Rumble; Grade: D+
Rumble tells a story about a small town named Stoker, as this town is known for it’s glorious sports stadium which holds monster wrestling. Unfortunately Stoker is about to have it’s sports stadium demolished for a parking lot, solely because the town lost it’s best wrestler to another town, so without a monster the sports stadium can not get any money. Winnie (Geraldine Viswanathan) is a daughter of a former famous wrestling coach whom was lost at sea, is bound to bring Stoker a new wrestler so the town can save it’s sports stadium. Witness a town so prideful of it’s wrestling roots, try to do the unthinkable and find a new wrestler so the town can secure it’s beloved stadium as it’s done so for many years.
Rumble was teased as this grand spectacle of an animation film from Paramount, in fact I still remember the teaser as it highlights a monster getting ready to take on the ring. Due to the pain in the ass: It got delayed till 2022 for a theatrical release, until last month Paramount decided to dump it on it’s streaming service Paramount Plus. I found the choice at hand to be confusing some, I mean you dropped a very serious trailer indicating the audience this was going to be one bad ass of an animation film, why suddenly pull the plug on it?! Well after watching Rumble I understand why that is… It’s not very good, I’m even surprised with the marketing behind the teaser as this would’ve fooled a lot of people.
Rumble I will say at least as some kind of entertaining moments. Some of the wrestling sequences though silly as can be I mean it’s a monster wrestler winning matches solely on dancing, however the sequences at least kept my attention, I also found the final match to be pretty fun. Rumble does deliver a couple comedic bits, including a monster making sure his coach said to aim for his tentacles rather than his testicles… It was a very slick move to add some adult humor in this film aimed for young children.
The concept of Rumble is quite confusing to be honest. Like how does a wrestler just suddenly get to switch to another city?! It’s not like the wrestler is wrestling for another team, he’s just wrestling somewhere else… How is that Stoker’s fault and why is Stoker getting punished for this?! The way everything is constructed as far as wrestling goes it can be very confusing some, it’s a very bizarre league. I also felt the character arcs for the main characters weren’t handled well. Winnie doesn’t really change over the course of this film at all, Steve (Will Arnett) though found pride in wrestling by dancing, however it does feel not well executed especially the emotional pivot moment when he comes back to wrestling for Stoker. A lot of the comedic gags were pretty bad, the dialogue as well was bad I understand it’s a kids movie but sheesh they’re really dumbing these kids down with this one. Let’s not forget: The animation looks pretty cheap, it feels like I’ve seen so many films with this style of animation before, didn’t blow me away not one bit.
Rumble feels like a film where you enjoyed as a kid, however when you grow up you realize how your movie taste as a child was bad… It happened to me with The Stupids starring Tom Arnold. Like I can see kids really enjoying this one solely due to the wrestling sequences, they are a whole lot of fun as the kids will play no mind to logic at all. Adults on the other hand… It’s at least tolerable, but they’re going to witness a not so well made animated film.
Overall, Rumble t’was meh. I don’t recommend this film other than families with kids, whom need a film for their kids to watch while the Christmas festivities are going on. -Mitch Smietana