Netflix animation film “Swapped”, which was released on this Friday, works whenever it pays attention to its wondrous fantasy background. Packed here and there with vivid and colorful details to notice, the film is certainly a nice eye candy for the audiences, and it is a shame that the film is not so engaging in terms of story and character. Sure, its message on empathy, understanding, and solidarity is quite important to us considering how our world has been driven toward more apathy, ignorance, and disconnection these days, but, sadly, this important message is not delivered well to us mainly because of its rather rote storytelling.

At the beginning, the movie establishes its fantasy background mainly via Ollie (voiced by Michael B. Jordan), who is a little rodent creature called “Pookoo”. When he was very young, he and many other Pookoos including his parents peacefully lived together in their natural habitat as harvesting their main source of food day by day, but then they were thrown out of their habitat by a bunch of big birds called “Javan” not long after Ollie’s accidental encounter with a little young Javan. Now they are hiding under the ground because Javans occupy their habitat, and things become all the more desperate for them as they are almost running out of their food.

Nevertheless, Ollie, who has always been bold and curious, keeps trying to find any possible way to help his tribe. On one day, he happens to discover how to chase away Javans, but, alas, he tumbles down into a hole in the ground when one Javan tries to attack him, and then he comes upon a strange magical pod, which somehow transforms him into a Javan.

Needless to say, Ollie is quite confused about his unexpected transformation, and the situation becomes more complicated when a Javan named Ivy (voiced by Juno Temple) gets involved with him later. Thanks to a bit of help from a big fish named Boogle (voiced by Tracy Morgan), Ollie finds another magical pod which can revert him to his original appearance, but, unfortunately, Ivy touches that magical pod first, and then she gets transformed into a Pookoo.

What follows next is the unlikely friendship between Ollie and Ivy, who come to have more understanding on each other’s clan via their respective transformation. They certainly do not like each other much at first, but they soon come to depend on each other for surviving together, and that leads to the gradual bonding between them. While Ivy helps Ollie learn how to fly, Ollie teaches Ivy how to depend on her newly acquired sense of smell, and then they are joined by Boogle, who also wants that magical pod for his own personal reason.

Of course, there are several obstacles in front of these three main characters. For example, there are a bunch of wolves hungry for anything edible for them, and then there is a very steep waterfall which turns out to be much riskier than expected. However, all these and other obstacles turn out to be relatively less challenging compared to the ultimate opponent for Ollie and Ivy.

Around that point, the story becomes all the more predictable to our disappointment. Yes, it turns out that there is a hidden connection between Ollie and Ivy, and you could easily guess that from the very beginning even if I did not tell you anything. Yes, Ivy and Ollie eventually overcome their bias against each other, and they and their respective clans work together for saving many other creatures in their area. Yes, Ollie and Ivy definitely save the day as fighting against that fearsome opponent, and we certainly get an important lesson from that.

Compared to this clichéd plot, the visual style and imagination are too good in my inconsequential opinion. For instance, many of the animal creatures in the film look like being generated from trees or grasses, and I particularly like those gigantic creatures which are sort of hybrid between mammoth and forest. This may sound rather outrageous to you, but these fantastic creatures are so vividly illustrated on the screen that I am reminded of what Gabriel García Márquez once said: “If you say that there are elephants flying in the sky, people are not going to believe you. But if you say that there are four hundred and twenty-five elephants in the sky, people will probably believe you.”

The voice cast members of the film are solid on the whole. Michael B. Jordan, who recently won a well-deserved Oscar for his frequent collaborator Ryan Coogler’s latest film “Sinners” (2025), deftly balances his character between humor and drama, and he is complemented well by Juno Temple, who did a good job of bringing some plucky spirit to her role. In case of several other notable voice cast members, Cedric the Entertainer, Justina Machado, and Tracy Morgan are effective in their respective supporting parts, and Morgan, who has mainly known for his Emmy-nominated turn in American TV comedy series “30 Rocks”, surprises you as his supposedly goofy character comes to show some unexpected seriousness later in the story.

On the whole, “Swapped”, which is directed by Nathan Creno (He was the co-director of Disney animation film “Tangled” (2010), by the way), is rather dissatisfying mainly due to its weak narrative and thin characterization, and it is less distinctive even compared to several recent Netflix animation films such as “Nimona” (2023), “Orion and the Dark” (2024), and “In Your Dreams” (2025). At least, it is a fairly competent Netflix product, so you may enjoy it to some degree, but then your mind will quickly move onto another latest stuff to watch from Netflix.