Spark: A Space Tail

What, exactly, happened to director Aaron Woodley?

A lot is happening at any given moment, but none of it really stands out, for the right reasons or the wrong ones. If you were the writer of this movie, you might say it lacks a certain... spark of inspiration.

There's scant evidence of any creative spark in Spark: A Space Tail, a thoroughly generic, unremittingly charmless computer-animated adventure.

Second-rate monkey business that never achieves liftoff.

An utterly lifeless and profoundly unoriginal animated effort that is desperately lacking the very thing in its title.

An animated intergalactic 'tail' with plenty of humour, but not enough heart.

It's hard to know for whom it's been made; while very young kids may appreciate its visual bombast in short doses, older children will likely find themselves tiring of both its charmless, outdated animation and the dull, underbaked narrative.

Spark: A Space Tail is a real mishmash of a movie.

If you're unlucky enough to see Spark, remember that while in space no one can hear you scream, your voice will echo in a movie theatre. But chances are your fellow patrons will sympathize.

There's a fine line between homage and a lack of original ideas. Unfortunately Spark: A Space Tail falls on the latter side of the equation.

One questions how a movie this ill-conceived even got made, and how writer-director Aaron Woodley recruited a voice cast that includes talent like Susan Sarandon, Patrick Stewart and Hilary Swank.