DVD Release: Mia and the Migoo

DVD Release Date: Aug. 7, 2012
Price: DVD $19.98
Studio: Entertainment One

Whoopi Goldberg (The Muppets), Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket), James Woods (Straw Dogs) and Wallace Shawn (Toy Story 3) lend their voices to the animated movie Mia and the Migoo, the second film from acclaimed French animator Jacques-Remy Girerd (Raining Cats and Frogs).

Rated PG, Mia and the Migoo tells the story of young Mia who has a premonition that leads her into a cross-country journey to save her father, who has been trapped in a landslide at a remote construction site.

Along the way, Mia finds the ancient Tree of Life, which is watched over by bumbling forest spirits called the Migoo, who change size and shape as they please. The Migoo have been disrupting the construction site to protect the tree. They join Mia to find her father and save the tree, before life on Earth is destroyed.

The film’s artwork, 500,000 hand-painted frames of animation, invoke the work of Van Gogh, Monet and Cezanne, according to the press materials.

Mia and the Migoo was screened in a couple theaters, but the DVD is basically its introduction to moviegoers in the U.S.

Those who did see the film on the big screen liked it, giving the movie a 70% approval rating, according to Rotten Tomatoes. Critics, however, pretty much panned it, calling it heavy handed and childish. Judging by the trailer below, it does look like it’ll work best for younger viewers — but that is, of course, who it was made for.

The DVD has two special features:

• a making-of featurette
• an interview with the director.

Here’s that trailer. What do you think of it:

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