The Jim Henson Company launches its Discoveries label to bring acquired content to the direct-to-DVD market. THE BLUE ELEPHANT, the first Thai CG feature, looks from its cute character design like it is geared toward the pre-school crowd. However, one might take notice to its PG rating, because the chief theme is fighting wars for freedom. While the character design for the animals are appealing, they seem in contrast to the tone. These inconsistent parts are the primary qualities that make the film seem like it was cobbled together from spare parts of other films.
Based on the story CHAO PRAYA PRAH HONGSAWADEE by Ariya Jintapanichkarn, Khan Kluay (Jeremy Redleaf) is a tiny, blue elephant that has never known his father. When the Burmese army moves into his area, he goes looking for his dad, believing that he may have been captured. This leads to him being separated from his mother and discovered by a pink female elephant named Kon Suav (Miranda Cosgrove, TV's ICARLY), who is the "daughter" of the human elephant trainer Tian (Carl Reiner, TV's THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW). When the King of Siam (Richard Epcar, TV's DIGIMON) calls on all his people to challenge the Burmese, Tian trains Khan and the other elephants to fight for their freedom. With the aide of the hyper bird Jai (Martin Short, THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES), Khan becomes the honored Royal Elephant.
Not knowing if the English dialogue is word-for-word to the original Thai version, I can only comment on the "Americanized" dialogue. It comes off as uninspired and lacking of any real wit. Clichéd lines and bad jokes litter the entire production. The plotting is fairly straight forward, but one does get the impression that the makers ran out of ideas from time to time. A good example is its repetitiveness during Khan's trial to become the Royal Elephant. The CG quality is passable at best. The human characters range from bland to awful, and often don't seem to come from the same film. The animation isn't fluid and the timing is sluggish. Corners seem to have been made, because some scene looks much better than others.
I couldn't help thinking of another elephant tale from 2008, HORTON HEARS A WHO! Blue Sky's Dr. Seuss production had wit and humor and originality. THE BLUE ELEPHANT contains none of that. It's weak TV animation at best. Little kids will be entertained, but it will lose anyone over the age of eight. Parents might view the appropriateness of the themes differently depending on whether they believe it's about never giving up or it's pro-war. Kantana Animation Studio made history with this film, being the first Thai CG feature. It's an admirable accomplishment, but far from the standards set by the top animation houses in the world.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
