakes while reminding us of the absurdity of animals becoming sports stars. The writers never lose sight of the characters and use them to full effect, creating magical and hilarious moments. Jett, being a cat, finds her outbursts tempered by being sprayed with water and drinks her water from a cat bowl. Olivia, being an ostrich, constantly buries her head in the sand when the going gets tough, and David Harbour’s rhinoceros, Archie, just wants to be a good father. Even music star Jelly Roll appears as a Grizzly Bear, making the film even more fun.
But the most effective parody comes from Will. During his moments of triumph, Will bleats like a Goat, which creates hilarious, rib-tickling moments. It becomes a prevalent joke in the film and delivers hilarity every time. Kids will get a kick out of this parody, especially from Jett, but every character gets in on the action, and their antics will have everyone laughing all the way home.
ANIMATION
However, the true highlight of the show is the stunning animation, which has become a hallmark of Sony Animation’s work. Like the Spider-Verse movies and K-Pop Demon Hunters, Goat features its own distinctive animation style that sets it apart from the competition. Again, the film pops with its breathtaking comic-book-come-to-life design and gloriously colourful landscapes. While it shares the style and tone of its predecessors, Goat energizes the Roarball arena with new vibrancy. The arenas are beautifully designed and rank among the most creative basketball courts ever imagined.
Once again, the producers draw inspiration from the animal kingdom for the arenas, making the results even more inventive. The sound design is on another level, and the soundtrack by Kris Bowers perfectly accentuates the action on screen. Throw in a few well-placed needle drops, and the finished result is a fun rollercoaster ride that ticks every box of a classic family film. This is Rocky for kids, and it works on every level.Â
VERDICT
Overall, Goat is an absolute blast. The film transcends its formulaic structure to deliver a fresh, energetic underdog story that will have kids roaring with delight as it reaches its inevitable conclusion. With its fresh energy, fantastic voice cast, vibrant palette, stunning animation, and wholly fresh design, the film is a rare gem that will score a slam dunk with families everywhere. The screenplay is sharp and witty, the emotional beats hit home, and the animal-themed comedy is utterly hilarious.
Whether Tyree Dillihay set his stall out to redefine the animated genre remains to be seen. But one thing’s for sure, with Sony Animation’s trademark animation sandbox at his fingertips, the director has crafted an exceptional film that defies its formula to bring audiences something incredibly fresh. So, book yourself some courtside seats for the best animated film of the year so far. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll fist pump the air when Will bleats his way to the top, because this Roarball tale is the GOAT!
Goat slam dunks its way into cinemas on February 13 from Sony Pictures.
Meet Phil Roberts! He’s the dedicated owner, daily content manager, and editor-in-chief of The Future of the Force. Phil is a budding novelist who turned his passion toward writing about the franchises he loves back in 2016. He’s a huge fan of all things Star Wars, Batman, DC, Marvel, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, King Kong, and the Ray Harryhausen movies. Phil is a BFI-accredited journalist and a distinguished member of the Film Critics Association UK.
If he’s not catching a movie at the cinema, you can bet he’s streaming something just as awesome!
