The animated brain-switch comedy is having a moment: Swapped (now on Netflix), which finds two inexplicable cute-animal thingies walking the proverbial mile in each other’s skulls, follows the Pixar hit Hoppers, in which an activist college student has her mind vworped into a robot beaver. The former switcheroo is today’s topic of review, a movie by Tangled director and longtime Disney creative Nathan Greno, who office-swapped over to Netflix recently to spearhead Swapped, a big enough deal to draw recent Oscar winner Michael B. Jordan to voice the lead. Now whether the film can overcome its heavy-handed messaging (a common symptom of children’s films) with its strange and beautiful visuals is the question.
SWAPPED: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: It takes a minute to realize that this planet isn’t Earth, and that Ollie (Jordan) isn’t a chipmunk or a gerbil or something. He’s a (checks notes) pookoo, and he lives on an island separate from all the creatures in this land. We learn in a flashback that an evil firewolf ruled this world with fear, dividing its population into its various species of creatures, many of which are flora-fauna hybrids: you’ve got your birch-tree antelopes, birds with leafy plumage, snakes that mimic tree roots, wolves with bushes growing out of their backs. You’ve also got your garden-variety dung beetles for the requisite kid’s-movie doodoo jokes. The firewolf’s reign of terror finds the pookoos living in fear of all other creatures: “Never trust any other creature,” Ollie’s dad (Cedric the Entertainer) lectures. “Hide today, alive tomorrow” is another mantra. Methinks the animals in this valley could use a U.N. to unite them against fascist rulers. Me also thinks the entire movie is a loose allegory of centuries of geopolitical strain and conflict here on Earth, but maybe that’s just me thinksing too much.
When Ollie was just a wee fluffster, he used to wander out of the perceived safe zone, much to his father’s chagrin. One day Ollie meets one of the leaf-birds, known as (checks notes) javans, and befriends it, sharing its (checks notes) piplets, which are pea-like things in a pod-like thing and the pookoos’ main source of sustenance. Next thing you know, the javans are hoarding all the piplets, leaving the pookoos with a food shortage, and rendering the two species mortal enemies. This is what happens when an organizing body doesn’t control its local resources and export goods with a healthy fee attached to keep the economy churning, see. Meanwhile, we’re also introduced to some lore about giant elephant-mountain creatures known as (checks notes) zo – is that what they’re called? Just “zo”? Or maybe “dzo”? – who died by the firewolf’s paws, but also produced little orbamajigs (that’s my ridiculous made-up term, thank you) that allow animals to take the form of other animals. Why? Because the plot needs a way for these characters to overcome their fear of The Other, that’s why.
Is it me thinksing again or is this movie starting to feel like a bunch of ideas rattling around in a tin can? Yes, but we soldier on. Ollie ventures to the javans’ territory, apparently hoping to organize an international summit to address the dire state of the pookoos’ food supply. He meets Ivy (Juno Temple) and what with this, that, one thing and another thing, they find orbamajigs and accidentally fzapp themselves, Ollie becoming a javan and Ivy becoming a pookoo. In various misadventures, he learns to fly and she learns to “see smells” and they also hang with a (checks notes) boogle fish (Tracy Morgan), who’s a bit of a lovable weirdo. Turns out Ollie and Ivy each have sad stories, and their folk have suffered thanks to the division sown by the firewolf. Maybe, just maybe, they can mend the fences among their peoples and reach some kind of harmony? No spoilers, but this is a kid movie, so chances of success are pretty good.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Well, Rio had birds and every other animated movie in existence had small fluffy cute woogumses, so Swapped reminds me of all of those. Generally speaking, it has all the visual and thematic appeal and staying power of other Netflix animations like Over the Moon and Spellbound, which were fine in the moment but lacked staying power. Why does it feel like Netflix movies of all sorts tend to just fade from memory? (Note, The Sea Beast might be the exception to that.)
Performance Worth Watching Hearing: Jordan feels miscast, a touch too husky of voice for Chip and Dale’s slightly mutant cousin. So give this honor to Morgan, whose eternally loopy presence lends any project a welcome element of chaos.
Sex And Skin: None.
Our Take: Here we pause to acknowledge Flow, the animated story of a cat and a hodgepodge of slightly anthropomorphic animals who notably never utter a single word of dialogue in 85 minutes. The film won an Oscar. I present this fact as encouragement to the makers of movies like Swapped, which serially feature characters who jibberjabber so much you’re tempted to redirect popcorn to your ears instead of your mouth to mute the din. Among Swapped’s onslaught of wordswordswords is the line, “Turn me into a dung baby!”, accompanying a scene in which some javan camouflage our pookoo protag by smearing him with excrement. It’s supposed to steer predators away, but it also works to repel viewers who’ve grown weary of butt humor rampant in children’s entertainment, and wish filmmakers would literally, you know, cut the crap.
I realize it’s not fair of me to lead with the worst components of Swapped, which is more than just an isolated poop gag and characters who never shut the heck up. But those are the facts, and those components ultimately may stand out among the movie’s bromidic and predictable quest plot, flimsy characters and preachy thematics. It’s not enough for the movie to show us diverse groups of animal characters functioning stronger together and trusting each other, it has to put its protagonist center-screen to breathlessly deliver the line, “We’re stronger together! We have to trust each other!” This is a prime example of children’s films that underestimate their audiences’ intelligence and therefore talk down to them and brandish well-meaning messages with a leaden hand.
Is all this enough to torpedo the entire endeavor? Not quite. The film looks gorgeous – it’s colorful and inventive in its character and environment design, and while that can be goofy (wolves with wood-like fur and branches emerging from their backs is a nutty sight), at least Greno and his animators are striving for originality instead of just hiring Julia Roberts to be the voice of a lonely turtle or whatever. And its heart is very much in the right place, depicting as it does a world rendered dystopian by divisiveness and xenophobia, overseen by a cruel separatist entity who lusts for power. (Allegories for current events abound, don’t they?) The pacing can be sluggish but the eye candy is omnipresent, and there’s no denying the totes-adorbs appeal of a floofpup and a flapamajig making friends and mending fences for the greater good. There’s no cynicism here, just hope.
Our Call: Swapped flirts precariously with forgettability, but most families will find it diverting before they go back to streaming K-Pop Demon Hunters on a loop. So STREAM IT, but don’t be surprised if repeat viewing isn’t in the cards.
John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.