Bilal: A New Breed of Hero Review

Animation fans I talk about American movies and shows all the time but very rarely do I talk about British animated films well now is one of those times because i'm going to talk about a small British / Dubai co-production so here is my review of Bilal: A New Breed of Hero.

I really do wish I could tell you what the story of the film was but the film chose to be kind and not include one which isn't a good thing because a film needs a story to tell and so if you don't have a story then what's the point in the film existing they might as well have called this film scenes the animated movie because that's what it feels like.

Starring in the film are Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje , Ian McShane , China Anne McClain , Thomas Ian Nicholas , Michael Gross , Cynthia McWilliams , Mick Wingert , Jon Curry and voice acting legend Fred Tatasciore. Acting wise the film does fair a little better but not much that's not to say the performances are bad but some of the voices don't fit the characters and that can be very distracting at times like for example the voice of grown up Bilal doesn't fit at all it sounds like a younger James Earl Jones.

Out of alot of animated films this is one that I was most excited for mostly because I had no idea of what the plot could be heck the title suggested it would be an action film and that was even somewhat hinted at in the films trailers but what I got was something more along the lines of bible film which I don't mind as long as they represent that in the films trailers which they didn't at all.

The film was animated by new studio Barajoun Entertainment and not only are they a new studio this was there first film and I have to say for their first time out they really did a good job with the animation dare I say it but the animation in this film looked almost as good as PIXARS films that's how good it truly is ok there human characters do need a bit of work on them but no studio knocks it out of the park on their first attempt when it comes to human characters but they were damn close and that's really something.

This was a passion project for co-director / producer / Barajoun founder Ayman Jamal he spent several years before production began on the film just doing research for it and that was just to make sure it was historically correct that's crazy dedication I can't say if it payed of or not since i'm not a history person but that amount of dedication needs to be applauded.

This film is listed as an action adventure and while they certainly got the action part down they forgot to include an adventure and heck there's not even that much action in the film which is kinda needed if you have an action tag I will go on more about the action in the movie later on but how can you call yourself an adventure film and not have an actual adventure that to me makes no sense at all.

Just to give you all a fair warning this film is close to two hours long and while the pacing of the film isn't that bad in the beginning it does start to drag in the third act and that does make that third act seem rather boring which shouldn't be the case at all but like I said this is the first film for a new studio but even so this is film making 101.

Like I said this film kinda got the action part part down and I say kinda because there's two action sequences and for a nearly two hour film that's even close to enough and most of the action in those sequences is just not that interesting at all and that makes me wonder if the directors took tips from Micheal Bay.

This film has way to much slow motion and one of the scenes that's in slowmo is a reference to the "This Is Sparta" kick from 300 I don't know why they put that in there but it made me laugh just because it's so out of place and movies should know that just because you can use slow motion doesn't mean you should unless it helps advance the story which it doesn't in this case.

Overall this isn't a bad first movie for a new studio but at the same it's not a good one either it's very hard to get your first movie right since that's basically going to be peoples first impression of you but based of this film this studio is going to do good stuff but with that said this film gets a 4.5 out of 10 from me.