Paul and I went out to the movies on Friday night. We were both a little tired, so we opted for what looked like a fun, light movie. Alpha and Omega is an animated movie about two wolves.
It wasn’t very good. It wasn’t painfully bad, but the 3D animation relied too heavily on gimmicks and the voice acting was mediocre, but the movie’s real weakness was its complete lack of depth. The characters were shallow and two-dimensional, and none of them really grew or changed, and the story was completely predictable. Maybe my standards in animated movies are a little high, but after How to Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3, Alpha and Omega really falls short.
Anyway, here’s the overview. Spoilers ahead.
Kate, the titular Apha, is a young hunter whose father is the leader of the pack. Humphrey is the funny Omega who has a huge crush on her. Kate is supposed to marry Garth, the son of the neighboring pack’s leader, so they can join the packs and not kill each other over food. (Why they have to marry to join the packs is a good question that’s never answered. Also, if there’s enough food for everyone, why not just share, even if it’s all in one half of the valley? But this problem is just there to complicate the love story, so I guess you’re just not supposed to think about it.) Kate isn’t impressed by Garth, but her sister Lily, who is an Omega, really likes him. (Can we see where this is going? Please, tell me you can.) Kate and Humphrey get captured by humans and taken to Iowa to build the wolf population in the park. There is a golfing goose, and he helps them figure out how to get home.
The road trip section of the movie felt like a poor imitation of Bolt. They traveled and overcame obstacles and grew closer. It all felt kinda forced. With some bad jokes and weird 3D snowballs thrown in.
While they’re gone, Lily and Garth spent some quality time together. They’re falling in luuurrrve. It’s… clumsy storytelling.
Kate and Humphrey get back just in time to stop the big fight. Humphrey plans to leave and become a wolf hobo and Kat’s going to do her duty and marry Garth. But then Kate can’t marry Garth, and Garth wants to marry Lily, but that’s NOT OKAY, because it’s important to have a big fight scene at the end of your movie. Humphrey comes back and he and Kate save the pack leaders from a stampede. Kate gets seriously injured but Humphrey heals her with the power of his love (no, really) and then they get married and everyone lives happily ever after.