Tribeca 2007: Impy’s Island

Apart form the usual Narrative, Documentary, Premiere and World sections, the Tribeca Film Festival has a Family section, showcasing films in all genres that are suitable for kids. I though this was a pretty cool idea, so I decided to check out one of the films and ended up at a screening of Impy’s Island, a German CGI animation featuring the most popular subject of CGI animations – cute talking animals.

The film is set on a kid’s version of the Island of Dr. Moreau, where Professor Tiberton – an Alfred Einstein look-a-like in a Hawaiian shirt and Chuck Taylors – runs a school for the wacky animals with human personalities that live there. There’s a pig, a gecko, a penguin, a shoebill, and a sea lion. There is also the Professor’s adopted son. Did the Professor create these creatures? Or were they on the island beforehand, and he has just chosen to study them? Is he a geneticist, or an anthropologist, a zoologist, or a doctor of several disciplines? It is unclear, but does not really matter, because this is a kid’s film, and the important thing is that everyone on the island is happy and has a good time, goofing off in class when the professor attempts to teach them tongue twisters, and well, just enjoying the tropical weather.

The excitement starts when a dinosaur egg washes up on shore in a block of ice. The island creatures, too small to sit on the egg to hatch it, take turns hugging the egg in groups of three or four. It hatches, and out comes a baby ‘Impadekasaurus,’ or ‘Impy,’ the missing link between dinosaur and pig. Impy looks like a really cute version of a T-rex, but with slightly longer arms and with small wings on his back. Impy is a welcome addition to the island community, especially for Peg (the ironically cleanliness-obsessed talking pig), who becomes kind of a surrogate mother for Impy. But trouble starts when (former) King Pumponell, who was responsible for exiling Professor Tiberton to the island, comes to the island, rifle in tote, looking for the latest big game trophy to mount on his wall, and sets his sights on Impy. The talking creatures and the Professor must come up with a plan to save their new friend.

The film does not have the all-ages appeal of the Pixar films – Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Monsters, Inc. – (which so far, no other studio has been able to match), but it does offer the slight touches of social commentary found in Happy Feet which touched upon global warming, pollution, and animal rights. Impy’s Island has an anti-hunting theme, and draws a correlation between the extinction of the dinosaurs and the species that are rapidly becoming extinct in today’s world. There are also bits of dark humor thrown in, like the fact that Pumponell likes to hunt endangered species, or his narcissistic mourning over the loss of his crown. There are a few scenes with a manic, trouble-making mosquito that fans of Scrat the Ice Age squirrel should enjoy.

All in all, the characters are cute, funny, and entertaining to watch, and the story has enough dramatic moments to divide up the gags. Fans of CGI films will enjoy it, and it’s themes of friendship humane treatment, and its light-hearted sense of humor, make this an excellent film for kids. On par or above the average animated fare.