Moomins on the Riviera (2014) User Reviews

The Moomin family's adventure in Riviera has twists and turns.

[tfpeecee · 6/10 · 10 October 2014]

I had quite the expectations about this movie, but at the same time I felt that it was going to be a rushed experience. I had to remember that I was going to see a kids' movie.

The plot for the movie felt simplistic, but I reckon it was for purpose. Artstyle was amazing, creating atmospheres with colors only few animations can stand up against. The new characters felt a bit alien, but as the movie went on they integrated to the movie pretty well.

As what comes to the entire film, it's certainly something you want to show to your children, but it doesn't really offer anything else. I have the idea that the Japanese anime-version offered anything to everyone. This movie doesn't get that similar feel right. It's still fun to look at and some scenes are quite thrilling.

Picard gave his best at bringing in the Moomin glory to white-screen and the results are satisfactory...for the children, that is.

Chekhov's Bag of Swearing Insects

[owen-watts · 6/10 · 20 July 2020]

A beautifully animated but rather baggy attempt at bringing the classic Tove books to life. Careful attention has been paid to replicating the style of the original inkwork - and with a lovely muted palette, the background scenes are by-and-large stunning, especially in Moominvalley itself.

Unfortunately it meanders so aimlessly as a plot that by the hour mark it feels quite exhaustingly disconnected like a flimsy Saturday morning cartoon stretched beyond its natural limits. Plaudits to be handed out for its dedication to the original more-satirical Moomin comic strips but in doing so whilst sticking to a languid and simplistic pace it ends up too babyish for adult audiences and too bizarrely adult for children's audiences. A bit of a beautiful muddle really that leaves it as a strange European curio rather than a vital bit of Moominery and really a damned shame.

Marginally acceptable as a time killer

[datautisticgamer-74853 · 5/10 · 19 July 2019]

On the same Finnair flight where I watched Finding Dory, this film caught my eye due to being not only Finnish animation, but from Finland's most popular cartoon franchise as well. I want you to keep in mind that I have barely heard of Moon before this film, so some things might be different compared to if I read the comics before watching it.

The animation looks alright considering how low its budget was, though it doesn't really bring out the action or humor out as much as would be expected for a comic adaptation. It does satisfactorily bring out the feel of its settings, which I suppose I'm fine with in spite of the grand Riviera not being revealed much beyond its façade. While the plot itself has occasionally good writing, much of it seems to rely on devices (such as the sympathetic loser being given a chance and the decision of familial vs. non-familial love) that feel recycled. While not necessarily outright cliché, methinks, at least from what I have heard following my experience with this movie, that the comic series brought more originality out of their conceptions. We similarly get characters that are developed alright for foreign audiences but are quite bland, again owing to how they follow along to a plot that demands they fill out familiar roles. From the Moomins themselves to wise-cracking Little My, the way this film is written just doesn't do their comic incarnations justice.

This film was overall just interesting enough to prevent me from nodding off, however I would have a hard time believing that common film-goers or even Moomin fans would actually like it. I suppose for diehard fans it would work differently, though like in a lot of cases pleasure would come more from the underlying source than its execution. As something to put on for the children, it would most likely bore them; it does include content on the risqué side to go with that, so watch with care.

How could they do this?

[harold-683-816251 · 4/10 · 30 May 2015]

I so wanted to like this film. The books, the fuzzy-felt TV series, even the newer young children's books are all fabulous.

Presumably the original Finnish version is up to scratch. Visually it's great, the music's pretty good. The English version though is appalling. The translation is dry and humourless and voice acting poor. Where is the subtle characterisation of the originals - shouldn't the Snorkmaiden be coquettish and slightly insecure rather than just a cow? I do a better Moominpappa reading the stories to my boy than the voice actor here.

The worst thing is that this vandalism must have been done by a team that just don't "get" the Moomins. They should be treasured, not treated like this.

Faithful

[derangement · 4/10 · 6 November 2019]

Great drawings, pretty music. The movie is an adaptation of a comic strip segment of the same name, published in 1955, (while hinting at other storylines from Janssons comics and books, mostly in the first act.) I imagine this should have been both more and less faithful to the source material. It sticks, for the most part, very close to the comics, and the pacing suffers for it, yet, what they did change or add makes it even worse (apart from the opening titles, featuring everyone's darling character.) The dialogue is for some reason subtly less moominous and witty, and Moominmama gets a couple moments of character-assassination. The main problem seems to be directorial and possibly editorial. There's no energy to the acting, no rhythm in the exchanges. I suspect someone very much wanted the product to be feature-length, which could have been a good thing, but instead of using that extra time to make the main plot more cohesive and engaging, they padded with unrelated story-material. I imagine this could have felt like a wonderful mix of Per Åhlin, Sylvain Chomet and the cute side of Cartoon Network. The creators went to great lenghts to copy and give life to the comic strip-drawings, and ended up with a moving comic strip.

Review from a big Moomin fan and a big 2D animation fan. I didn't like it.

[AdamVianArt · 4/10 · 15 October 2014]

Beautiful backgrounds and colour design, but everything else was bad. I didn't like the movie much at all.

The script, voice acting and pacing/storytelling were especially bad. Also the character animation was mediocre and lifeless.

It desperately needed a proper English localisation & casting/voice direction, or just leave it in Finnish/Swedish with subs.The English voices were fairly weak, especially Moomin himself.

I thought the script was lazy and messy - the way they throw in Tove Jansson quotes/jokes with no context or the wrong context annoyed me so much. They didn't turn the material into a movie script at all.

Note: I'm a big Moomin fan AND very critical of animated movies so maybe other people would like it way more than me?

P.S You know what? If you're a Moomin fan, the movie -IS- worth seeing, for the opening titles with Snufkin alone.

2D animation with 1D characters.

[giovanni8013 · 1/10 · 13 March 2015]

The movie is so bad I reactivated my IMDb account just to write this review.

I suppose this film is for serious Moomins fans. The only positive thing I can say is the colour and painting are beautiful.

The story is not even continuous. The voice acting is worse than that of kids TV. I was of high anticipation of the film, and I really wanted to care for these characters, but half way through the movie I just gave up. These characters are too bohemian for my liking, and too forgiving for everything just to pick up the pace of the movie.

So in conclusion, I hate this film.

This isn't Moomins

[GwydionMW · 4/10 · 9 July 2017]

Visually the cartoon was OK, but it totally ignored any number of excellent plots from the originals.

Had pirates, except they behaved absurdly. And did not fit.

Then sent them to the Riviera, where they were obviously out of place.

A complete botch.

Why does no one in the world of commercial cinema accept that a successful original is best treated with respect?

@smileydaveuk

[jcloud-31991 · 1/10 · 20 January 2021]

Just for you. Didnt want to break my promise.

legit the only movie that gave my child nightmares, besides when the horse dies in the neverending story.

Just no

[sini-200 · 2/10 · 13 February 2021]

I am a big Moomin fan and this movie was just terrible. The only good thing about it was the cartoon drawing style, even I will always love the original Finnish moomins cartoon. The voice actors seemed to have no personality at all, or fit the characters they were doing the voices for, and the plot was boring i couldn't even finish the 30 minutes of the film. Highly disappointed.