Otaku no Culture

Available on Netflix

The Soccer Football Movie is more of a Weird Al movie than another CGI animated sports film. When this talent is nearly everywhere in the media these days, his popularity meter going on the rise should be no surprise. Following the wild and crazy fictional biopic of the singer (my review can be read here), this tale featuring him than voicing another character is just as zany. But he alone can’t carry a film.

The story is essentially Space Jam. The premise is the same–someone wants to steal the special ability of a sports star to use elsewhere. Instead of an alien threat, we have a fellow human who is perhaps jealous of other’s stardom. Had there more of an emphasis on this theme, there’d be a story.

Instead, what’s presented is a story about four kids–O’Dang (Kieran Walton), Zana (Madison Zamor), Nautai (Tania Gunadi) and Palio (Arnie Pantoja)–getting to meet their rugby hero Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Megan Rapinoe (both doing great jobs at voicing themselves). As their encounter goes from bad to good, and they win his heart, he offers them season tickets. But when he doesn’t return to give them their reward, that’s because he’s been “kidnapped.” That’s because Al wants to be more than a king of the world, and all those songs he wrote is actually about how he wants to be a surgeon and mad scientist after all.

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Tags: CGI, Netflix, Soccer, Sports, Streaming, Weird Al