Back to Gaya (2005)

Simply A Masterpiece

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Absolutely Fantastic

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

This was one of those "the store is out of Movie X, so I'll pick up this and hope it's not too bad" movies.I was honestly expecting some "Ferngully"/"Dinotopia - Quest for the Ruby Sunstone" level abomination. The things we go through for our kids, blah blah.But it wasn't. Mind you, I'm not saying it's great - just better than a title like "The Snurks" would lead you to believe. "Return to Gaya" would have conveyed the quality better, but sounds like a sequel. The thing I liked best about it was that it did not unswervingly obey genre conventions. The idea of fictional, fantasy characters winding up in the Real World (tm) is by no means new, but it was treated with some intelligence. The Big Dumb Hero who, we discover, KNOWS that he's dumb, and doesn't seem entirely happy about it, the ostensible villain who displays a streak of heroism, the coward who, released from the narrative imperative, proves capable of bravery - and a real villain whose motivation for villainy is - get this - rage over having had his television show canceled in favor of less intellectually demanding fare - all these are surprising details, and display more originality than you'll find in a half-dozen similar movies.

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.

Well, today I've finally watched "Back To Gaya" which I was eagerly waiting for. My anticipation was damped because of the bad trailer which had a bad synchronisation and did not help to make one curious about the movie. Fortunately the movie was much better than what I had expected. Actually it is quite good but it has three major timing problems:1. technically: the animation is not very good (not a single run cycle seems correct in this movie) 2. the pace: the movie seems to last longer than it is because of bad pacing 3. the jokes: first of all there are too few and second they have a bad timing. Either you know the joke seconds before it is spoken or you miss it because you don't have time to laugh about itOn the other hand BTG is technically very well done (except the animation) has tons of places and objects, is beautiful colored and has a nice music. Everyone that likes CG-movies should see it, it's worth the money... all the other should give Brother Bear a chance - since it is much better than most people think =) Well, give it a try - both of them.

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.