Reviewed by daygecko-07574 2 / 10
Bad acting, highly offensive villains.
I watched this movie with my grandfather thinking it was going to be a cute wholesome movie about a fox. (I love foxes) but there are so many problems with this film that I couldn’t even bring myself watch all of it.
First off, the acting.
The acting is horrible and feels like I’m watching an elementary school play rather than an actual film. Paired with the flawed story line I wouldn’t be surprised if “Amanda” herself wrote the film, since it feels like a story book a kid had to write for a school assignment got turned into a film. But even with this, I was going to give it a break because the studio probably wasn’t spending much on the film, and it might be their first one.
Second, the extremely offensive “Russian” villains.
If I was a Russian and I watched this film I would feel extremely offended. Not only are the villains highly stereotypical, but they’re making it seem like Russian people are evil and bad guys. What if children saw this and thought that all Russian people were like those villains? Nobody who is Russian or from any other country would refer to a cat as “English kitty” Nobody from Russia would randomly go “NO NO NO NO NYET NYET” when angry. they didn’t spend a lot of time on the names and decided to go with like the most stereotypical Russian name, Boris. That’s like calling a Mexican boy Felipe and calling it a day, putting no other thought into the name.
I know it’s common with a lot of these “kids stop the bad guys” films, but the villains are portrayed as extremely unintelligent.
Third, though it’s not that bad, the fact that a lot of the things don’t make sense.
the fox on the picture is red and the fox in the film is grey.
They put the turtle in a tiny fruit bowl of a fish tank with no heat, no plants, just some gravel and enough room to walk in a tiny circle. Bad message for kids who want a turtle.
The dog groomer lady sent the fox home with Amanda and told her she’d “send a list of supplies” Foxes like the one shown are not legal to keep in the US without strict permits, sending another bad message for the kids watching. They’re not stray pets, they’re wild animals.
Amanda got hurt and for some reason was getting a checkup at a vet. A doctor for animals? What?
Overall the film is really messed up with it’s messages and acting and I wouldn’t recommend watching it.
Offensive depiction of “bad guys”
Seemed innocent enough at first (not great relationship modeling between child and parent or the dad and grandpa) but I had to turn it off as soon as the animal control officers came on. They were meant to be the “bad guys” and were depicted with Russian accents and seemingly of lower intelligence. Completely offensive.
