The One and Only Ivan

“The One and Only Ivan” tells the (true? truish?) story of a gorilla who lives in captivity and is part of a small animal circus run out of a mall. Really. Animal show in a mall.

Ivan is artistic. His paintings catch local attention and a movement springs up to release him and the other circus animals. He’s transferred to Zoo Atlanta where he gets to see the sky and breathe fresh air and not be a gorilla puppet entertaining children in a strip mall. So, that’s nice.

The movie is fine. The voice work is good–particularly Sam Rockwell as Ivan and Danny DeVito as Bob the dog.

Bryan Cranston is the live-action lead. He plays the guy (Mack) who owns the animal circus / the ring leader. It’s an odd character. Cranston is always compelling, but this character’s motivations are unclear. Is he in it for love of the animals or for profit? We see that he adopted Ivan when he was a baby and raised him like a child. But this drove his wife away. Mack then doubled down by creating an animal circus (in a mall) and he made Ivan the headliner. Yet, Ivan didn’t have to do anything beyond be himself. So, Ivan is kind of well cared for, but not really because he’s permanently stuck inside a mall? Is Mack good? Bad? Mostly good? I suppose thorough character motivation in a Disney movie isn’t all that important, but still, I didn’t get what was going on here..

I also get the impression Cranston’s character was toned down for the movie (the film is based on a book). I could see this guy being a little too rough with the animals; a little too enamored with stardom and money and the trappings of pseudo-fame that attention can generate. But that stuff isn’t surfaced in the film.

The gorilla animation is amazing. The other animals–a baby elephant, a chicken, a sea lion, a parrot, two dogs, and a bunny–are all decent (though the bunny looks off). The gorilla animation is where the filmmakers invested, and it’s jaw dropping. Ivan expresses everything through his eyes and nose, and you pick up on all of it without having to allow for animation discrepancies. There’s no disconnect.

It’s amazing to see how far this technology has come. Look at the first “Toy Story” from 1995. While the movie is and always will be delightful, modern eyes can see the seams in the the animation. Now, 25 years later we’ve got this advancement–and the quality isn’t confined to a blockbuster. This is a family film. It’s not “Jurassic Park.” It’s wonderful to see stories like this translated to the screen without obstacles. The distance between idea and execution keeps getting shorter.

Animated gorilla vs animated dog: The animation in “Ivan” is much better than the animation in the 2020 version of “The Call of the Wild.” In “Wild,” the lead character (Buck the dog) often looks fake. You know the dog lumbering through scenes isn’t really there. With this film, Ivan feels present.