Alternately ambitious and simplistic, lively and bland, the French-produced adventure “Mia and the Migoo” never fully pinpoints its intended audience or many ecological messages.
Still, this generally involving film is gorgeous to watch, thanks to its 500,000 hand-painted frames of vibrant, artistic animation.
Mia (voiced by Amanda Misquez) is a spirited young girl on a dangerous journey in search of her widowed father, a worker on a remote construction site, unaware that he’s become trapped in a mysterious landslide.
Jekhide (John DiMaggio), the site’s greedy developer, jets out to the tropical location to assess the damage but must drag along the sweet son (Vincent Agnello) he habitually ignores.
Enter the Migoo (Wallace Shawn), a self-replicating, monsterish thing that guards the magical Tree of Life — a sort of world barometer — located in the middle of Jekhide’s project.
Mia’s befriending of Migoo proves key to her mission, but the pairing, though sometimes inspired, could have resulted in more fun.
“Mia” also features the voices of Matthew Modine, Whoopi Goldberg and James Woods in smaller roles.
Go for the fantasy, stay for the art.
“Mia and the Migoo”
Animated drama. PG. 1 hour, 31 minutes. At the Denver FilmCenter/Colfax.
