Boonie Bears: Back to Earth

The latest entry in the (apparently) long-running Boonie Bears series, Boonie Bears: Back to Earth follows Bramble (Joseph S. Lambert) as he’s imbued with otherworldly powers after a cat-like alien (Sara Secora’s Ari) crash-lands on earth. Filmmaker Lin Huida has infused Boonie Bears: Back to Earth with a bright and briskly-paced sensibility that does, at the outset, hold some promise, as the movie’s obvious geared-towards-small-children atmosphere is initially not as tough to take as one might’ve feared – with the watchable vibe heightened by vibrant animation and appealing characters. It’s disappointing to note, then, that the picture eventually (and perhaps inevitably) segues into a midsection that grows less and less interesting (and more and more tiresome), as scripters Wan Qin, Xu Yun, and Jiang Lin deliver a dumbed-down narrative that is, to an increasingly distressing extent, riddled with attributes of a decidedly lackluster nature – including (and especially) a pronounced emphasis on egregiously sentimental elements that are hardly as affecting as intended. (It doesn’t help, certainly, that Lambert is simply not up to the task of portraying Bramble’s more emotional outbursts, and his performance does, as a result, take on a decidedly grating tone as the story unfolds.) By the time the exhausting, woefully over-the-top third act rolls around, Boonie Bears: Back to Earth has confirmed its place as a bottom-of-the-barrel endeavor that seems likely alienate all but the youngest of audience members.

*1/2 out of ****