Introduction
Hello, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is back for a special animated movie adventure, because today, we are going back to yet another origin story, and it is time to go back to 2010! 2010, the year of the first ever Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and also the year where I covered my very first ever foreign CG animated movie in a movie theatre (albeit being the only one in the theatre): nWave Pictures’ most profitable animated movie, A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventure.
Directed by nWave founder and long-time director Ben Stassen, together with Mimi Maynard, it is a simple tale about a turtle who spends the next 50 years travelling across the world as the world changes with global warming and climate change.
It has been 13 years since I last watched it and it was my very taste of my specialisation in covering foreign CG animated movies like this one. I was in primary school and back when I had counselling, my counsellor gave me a free ticket to treat myself during the December school holiday, and she recommend me to check out that movie. Since then, I had not touched the movie, but I had covered nWave Pictures extensively, given how many animated movies I rated from Letterboxd. In fact, no other foreign CG animation studio had as much influence in my adventures in the world of animated movies than this small Belgian animation studio.
Still, coming off perhaps their best movie with 2022’s Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness, as we wait for their next movie and their 10th movie, The Inseparables, to be out, will nWave’s second animated movie be a nostalgic homerun, or will Chickenhare leave it to dust? Only one to find out, on to our special adventure!
Key Information
- Directors: Ben Stassen and Mimi Maynard
- Animation Studios: nWave Pictures
- Country of Origin: Belgium
- Rating: PG
- Release Date: 9 December 2010 (In Singapore)
Trailer
The Review
Story and Characters
One issue I have with nWave’s movies, even with their better ones like Son of Bigfoot and Chickenhare, is the quality of their writing. Sure, you could argue that the average quality of writing in the majority of foreign CG animated movies is lacklustre but given how much I love their animation (more than that later), I was expecting the level of writing to improve over the years, but I often rate their writing between 2.0 and 3.5, which is rather stagnant. However, with the writing in A Turtle’s Tale, there was some semblance in the originality because of the way nWave tells the story.
First and forecast, there is a reason why the working title for A Turtle’s Tale is “Around the World in 50 Years” because, frankly, the story takes place over the course of 50 years. Throughout the story, we put our perspectives on young sea turtle Sammy unintentionally embarking on a 50-year journey across the world as his world is slowly changing due to the effects of climate change and global warming, focusing more on his slice of life adventures growing up. It is often fascinating that very few foreign CG animated movies are slice-of-life based, but while there were some rough patches, the execution is way better than I was expecting.
There is also great messaging about certain climate change-based themes that is still relevant even to this day, and also some good ideas about the various portrayals of the human characters on their responses to climate change in this movie.
However, considering that the quality of writing in foreign CG animated movies is not great during the early 2010s, I suppose one weakness this movie has is the lack of character emotional impact in this movie. There is not enough depth to care much about certain characters in the movie due to its selection of storytelling and it does not feel well-rounded. Still, for a foreign CG animated movie from 2010, this does not feel too bad in terms of the storytelling.
As for the characters, as I mentioned in the earlier paragraph, there is simply not enough depth to care much about the characters. Sammy (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) is pretty bland as a main character especially compared to other main characters from nWave’s better movies such as Adam in Son of Bigfoot and so do his love interest in Shelly (Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg). In fact, I honestly had a hard time remembering the cast of characters in the movie nor the voice acting quality, because it is pretty much in the middle. Neither good nor bad, just in between, which for early 2010s standards, is slightly higher than average.
Animation
Even though I reviewed a lot of foreign CG animated movies, there is a reason why I talked less about foreign CG animated movies from the 2000s and early 2010s unless they are worth talking about. Simply put, it is because the animation quality in these movies is very poor. It is during that time that CG animation technology is still rather expensive, and more animation studios are still trying to get a grip in utilising that technology, resulting in animation quality that aged as well as a glass of milk exposed to the hot Singapore weather. Fortunately, considering nWave had experience in animation from their 4D rides before venturing into theatrical animation, they already had some idea of doing animation in CG, which shows in this movie.
A bit of a disclaimer, I could not find a high-quality version of this movie, so I had to resort to other means of watching A Turtle’s Tale. As what I mentioned, the texturing is off especially when compared to nWave’s other movies such as Son of Bigfoot and Chickenhare, and the lighting and colouring is a bit muted.
With that said, there were certain great animation shots throughout the movie, which is already a step-up from the badly aged CG of foreign CG animated movies in the early era. Certain background animation, while dated, showcased the brutality of climate change, which helps to convey the main themes of this movie. The water animation, which is very integral to the movie, might not be the most fluid, but it is still acceptable especially for foreign CG animated movie standards.
I also feel the character designs is rather solid, though easy to execute since most are marine animals that is easy to animate. There was enough creativity in the character designs to move the movie forward, though definitely not much. Lip syncing animation is good, and that is about it.
Overall, for an animated movie produced in the early 2010s, the animation in A Turtle’s Tale is honestly not bad. The animation might look dated, but at least it is not too dated compared to other more recent horrible animated movies in recent memory, including Norm of the North, Arctic Dogs and Marmaduke. Talking about the animation “quality” in those three animated movies, especially when compared to that of A Turtle’s Tale, is like talking about my country’s current state of football/soccer: there are just too many ways to talk about how bad it is.
Soundtrack, Other Elements and Level of Enjoyment
Most of the time, soundtracks in a majority of foreign CG animated movies are not worth talking about, especially if they recycled other, more popular songs of the era. This is because the soundtracks would be usually full of licenced songs from more established artists or poor unknown songs from B-rate musicians not worth adding to your playlist. Still, the soundtrack in A Turtle’s Tale had some interesting choices worth mentioning.
A majority of the songs in the movie’s soundtracks are from well-known artists, from Michael Jackson to Mika, and especially Bruno Mars. Still, I was astounded at the selection of one of the more underrated songs from Mars’s illustrious music career with “Talking to the Moon”. I don’t think I saw another major animated movie using that song so that took me aback. Even for a foreign CG animated movie, the usage of the songs is appropriate and does not distract from the movie too much, even though I was expecting some more creativity from the song choices.
As for my level of enjoyment, watching this movie made me feel emotional, as it was 13 years since I previously saw the movie. It was heartening to see this movie again, not only because of how nWave Pictures influenced me as an animated movie reviewer, but also because of the improvements made to the CG technology that helps to improve the overall quality of animated movies as the years go by. We are now experiencing some of the most polished and expressive usage of this animation medium thanks to the existence of foreign CG animated movies. While I was a bit bored with this movie compared to my experience 13 years ago, it was still a great experience seeing it in action.
Conclusion
Well, it has been a review 13 years in the making, and while it was clear that the movie had seen better days, for nWave’s second attempt in producing an animated movie, it was one of the better foreign CG animated movies of the early 2010s.
A Turtle’s Tale possesses a unique storytelling concept that focuses on the slice-of-life adventures not many animated movies had used in an effective way, the animation, while dated, is a solid attempt for nWave’s second attempt and the soundtrack, while mostly licenced, is decent. It is a foreign CG animated movie that I did not have many complaints to talk about, especially when you consider that a whole lot of foreign CG animated movies during the early 2010s are not good.
All in all, if you are one of the very few nWave fanboys out there (like me, even if I continue to deny that fact), this is where you should start your nWave journey, and not their debut flick, Fly Me to the Moon. Trust me, you really don’t want to know.
Thank you so much for reading this special review. It is time we head for two more mini adventures, with the first being an animated movie from Croatia about a love story betweena cricket and an ant, and as for the second, speaking of nWave, we are heading to yet another movie courtesy of two of the writers behind nWave’s two Son of Bigfoot movies and the upcoming movie of The Inseparables, and I hope you are ready for some more animated movie adventures. I will see you in the next adventure and until then, k thanks bye!
Blaziker’s Hot Sauce Movie Rating
