Delgo
"Delgo" demonstrates how hard it is to create a memorable, credible-looking piece of animated entertainment. The film looks a little like a screen saver (those landscapes!) and a little like a video game (the characters' movements are only vaguely lifelike and would be more fun if you could control them yourself), and not much at all like the smooth, richly dimensional animation that usually turns up at the movies. ("Bolt" has nothing to worry about.)
But the makers of "Delgo" - an independent outfit called Fathom Studios that specializes in advertisements and broadcast spots - do have wholesomeness and earnestness on their side. "Delgo" doesn't lean on pop references or meta-movie high jinks. It's the movie equivalent of the parent who gives a thirsty kid water when he's begging for Kool-Aid.
The film is set in one of those quasi-medieval magic lands where the predominant inhabitants resemble reptile people in the greenish "Shrek" mold and where giant coconut husks have cute suction tentacles. Everything recalls one of those Saturday morning cartoon shows that come on before "That's So Raven" and "Hannah Montana."
The story is by-the-numbers: Two factions war over land and forbidden love. A young male from one side - Delgo (Freddie Prinze Jr.) - falls in love with a winged princess (Jennifer Love Hewitt) from the other. The additional voices include Val Kilmer, Malcolm McDowell, Lou Gossett Jr., Michael Clarke Duncan, Burt Reynolds, and the late Anne Bancroft.
The movie has them all act out a piece of young adult fiction in which exactly what you'd expect ensues. There's no crime in any of this. But as the movie veers from New Age mumbo jumbo ("Connect with the stone, Delgo. Feel its pulse!") to 40 minutes of chases and airborne swordfights, it's hard to be excited. This isn't rousing entertainment. It's the sort that mongers messages. Can't we, say, just get along?
Wesley Morris can be reached at wmorris@globe.com.
Video
