Animation feature film “GOAT” is typical and familiar to the bone. With a fantasy background full of anthropomorphic animal characters not so from “Zootopia” (2016) and its recent sequel, the film presents your average underdog sports drama story, and you will easily be able to predict how the story goes here and there. Nevertheless, it works a little better than expected thanks to its vibrant animation style and an ample amount of wit and humor, and I enjoyed that even though I do not know anything about basketball, which is incidentally called “roarball” here.

The hero of the story is Will Harris (voiced by Caleb McLaughlin), a teenage American Pygmy goat who has aspired to become a professional roarball player since he was young. He is relatively tiny compared to all those big roarball players out there, but he does not give up his dream at all, while hoping for any chance for recognition.

And then there comes such a chance to him on one day. When a very popular roar player named Mane Attraction (voiced by Aaron Pierre) comes to his neighborhood, Will willingly challenges Mane without any hesitation, and, what do you know, he surprises others a lot with his considerable athletic skill, though he is eventually beaten by Mane. However, a video clip of their basketball duel goes viral on the Internet later, and that draws attention of Florence “Flo” Everson (voiced by Jenifer Lewis), a sleazy warthog who is incidentally the owner of the Vineland Thorns, a prominent local roarball team which Will has dreamed of joining someday. 

The Vineland Thorns have mainly been known for Jett Fillmore (voiced by Gabrielle Union), a black panther who has been its main star player for many years but has seriously considered retirement due to her age. Nevertheless, she does not want to quit right now because her team has not won all season yet, so she demanded a new player to assist her and then galvanize the team, and that is how Will gets chosen.

Needless to say, Will is overjoyed about this unbelievable chance, but it does not take much time for him to see that he is not particularly welcomed by Jett and the other team members. While Jett is not so pleased about being stuck with a rookie she never heard about, the other team members do not give a damn about Will as mostly being occupied with each own issues, and Will soon finds himself mostly stuck on the bench as another roarball season begins.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Will eventually gets an opportunity to prove himself to others including Jett, but the film keeps us engaged with a lot of spirit unleashed upon the screen. A number of roarball sequences in the film are fun and exciting to watch as decorated with enough mood and details to savor, and you will get some extra amusement from how those various animal characters play roarball, which often looks like a mix between unisex basketball and a bit of violence from American football.

Will and Jett’s respective dramatic arcs are very predictable, but their dramas are fortunately equipped with enough gravitas to make us care more about them. As reluctantly recognizing Will’s talent and aspiration, Jett is reminded again of the undeniable importance of teamwork, and she certainly comes to prove her worth more than before. While he surely gets some moments of disappointment and disillusionment later, Will still remembers what has been important to him, and that certainly energizes not only him but also others around him.

The film is still not that fresh as often reminding us of what we already saw from “Zootopia” and its sequel, but that is compensated to some degree by its distinctive style and details. While the animal characters in the film are broadly drawn, they are filled with colorful personality, their fantasy background is illustrated with a lot vivid details. In other words, this is basically a newly packaged version of “Zootopia”, but it is decorated with enough style and substance to distinguish itself at least.

The voice cast members of the film are solid on the whole. Caleb McLaughlin, who has been mainly known as one of the main cast members in Netflix drama series “Stranger Things”, dutifully holds the center with his earnest voice acting, and he is supported well by a bunch of performers including Gabrielle Union, Aaron Pierre, Nicola Coughlan, David Harbour, Nick Kroll, Stephen Curry (He also served as a co-producer of the film, by the way), Jenifer Lewis, Patton Oswalt, and Jennifer Hudson. While Union clicks well with McLaughlin during several key scenes of theirs in the film, Pierre is hilariously vain as demonstrating an unexpected side of his considerable talent, and Oswalt brings some extra fun as the team coach who becomes more active than before thanks to Will.

Overall, “GOAT”, whose very title comes from a certain term familiar to many basketball fans, did not surprise me, but it entertained me for a lot of wit, style, and mood nonetheless. Director Tyree Dillihay, who incidentally makes a feature film debut here, did a competent job, and I appreciate the game efforts from McLaughlin and several other voice cast members in the film. Yes, I knew exactly what I was going to get, and the film does not exceed that much, but I will not deny that I had some fun and excitement during my viewing.