“Animal Crossing: The Movie” is based on the popular and addictive videogame series of the same name. This is a movie where nothing really happens. As a result, it perfectly captures the spirit of the source material. As an adaptation of the videogame, it’s great but as a movie, it’s terrible.

A young girl by the name of Ai moves to Animal Village. Most of the population is made up of anthropomorphic animals including shopkeeper Tom Nook. Ai makes new friends and she tries her best to be a good member of the community. She also finds messages in bottles that lead her to believe that there will be a miracle on the eve of the Winter Festival.

The characters in “Animal Crossing” are really dull. I didn’t find any of them interesting as they all engage in the most mundane conversations that I’ve heard in a motion picture. I did not care about Ai because nothing interesting happens to her so her character never really progresses. Everything is just too cutesy for me to care. I remember caring about the young girls and the creatures in “My Neighbour Totoro” so I know it’s possible to make characters in such an innocent film be captivating. I also thought the animation on the characters was quite underwhelming for the most part.

I remember the “Animal Crossing” games were addictive but the more I look back, the more I realise how pointless they were. Nothing of any real significance happens and maybe that mirrors a lot of real-life. However, the purpose of entertainment is to give us exciting fantasies. If you absolutely adore the videogames and/or you are a young girl then you will probably find this movie endearing. If you are not a fan of the games then this is just another bad videogame movie.