Nerdly » ‘Rally Road Racers’ Review

14th Sep2023

‘Rally Road Racers’ Review

by Alain Elliott

Features the voices of: J.K. Simmons, Jimmy O. Yang, Chloe Bennet, Sharon Horgan, Lisa Lu, Catherine Tate, John Cleese | Written and Directed by Ross Venokur

It must be kind of difficult for any modern-day animated filmmakers to make a film that is going to be popular. Outside of Disney/Pixar, Dreamworks and Studio Ghibli, It’s hard to get noticed. Laika are perhaps the most successful outside of the big few production companies and they did it by making several great animated movies, including Coraline, The Boxtrolls and Kubo and the Two Strings. But it’s easy to see why the poster for Rally Road Racers says in bold ‘FROM THE PRODUCER OF SHREK’. Unfortunately, that might be one of the few reasons some viewers might give the movie a chance.

In Rally Road Racers, a loris (a slow-moving mammal) named Zhi who wants to follow in his father’s footsteps and become king of the race track! But the racing becomes even more important when, in order to save his grandmother’s home he wages a bet with the villainous, reigning champion of the race circuit Vainglorious. Zhi must compete in and win the four-day Silk Road Rally.

The story is ridiculous in a family/children’s film kind of way but also kept simple so that children fully understand what is happening and what is at stake. The races are a highlight and that of course, should be the case. The ‘tracks’ are fun, imaginative and look fantastic. I could imagine many of them being in a racing game like Mario Kart. Animation-wise, the film looks great too. The characters are all distinctive and the colours throughout the movie are bright and eye-catching and I loved the variety of the vehicles and how they fit each character.

There’s an excellent choice of cast, which mixes good actors and actors who are used to doing voice work. This includes J.K. Simmons as my personal favourite character the retired racer and wise goat who makes up and sells inspirational bumper stickers. Jimmy O. Yang (The Monkey King, Love Hard) plays Zhi, and has that perfect comedy-style voice for characters like this, while Chloe Bennet (Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D., Abominable) is perfectly cast alongside him. Sharon Horgan, Catherine Tate and John Cleese (who has a near-perfect voice for comical children’s movie villain) wrap up the rest of the main cast.

Director Ross Venokur has previous experience with animated kid’s films, so there’s no surprise in the quality here. The run time flies by and adults will enjoy this almost as much as the kids. Like the best kind of family films, it even has a couple of jokes that will go over many of the kid’s heads but will get a good chuckle from the adults.

But what really matters is how much children will like Rally Road Racers. I got to watch the movie with my five-year-old daughter and she laughed throughout the whole film. She says she found it funny, she really liked it, and would definitely watch it again.

And I think that’s about as big an endorsement as you can get for Rally Road Racers.