Terra Willy: Unexplored Planet, also known as Astro Kid, is gorgeously colourful family entertainment suitable for kids and adults alike.
Terra Willy: Unexplored Planet Synopsis
Young William is separated from his space explorer parents after a spaceship mishap. Taking refuge in an escape pod, he lands on a strange planet full of wondrous and dangerous creatures. His only companion as he awaits rescue is a stoic talking robot named Buck.
Snappy Review
I watched this (English dubbed?) French production on Fox Family Movies last evening, when over at my folks’ place for dinner.
It’s colourful, palatable, and delightful. As in literally with a colour palette that’s candy store worthy.
The story, as expected for such a movie, holds no surprises. But in compensation is an entire zoo of truly weird and amusing alien creatures. To have an idea, just imagine an urchin and bird hybrid.
Or a butterfly that’s actually butterflies.
Or a dino-puppy with an abundance of paws to high-5.
You get the idea, I’m sure.
There’s also Buck the robot companion. Voiced by Jason Anthony, he sounds incredibly like Baymax i.e. Big Hero 6, with the same logical ineptitude and stoic affability too. On this, I realized after the show that Buck’s rather inept attempts to understand his ward is possibly a mirror of the struggles young parents go through when handling their first child. Which means this space adventure could hold deeper meaning for certain adult viewers too.
Hold meaning … Hmm. Am I reading too much into the humour? Trying to extricate parenting wisdom from straight-forward entertainment, for the sake of a review?
I don’t know. (I don’t have kids) Incidentally, I watched this with my mother. Both of us tremendously enjoyed it. For 90 minutes, I was momentarily a kid too.
Read my other Snappy Movie Reviews.
