Tad, the Lost Explorer a temple to mediocrity

Movie: Tad, the Lost Explorer
Director: Enrique Gato
Starring: Kerry Shale, Ariel Winter, Cheech Marin

Verdict:
Tad, the Lost Explorer is a little known 3d nugget lobbed all the way from the Iberian Peninsula, and though the main lead brims with a certain charm and the action can genuinely thrill at some points, the predictable plot, choppy choreography, and less than stellar animation leaves this animated flick stuck digging fruitlessly for a gem to raise it above a callow mediocrity.

In depth:
We here in the States often forget that a wide open film world exists beyond our borders, one full of both quality live-action flicks and enough 3d morsels to satisfy beyond the usual Disney/Pixar and DreamWorks banquets. Among these (though not, admittedly, holding a particularly celebrated position) is the character of Tadeo Jones, a hapless bricklayer and Indian Jones parody created by Spanish director and animator Enrique Gato way back in 2004. After starring in a number of animated shorts and comics, Tadeo gets his feature film debut in Las Aventuras de Tadeo Jones, staring our daydreaming construction worker as he gets swept up in the adventure he has always longed for, trekking through Inca ruins and doing battle with pirates for a coveted lost treasure. The film got overdubbed in English as Tad, the Lost Explorer, and it eventually caught my eye; the world of overseas animation overflows with works of rich creative energy just waiting to be explored. But alas, like a cursed mummy’s tomb, Tad is a “treasure” better left unearthed, for though not without its charms, it fails to fulfill even the moderate aspirations of a bog-standard adventure flick, to say nothing of reaching anywhere close to the footrest of the Disney-Pixar juggernaut.

Voiced by Kerry Shale, Tadeo Jones (now Tad Stones for likely copyright reasons) is a humble young construction worker in Chicago with big dreams of becoming a world famous archeologist. But years spent sifting through work sites for treasure have only turned up beer bottle knock-offs, tourist junk, and a series of pink slips from exasperated employers. His only encouragement through all this comes from his archeologist friend Dr. Humbert (voiced by Mac McDonald). One day, Dr. Humbert receives a mysterious package from a colleague in South America containing a very special artifact: half of the key to an Inca lost city harboring a mystical treasure. Unfortunately, Tad’s shenanigans while escorting the good professor to the airport ends with the unfortunate scholar undergoing a stomach pump in the hospital, leaving Tad with responsibility over the priceless item. Now in Peru, Tad dons the identity of “Dr. Tad Stones,” adventurer archaeologist, and together with Sara Lavrof -  the daughter of Humbert’s fellow bone-digger played by the lovely Ariel Winter - and his pet dog Jeff, he seeks out the fabled ruins, all while dodging the attention of Odysseus, a group of treasure pirates hoping to beat them to the punch.

Tad attempts to blend comedy, heart, and a serious go at action, but ends up with a cocktail too flat to satisfy and too uneven to roll into a smooth, narrative elixir. Though I believe a film should aspire to a diversity of heights if capable, these lofty goals prove difficult when locked into narrow groves of select, plot-driven genres - and fall out of reach completely should the minds behind the movie show themselves incapable of pulling the trick off. About the one thing the creators did well consistently concerns our titular boy: Tad is, thankfully, a friendly and very likeable sort, with a good mix of flaws and balancing strong points. I’ve suffered through far too many films, animated or not, that reduce the wide-eyed dreamer to a partially brain-dead lug with no redeeming attributes. Tad, though dense and more than a little reliant on luck, comes off as rather friendly and pleasant right from the start, and the movie’s course reveals a depth of resourcefulness that largely makes up for his minor bumbling.

Such pleasantries, unfortunately, stick out in a film that damns itself by the faintest of praise. Tad’s costars don’t cut it either individually or as a unit; it’s hard to pay any attention to Sarah’s on screen role with the “Designated Love Interest” messages stamped broadly across her forehead, and Tad’s dog Jeff offers little but an excuse to keep the idiot plot moving. The worst of them has to be Freddy, Sarah and Dr. Lavrof’s shifty, constantly hustling Peruvian assistant who wastes Cheech Marin's vocal talents and embodies every obnoxious Latin American stereotype you can imagine.  Now, far be it from me to distort views of a film through a PC tint; any American condemnation of its supposedly “unenlightened” narrative can and should be tossed to the birds. But Freddy’s utter worthlessness draws not from any offensive stereotyping, but from the fact that he gives little to the story save terrible snake oil salesman jokes which tend to disrupt scenes in the worst ways. He’s a load in every sense of the word, and his intrusive, unfunny, and unnecessary presence is an edifice to what happens when a film shoots for “funny sidekick” and misses the mark by a light-year.
   
But this lines right up with Tad's central weakness: it aims high, but falls short of the mark in every meaningful category. Though well-paced and amusing in many places, the flick as a whole is a temple to mediocrity. The animation feels stiff for a big screen production, passable but clunky, like it had been pushed out of someone’s old Blender files with little or no embellishment. Narratively, it relies too much on unlikely coincidence and plotholes to get our heroes out of a pinch. The most ludicrous example for me rests with a “daring” temple escape which only worked because the plot forgot about the Odysseus pirates who were supposed to be guarding our leads to prevent said escape in the first place. This is tragically par for the film's course; Tad borrows extensively from other movies, but cuts corners on implementing the kernels that made those great films, well, great.

In fact, even the few areas of praise it earns come swaddled in a thick layer of directional ambivalence. As mentioned, Tad seems confused over what kind of movie it wants to be, aspiring to knee-slapping laughs and tense action with equal gusto, but lacking both the talent to pursue both directions adequately, and the focus to just pick one path and commit to it. This pops up largely in the overuse of the slow-motion action trope, which when combined with poor timing and the slightly awkward animation looks more amusing than suspenseful; and with the presence of Belzoni, Sarah’s mute, card-shark, sign-flashing pet parrot. I’ll admit, Belzoni often roused a chuckle out of me, his antics resembling something out of a Wile E. Coyote cartoon, but considering Jeff and every other animal (mostly) follows the normal rules of critter behavior, his strange departure raises a legitimate “why?” aimed squarely at the creators. Even allowing Belzoni on account of Rule of Funny, the other plot particles coalesce into one big “meh” for the most part. The obligatory “plot-starting lie” Tad tells Sarah - the one of him being an ace archeologist, as opposed to a lowly mason - has been done to death so much its modern appearances are practically parody, and yet Tad plays it painfully straight, if somewhat lazily. Even the big bad “reveal” could have been seen by Stevie Wonder from two miles away on an overcast day. Tad plays all the cards in the deck, but possesses almost no skill in effectively utilizing them.

I don’t want to down on the film too much, since it does have its moments, and very little is actually painful, minus Freddy superfluous presence.  But Tad as a movie accomplishes little, inspires less, and leaves the viewer with a sense of time passed, but nothing more. The scales could have tipped the other way had Gato and company bothered to enhance the story elements they borrowed so liberally, and settle on a direction to pursue with dedicated focus. As stands, though, the sort of insipid, universal mediocrity it embodies falls shot of what its heroic lead likely deserves or desires.

Grade: D+

July Releases

July Releases

Summer's hitting full swing, and the box office is heating up in response.  Or, you know, moving past lukewarm , at least.  The two biggest spotlight belong unquestionably to Spider-Man: Far From Home, a reunion with everyone's favorite web-head as he navigates a post-Endgame world; and Disney's 3d remake of The Lion King, one of the most famous and beloved animated films of all time that basically introduced the premise of Hamlet to a wider audience.

Besides these two heavy hitters, July hosts a surprising diversity of indies, documentary films, and (gasp!) original films that aren't remakes/sequels/adaptations.  So this month might be a good time to stretch those horizons a bit.  

In video game land, Final Fantasy XIV Online releases Shadowbringers, its latest DLC, while the third season of hit Netflix series Stranger Things gets a game makeover.  Speaking of Stranger Things, Season 3's soundtrack is out as of the start of this month, while Fever Dream, the third album in Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men's apparently 4-year cycle of releases,  debuts later in July.

As always, check the links below to get the latest skinny on entertainment premieres this month:

Movies

https://www.movieinsider.com/movies/july/2019 

Games

http://www.ign.com/games/upcoming?time=1m 

Books 
http://www.bookreporter.com/coming-soon 

Music 
https://uproxx.com/music/new-albums-coming-out-this-month-july-2019/

Television
https://www.tvguide.com/coming-soon/

See you at the movies!