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Playmobil

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Secret Agent Rex Dasher voiced by Daniel Radcliffe in 'Playmobil'. (Photo supplied: Ster-Kinekor)
Secret Agent Rex Dasher voiced by Daniel Radcliffe in 'Playmobil'. (Photo supplied: Ster-Kinekor)

WHAT IT'S ABOUT:

In Playmobil's® animated action adventure, a top secret organization has caused citizens from different lands to vanish from thin air. The dashing and charismatic secret agent Rex Dasher (Daniel Radcliffe) must partner with smooth-talking food truck driver Del (Jim Gaffigan) and Marla (Anya Taylor-Joy) a smart, savvy civilian with her own secret agenda, to rescue them. Against unthinkable odds, the trio go on a fantastic journey across stunning new worlds as they gather clues for their rescue mission.

WHAT WE THOUGHT:

I don't know about you, but Playmobil has always been low down on the ranking of awesome toys, so when I saw this was coming out I had several eyebrows raised. The Lego Movie's success was in its craziness coupled with groundbreaking animation, so what would Playmobil bring to the table? Despite the low expectations elicited from the awful trailer, I surprisingly found myself laughing at the weirdness of it all - except for the Disney TV-level musical numbers.

The premise is slightly different from other modern toy stories - a sister and brother with a strained relationship find themselves transported to the Playmobil world of their childhood - and have to rely on each other to get home.

Like Lego, this world is just completely insane. Half the time you wonder if they're trying to appeal to adults or kids, as two worlds of childhood and adulthood fight each other for screen time. The sister tries to find logic in the crazy, the brother is living for it but constantly getting himself in trouble - and then there's Del. He looked like stumbled out of The Big Lebowski universe into the Playmobil world and decided to just roll with it. I was just waiting for him to start rolling a joint, which proves what a weirdly adult character this man is - living in a van trying to scrounge up money for a Hutt loan shark. At least you get to hear Daniel Radcliffe be a flirty secret agent.

And the running magical hay joke is probably the best thing you never knew you needed in your life.

Playmobil is an odd film - while I found some of it hysterical, the other parts made me want to cringe deep into the forgotten popcorn parts of my seat. The animation is pretty flawless, though, and the mechanics of the world works great. I feel like parents with young kids would be best-suited to this film, although good luck explaining Del to them.


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