The words Alpha and Omega mean the beginning and the end. As for the movie “Alpha and Omega”, I hated it from the beginning and couldn’t wait for it to end.
The film, from the small Crest Animation Studio, is the story of two young wolves who live with their packs in Canada. Kate and Humphrey are pals, but they can’t be more than that because Kate’s an Alpha – a leader wolf, and Humphrey’s an Omega. His job is to keep everybody in the pack happy, but he can’t marry an Alpha.
Kate is being forced to marry the leader of a rival pack of wolves, to keep peace in the valley. But before that can happen she and Humphrey are captured by Park Rangers and relocated to Idaho. As they travel back home will Kate and Humphrey realize that they belong together? Will they get back in time to prevent a war between the two wolf packs? Will somebody wake me up when it’s over?
Very early into this movie I was thinking one thing: Direct to DVD. It never should have made it into theaters. I think the only reason it did was because it was made in 3D. But the film is so predictable, the story is dull, the animation is boring and there isn’t one funny line or scene in the entire movie. There were about a half dozen 6-7 year olds sitting a few rows ahead of me in the theater and they laughed more times during the 2 1/2 minute “Yogi Bear” trailer before the movie than in the entire 90-minutes of “Alpha and Omega”.
And speaking of the length, the movie never would have gotten close to 90-minutes without some goofy musical number that consist of the wolfs dancing and howling at the moon. No singing, just dancing and howling. Very tough to watch.
The voice cast includes Hayden Panettiere and Justin Long as Kate and Humphrey, Danny Glover, Christina Ricci and the late Dennis Hopper. Not only is it sad that Hopper is no longer with us, but the fact that this was his final movie is really tragic.
“Alpha and Omega” is rated PG for a few scenes of mild violence and for some dialogue about animals mating that gets a little dicey at times and could be uncomfortable for parents to deal with if their kids are paying attention. Here’s a great way to avoid that problem: if you’re looking to give your kids a break from the all the “back to school” craziness take them to the park instead of this film.
On “The Official Kid Critic Report Card”, “Alpha and Omega” gets a D. I was thinking “F” all the way until the final credits, which show the storyboards and rough animation sketches of the characters. I’m a sucker for that stuff, which we normally only get in books after a movie comes out. And I don’t have an F+ grade, so I’ve got to go with D.
After a summer of GREAT animated movies, we start the fall with a bomb. Thankfully, there are a few more animated films still to come this year. And they’ve all got to be better than this.