Swapped review – animated Netflix adventure plays like off-brand Pixar

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This March’s Pixar adventure Hoppers might not have been a vintage offering but it was a minor, much-needed victory for a studio whose magic touch had faded over time. It was a rare non-sequel that appealed to both critics (a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences (with $164m it was Pixar’s biggest original hit domestically since Coco) and had just about enough of the head plus heart formula many of us had grown to love and, recently, miss.

Its success has reminded us just how it should be done right (or at least right enough) and how many, many others have failed to get even close to that place. Smarter competitors have found their own lanes – the maximalist mania of Illumination’s Minions movies, the specific, zeitgeist-y superhero stories of Sony’s KPop: Demon Hunters and Spiderverse – but there’s been a weak yet constant flow of obvious attempts to replicate what Pixar does so well. What nudges Swapped – a Skydance film once intended for Apple that now lands on Netflix – that much further into the shadow is not just how it follows the general template but how it also seems to be a closer copy of Hoppers itself. It’s more unfortunate timing than anything but it’s hard to watch without thinking briefly back with even a less memorable Pixar film seeming like a stone cold classic in comparison.

Both films revolve around the process of briefly embodying another woodland creature and how this can be used to improve communication and empathy between species with the danger of environmental destruction looming. Swapped was technically in development earlier, as far back as 2018, but it has far less on its mind and far less to offer anyone but the least demanding of younger viewers.

It’s the third film from Skydance animation, the David Ellison-led studio branch that seems to exist just because. Despite boasting disgraced ex-Pixar chief, John Lasseter, in its senior staff, it’s yet to produce anything but lazy, lower-tier knockoffs. Both Luck and Spellbound looked cheap and sounded even worse with witless dialogue and strained high-concept plots that answered “what if?” questions with confused shrugs. It’s as if Ellison is somewhat aware, selling the films off to streamers rather than bothering with theatrical releases and Swapped offers no sign of improvement, just further proof that whatever Lasseter used to bring to the table has now been left at home or lost entirely.

Unlike Hoppers, Swapped exists in a world without both humans and real earthly animals, the film stuffed with odd, and often nightmarish, creatures that look like they’ve suffered through The Fly’s telepod. Our lead is Olly, a curious pookoo, which is kind of like a sea otter, who manages in the first scene to remind us of Ratatouille (freeze-frame “I bet you’re wondering how I got here” moment), A Bug’s Life (inventive protagonist who creates gadgets via scavenging) and Finding Nemo (over-protective father warning his son about the dangerous world outside). His curiosity leads him to befriend Ivy, a javan, which is kind of like a parrot, and after teaching her how to eat the one food source that sustains the pookoo colony, disaster inevitably strikes and the two species are pitted against each other.

Years later, Olly, now voiced by Michael B Jordan, a recent Oscar winner, tries to fix the mess he has made and it leads him to re-encounter Ivy, voiced by Juno Temple. And via some guff involving a magic plant, they swap bodies, which also allows them to understand each other’s language. Lessons are learned, enemies become friends and our patience is tested.

There’s an early admirable attempt to make some vague political commentary in the construction of the world in Swapped. A villainous breed of firewolves has tried to destroy the body-swapping plant that would otherwise allow different groups to understand each other better, sowing fear and division throughout the land. But, unlike the greatest Pixar films that director, Nathan Greno, and his three writers are trying to emulate, any sharper messaging gets quickly cast aside for a fairly rote buddy comedy quest narrative. The added problem being that the back-and-forth banter between the pair and the supposed physical humour of the two now inhabiting different bodies doesn’t amount to any real laughs. The off-brand, bought down the market quality of Skydance animation is initially less of a problem here without the poorly realised humans of Luck and Spellbound to distract but there’s still no immersion or sweep to the world being created, just bright colours which might be enough for some toddlers.

But their parents, and older siblings, might struggle to find much else here. Jordan, Temple and a supporting Tracy Morgan do have distinctive enough voices to work as celebrity names (so many A-listers end up making for very bland voice actors) and there’s energy to their work but it’s ultimately a waste of effort. Those familiar threads – the emotion, the humour, the life lessons – aren’t woven together with any delicacy or skill, a tapestry treated like a stitch by numbers. If Pixar is mostly struggling to reach its previous heights then what chance does Skydance have?