Review: Pets on a Train – Training daze

Directed by Benoît Daffis, Jean-Christian Tassy
Starring Wyatt Bowen, Tristan D. Lalla, Chimwemwe Miller

6/10

While the showy thief “Falcon” (Wyatt Bowen) attempts to steal a rail carriage of food for his fellow animals’ Christmas feast, the evil mastermind, Hans (Chimwemwe Miller), has other plans. Betrayed, the crafty racoon is left on a speeding train racing towards destruction. Along with a group of pets and a police dog, the Falcon must use all his wits to prevent a catastrophe.

There’s a surprising amount of action film love in Pets on a Train. By that I mean even more than the Hudson Hawk, Die Hard, and Runaway Train amalgamation that forms the plot would suggest. I would never expect to see Demolition Man and Cobra references sandwiched into an animated film for kids, but here we are. Yet it goes beyond merely referential. Pets on a Train is at its best when it’s leaning into those action beats. Sequences such as the Falcon climbing under a moving train to free his fellow animals, or the pets trying to navigate a flaming rail carriage, are genuinely tense and effective.

It’s just the rest of it that’s a bit patchy.

The comedy skews a little too far to the juvenile end of the spectrum (to be fair, for its intended audience). There are too many characters, and the multiple minor character arcs steal time from the more central characters, leaving them slightly underbaked. The animation is at times ambitiously detailed, while at others it slides well below that threshold to look mildly flawed.

All of which leaves Pets on a Train a slightly uneven work. At times, it gives you moments of brilliance, such as Falcon channelling Chow Yun Fat while loading two Pez dispensers. At others, it’ll have you cringing as you know that the only water to save a suffocating fish is in the toilet bowl.

Still, even if Pets on a Train doesn’t always hit the heights of comedy or animation, it does lead with ambition. The result is a labour of love and a quirky, non-traditional animated Christmas film with a deep reverence for the action genre of the ’80s and ’90s. Yippee Ki-Yay!

DAVID O’CONNELL