Eighteen-year-old Marla (Anya Taylor-Joy) has decided that before she heads off to college, she wants to take some time off to travel and see the world, going on globe-trotting, backpacking adventure. She just got her passport and is both nervous and excited to tell her parents her decision. However, she never gets the chance, as the police show up at her doorstep with some devastating news. And so Marla is forced grow up quickly and put her own hopes and dreams on the back burner. She spends the next four years working and being the parent to her now ten-year-old younger brother Charlie (Gabriel Bateman). Marla used to be this fun-loving teen with a thirst for adventure, but now she’s a serious, over-protective parent with a still-empty passport.

One evening Charlie sneaks out of the house and heads into the city where he breaks into a Playmobil toy exhibit. Marla manages to track him down, but the two find themselves transported into the magical, animated universe of Playmobil, turning into mini-figures themselves. While Charlie becomes a bearded Viking with super-strength, Marla is pretty much her same buttoned-up self. Charlie is excited to explore this new world, but Marla just wants to find a way home. The villainous Emperor Maximus (Adam Lambert) witnesses Charlie’s incredible strength, and sends his pirate crew to kidnap Charlie and bring him back to Constantinopolis, where he will join the other captured warriors—an Amazonian queen, a Zarkonian bounty hunter, a knight, pirate captain Bloodbones (Kenan Thompson), and caveman Ook-Ook (Kirk Thornton)—to fight the beast in the Colosseum in front of a massive, cheering crowd. So now Marla finds herself on a journey of a lifetime to find and save her brother before it’s too late. Over the course of her adventure, Marla also crosses paths with smooth-talking food truck driver Del (Jim Gaffigan), suave, overly-confident super spy Rex Dasher (Daniel Radcliffe), misfit but big-hearted robot Robotitron (writer/director Lino DiSalvo), and a magical, wish-granting fairy godmother (Meghan Trainor). Her journey also finds her in the middle of a viking battle, in a small Western town, in a strange forest, in a magical kingdom, and in a Roman Colosseum, as well as in many other tight, dangerous spots along the way.

Playmobil: The Movie is a fun, highly-underrated animated musical comedy/adventure from the Head of Animation of Disney’s Frozen, Lino DiSalvo. The film will likely mainly be compared to The LEGO Movie since it shares some similar aspects such as being based on a popular line of toy playsets, and its mix of live-action and magical animated world. However, it really feels like its own thing, and I think I actually enjoyed this movie more than I did the original LEGO Movie! The film starts off with a longer live-action portion, with Marla singing this upbeat pop song about the adventures she’s going to have, and we see her having fun having adventures with the Playmobil toys with her 6-year-old brother. But after tragedy strikes, Marla shuts down, becoming more serious and practical, and more of a parent to her brother than a friend. Over the course of her animated adventure, we see Marla start to once again believe in herself and rekindle that sense of adventure and joy that she once had.

The film has some really entertaining side characters, and an excellent voice cast. Jim Gaffigan is hilarious as the smooth-talking Del, who’s not very interested in helping Marla with her quest…until he sees that she has a bag full of Viking gold. Del is this Han Solo-meets-hippie like character—if Solo wore a Hawaiian shirt, jean shorts and sandals—who owes a lot of money to alien crime lord Glinara (Maddie Taylor). Later, there’s even more of a Star Wars feeling when Marla and Del add Robotitron to their posse, who’s like a misfit version of R2-D2 thats in love with Marla. The film also gives viewers a really fun heist sequence with Daniel Radcliffe as the debonair but full of himself secret agent Rex Dasher, whose personalized theme song plays the whole time he’s on screen. Rex helps Marla try to get some information to help locate her brother, and this means trying to infiltrate a secret enemy’s lair, and all the spy tactics needed to do so. Throughout Marla’s journey, the film also takes a look at what’s going on with the missing warriors as they try to figure out a way to escape from Maximus’ prison.

As touched on earlier, the film has eight original songs, which I found to be really entertaining, most of them with a pop song feel. With a talented singers like Meghan Trainor and Adam Lambert in the voice cast, you know there’s going to be some great performances! There is just so much going on in every scene, whether it’s during a song, or just a regular scene, there are always multiple layers or humor or action. While there may be something happening with our main characters in the foreground, there’s always some kind of sight gags or other stuff happening in the background. For example, in one scene we can see two of the Emperor’s guards arguing over who has to bring the evil boss his step stool. As I re-watched the film for the second time, I found even more stuff I missed the first time around.

I was a little disappointed that Universal decided to only release this film on DVD in the United States, even though it got a Blu-ray release in the UK. I am used to watching everything in either HD and 4K these days, and so I found the DVD’s SD picture quality a little dull looking, with less clarity and detail than I’m typically used to. The audio, on the other hand, sounded great, providing clear dialogue and great original songs, and a nicely immersive soundtrack. While the SD picture didn’t take away my enjoyment of the film, I would highly suggest opting for the digital HD release (which is unfortunately not Movies Anywhere compatible) over the DVD. Unfortunately the release is also bare-bones—it does not include any digital copy code or bonus material, just the disc packed in white DVD case with a slipcover.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:39:52)

• 480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.39:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, English DVS (Descriptive Video Service)
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Extras:

No bonus material has been included.

Final Thoughts:

Playmobil: The Movie is a highly-underrated animated musical comedy/adventure that didn’t get enough attention at the box office. It features some really entertaining characters, a great voice cast and some beautiful animation. It also has a heartwarming story at its core, and some really fun original songs. Unfortunately Universal has only released the film on a bare-bones DVD here in the U.S., with no digital copy or any bonus material. That said, I still think the film is worth checking out, though I’d opt for the HD digital release instead of the SD-only disc.