by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $9.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Mo Gilligan, Simone Ashley, Sophie Okonedo, Zayn Malik, Bill Nighy, Dylan Llewellyn
Intro:
Basic jokes, one-note characters, decent animation; the kind of material you’d expect to show up out of nowhere on streaming.
This movie is confused. It feels as if two separate storylines are constantly fighting for attention like competing pets under the same roof. From its inclusion of the charity Bees For Development among the production logos in the opening, to its literal first shot of a bee pollinating, there’s an emphasis on conservation talking points, with the human leads, Rose (Simone Ashley) and Larry (Dylan Llewellyn), working to help curb a recent bee endangerment.
There’s also the thinly-veiled antagonist, Prof. Craven (Bill Nighy), whose ultimate plan is a toned-down version of Black Mirror’s ‘Hated in the Nation’, involving robotic drones to take over the agricultural industry.
And then there’s what the film keeps insisting is the real plot, involving housecat Beckett (Mo Gilligan), who goes on a karmic character arc, where he keeps being reincarnated until he learns to be a better sentient being.
The extent to which he just runs through each reincarnation gives his narrative a lack of forward momentum, to the point where his redemption feels more mandated than earned. The character’s fourth-wall-breaking schtick is okay for the most part, but it can’t escape how he feels like he’s just on a different kind of cyclical existence than anything karmic.
Bouncing in-between these plot points, the film feels like its own scientific experiment to find the exact ‘mid’ point for an animated talking animal movie. Basic jokes, one-note characters, decent animation; the kind of material you’d expect to show up out of nowhere on streaming.
To say nothing about the soundtrack, which makes this into a kinda-sorta musical but where none of the songs contribute to the story or the characters, nor do they even stick around long enough to make any impact.
The most amusing part of 10 Lives is Zayn Malik’s casting (not in the lead, as the marketing sometimes tries to imply) as Craven’s twin henchmen Kirk and Cameron … get it?
10 Lives is ‘kids’ content’. The animation is quite stale, and while the voice actors soldier on as best they can, they can’t make heavenly gold out of these tired jokes or the constant tug-of-war between its philosophical ambitions and the want to highlight a worthy charity.
It might be alright for the young’ins, but seeing as we crossed the content event horizon a long time ago (it is not possible to watch every single thing that is available to watch), this can safely be skipped.
