Good-Looking Wrestling Creature Feature Rumble Is Entirely Forgettable
The premise of Rumble more-or-less guarantees a great movie. The film spotlights the trials and tribulations of a sprightly aspiring monster-coach and her gigantic, clumsy, reptilian trainee. If my decades of movie-watching have taught me anything, it’s that the only thing that Hollywood loves more than films about underdogs are animated movies about monsters.
It’s not only disappointing, then, but also slightly shocking when Rumble ends up being largely uninspiring and low-energy. Directed by animator Hamish Grieve and loosely based on Rob Harrell’s 2013 graphic novel Monster on the Hill, the film takes place in Stoker, a town once widely recognized for its iconic monster-coach duo. That all changed when the pair got lost at sea, but luckily, half-shark/half-octopus/half-I-have-no-idea-what Tentacular (Terry Crews) is here to usher Stoker back into its glory days. Just kidding! After winning a match in town, Tentacular announces his evil scheme to destroy his predecessors’ turf—and turn the town’s stadium into a parking lot. (That is…unless someone can find a monster to replace him in the rink and bring the town’s revenue back before the hydraulic equipment comes into play.) The daughter of Stoker’s beloved coach, whippersnapper Winnie Coyle (Geraldine Viswanathan), steps up to the plate and scouts lazy amateur reptilian wrestler Steve (Will Arnett) as Stoker’s last hope. Hilarity and training montages ensue.
I’ll be the first to admit it: The plot is pretty much the embodiment of formulaic, but that’s not always a bad thing—especially where kids’ movies are concerned. We have our clear-cut villain (who rips off bouts of menacing laughter and has literal tentacles, if anyone was confused) and our easily loveable underdog heroes. There’s a crystal-clear conflict, an even clearer obstacle, and the clearest of all are our character motivations. Steve even says “Daddy issues” out loud.
And, to be honest, none of this is a glaring problem. While in many examples it can serve as a handicap, by no means does this audience-approved formula rule out the possibility of a good film. No, Rumble’s real Achilles’ heel lies in its lack of vitality or stamina. From its first scene, set in a roaring arena with blazing lights and creatively ghastly monster-amalgams, it’s clear that the film has every intention of being an energetic fighting-flick a la The Incredibles or Kung Fu Panda. The music is loud, the characters vibrating with momentum like impassioned atoms. But things never really get off the ground. The action is predictable and the animation far too effortless and smooth to provide any real conflict.