2023 has been off to a rather slow start for animated movies. Sure we have a lot of anticipated releases, but that will be starting in April, January to now have had very few mainstream releases, really there was The Amazing Maurice and The Magician's Elephant, and I really only count those because other animation reviewers talked about them. Mummies is the first animated movie of the year to be released theatrically, at least for me. It is interesting to think, of the amazing amount of hyped releases, the first one to get the theatrical release is a movie that I don't really think anyone was anticipating, but maybe it will be like a hidden gem, a potential overlooked classic, so what did I think of Mummies?
Well, good news, it isn't the worst movie I've seen, and I have doubts it will end up as the worst animated movie of 2023, but it was pretty bad. Mostly due to the plot, and how clichéd it is. I don't mean that as "Oh this plot is overdone" kind of thing, I mean this plot is full of clichés. Name them, Dance Party Ending, Lovestruck idiots babbling, Fake out death, False Climax, Mopey Dopey broken hearted misunderstandings, all of that is in this movie. Oh, and the plot is centered around a couple that "absolutely do not love each other, and never will be in love because they obviously and forever will always dislike each other". I guess on the one hand there are some clichés they do avoid, like the main character isn't a generic everyman at the bottom of society who wants more in life, he's a former celebrity, and rather than making him vain, narcissistic and pining for the glory days that are so clearly behind him, they actually set him up as a fairly nice person. Though, the Princess character is as standard as they can come.
Speaking of characters, the voice actors did okay, I think my only issue was Sean Bean as the Pharaoh, not that he does a bad performance, but because the character's design was very clearly begging for a Patrick Stewart or a Brian Blessed, someone with a deep and powerful voice. I miss Christopher Lee. Anyway, the actors all do decent jobs, can't complain too much, even if the performances don't add a whole lot to the characters. That being said, the animation is also partly to blame for that. The animation is standard, not to visually impressive. It looks... kinda like Wonder Park actually. It isn't technically bad animation, it just looks generic and doesn't really "pop", I guess that's the right word. It looks like how I would imagine Illumination movies looking.
I think the only saving grave of this movie is the humour, and even then only one joke really got a big laugh out of me. It was a reference to the infamous botched restoration of the Jesus portrait, you know the one. Other than that one visual gag, nothing really got much of a laugh out of me. I think little kids might find it appealing, but I can't imagine it really sticking with them. With the amount of anticipated releases coming out, I would expect this movie to be forgotten rather quickly. I guess the music isn't that bad either, the major pop song that this movie was clearly built around is tolerable, but this movie plays Nickelback, and not only that, but "Far Away", that is... easily one of my least favourite songs I've heard, not their worst ("Something In Your Mouth" has it beat by a mile), but I can't stand it. And before anyone asks, yes, they play "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles. That is something someone would suggest as a joke, not in earnest.
Again, I can't say this is an awful movie, on a scale from one to five, with one being mediocre and five being hot flaming garbage, I'd rank this movie at a two. It is a very clichéd, generic looking, mediocre movie. I think it is mostly harmless for children, but I don't think "mostly harmless" is really that ringing an endorsement, not even for a planet. I guess dull and boring can be worse than actively terrible, but I'd rather watch a harmless movie I'll forget about than a genuinely unwatchable movie that sticks with me and makes me angry just thinking about. So if this is the worst animated movie of the year, this may turn out to be the best year for animated movies of the 2020s, but I ain't holding my breath on that one.
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