Psycho's Movie Reviews #367: Alpha And Omega (2010)

Alpha and Omega is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated adventure romantic comedy-drama film directed by Ben Gluck and Anthony Bell. Starring the voices of Justin Long, Hayden Panettiere, Dennis Hopper, Danny Glover and Christina Ricci, the film was written by Christopher Denk and Steve Moore, based on a story by Moore and Gluck. This film sets around two young Rocky Mountain wolves named Kate and Humphrey who fall in love with each other, but are on the opposite ends of their pack. However, when Kate and Humphrey learn that they got relocated to Idaho for repopulation, they must work together to get back to Jasper Park before a war slowly begins to emerge between both packs.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2010, and was released nationwide in 2-D and 3-D on September 17, 2010, by Lionsgate Films. The film was dedicated to the memory of Dennis Hopper, as he died from prostate cancer four months before it was released, and this was his final performance prior to his death.

Although it received negative reviews, the film eventually turned into a franchise of direct-to-video sequels including Alpha and Omega 2: A Howl-iday Adventure, which was released on October 8, 2013. Another sequel, The Great Wolf Games, was released on March 25, 2014. The Legend of the Saw-Tooth Cave was released on September 23, 2014. Family Vacation was released to DVD on August 4, 2015. Dino Digs was released on DVD and Digital HD on May 10, 2016. It was followed by The Big Fur-eeze, which was released on November 8, 2016. The eighth and final instalment, Journey To Bear Kingdom was released on DVD and Digital HD on May 9, 2017.

Plot

In Alberta, Canada's Jasper National Park, Kate (Hayden Panettiere) begins Alpha school with her father Winston (Danny Glover) and grows up as a fully trained Alpha wolf. On her first hunt, she crosses paths with two wolves from the Eastern pack who are lacking food in their own territory and nearly start a fight, but the conflict is broken up by Kate's childhood friend, Omega wolf Humphrey (Justin Long), who has feelings for her, but can't pursue a relationship with her because it is forbidden for an Alpha and Omega to be together. The two packs have had a bitter rivalry ever since Tony (Dennis Hopper), the leader of the Eastern pack, commanded his wolves to cross over into Western territory (against pack law) to get sufficient food. Winston and Tony meet up one night and arrange for Kate to marry Garth (Chris Carmack), Tony's son, in order to peacefully merge the two packs. Kate, having a sense of responsibility and duty, agrees for the good of the pack and meets Garth at the Moonlight Howl.

Garth seems perfect, except that he is not very bright and has a terrible howl. Kate, taken aback, leaves and has a talk with Humphrey about Garth, when they are suddenly tranquilized by some well-meaning park rangers and taken away to Sawtooth National Recreation Area in Idaho, where they meet goose golfer Marcel (Larry Miller) and his duck caddie Paddy (Eric Price). Humphrey and Kate learn that they were relocated to repopulate the species. This horrifies Kate, but intrigues Humphrey so that he can be with Kate; however, after coming to an agreement, Marcel and Paddy help the wolves begin their journey home to Jasper Park.

The two packs discover that Kate has gone missing. Tony warns Winston that if Kate doesn't return to marry Garth on the next full moon, war will be declared for their territory. Kate's sister Lilly (Christina Ricci), however, has developed a crush on Garth and suggests that she show him around until Kate gets back.

Kate and Humphrey's ride home is cut short at a gas station, where Humphrey is mistaken for a rabid wolf after he eats a cream-filled cupcake, which a French bulldog had seen. Kate fends off a man who attempts to attack them with a gun, and she and Humphrey both flee into the forest. During their homeward journey, they cross a dangerous ravine with Humphrey saving Kate from a nasty fall.

The next morning, Marcel and Paddy find the wolves and direct them to a train over a snowy mountain that will take them to Jasper. Climbing the mountain, Humphrey meets a grizzly bear cub who's never seen wolves, but a mishap gets the cub hurt, angering a trio of adult grizzly bears. Kate comes to Humphrey's rescue and after a rough slide down the mountain manage to board the passing train before the bears devour them.

During this time, Lilly and Garth are bonding. At the midnight howl, Lilly compassionately teaches Garth how to howl effectively. At the same time, Humphrey and Kate begin to fall in love and howl together while on the train. By this time, the full moon has come and both packs declare war against each other. As the train passes by Jasper, Kate and Humphrey's exchange of feelings is cut short by the sight of the wolf pack war. Kate stops the fight by announcing that she will marry Garth. The next day, a devastated Humphrey bids farewell to Kate, Marcel, and Paddy; he decides to leave by himself because of his hurt feelings, much to Kate's disappointment.

During the ceremony, Kate decides not to marry Garth, declaring her love for Humphrey. Garth subsequently declares his own love for Lilly. An Alpha wolf marrying an Omega wolf goes against pack customs, and a large brawl ensues between the packs, but is cut short when a massive stampede of caribou comes. Winston and Tony get caught in the stampede, but Kate and Humphrey (who decided to stay) rush in to save them. They succeed, but Kate gets struck by the caribou in the process, so Humphrey then goes to shield her with his body. After the stampede, Humphrey tries to wake up Kate to no avail. Heartbroken, Humphrey then begins to howl in sadness, causing all the other wolves to howl along with him. Kate then awakens, to everyone's joy, and she and Humphrey confess their love for each other in the form of whispers. Winston and Tony then decide to abolish the law against Alphas and Omegas marrying and accept a union of the two packs via a marriage between Garth and Lilly, much to Garth and Lilly's joy.

Later at the Moonlight Howl, all of the wolves celebrate the love of Kate to Humphrey, and Garth to Lilly, breaking the social classes and traditions, ending with Humphrey and Kate howling a beautiful duet.

Production

Pre-production and post-production took place in Los Angeles, with key animation produced by Crest Animation Productions in India and the script was written in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Steve Moore originally was supposed to make the film have a slightly darker and serious story, but Lionsgate wanted the story to be more aimed for kids, leading to the original version to be re-written.

Release/Reception/Box Office

Alpha and Omega was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on January 11, 2011, which included a coupon for Great Wolf Resorts.

Alpha and Omega took in $2,288,773 on its opening day, and $9,106,906 on its opening weekend domestically, reaching fifth place at the box office. The film ended its run on December 2, 2010 after grossing $25 million domestically and $25 million in other territories.

Alpha and Omega holds an approval rating of 18% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 57 reviews; the site's consensus is: "With bland visuals and a dull, predictable plot, Alpha and Omega is a runt in 2010's animated litter." At Metacritic, the film has a score of 36 out of 100 based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "generally unfavourable" reviews. Andrew Barker of Variety gave the film a mixed review, writing: "Not without charm, Lionsgate's 3D animated pic is agreeably unambitious." Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Abounding in dumb jokes that kids are bound to like but sometimes too scary for very young viewers, the movie -- also going out in 2D -- takes too long to find its footing and at best is proficient, not exhilarating."

Bernie Van De Yacht was nominated for an Artios Award for Outstanding Achievement in Casting.

Budget $20 million

Box office $50.5 million

My Review

As anyone around me can tell you, I love wolves (hence my nickname one of my friends refer to me as, Demon Wolf) and so when I heard about this movie coming out, I was dyeing to go see it. It's like a Romeo and Juliet story of two lovers separated by class. One is from a high class and the other is of the lower class but each one has there strengths.

I fell in love with pretty much all the characters from the charismatic Kate to the very shy character Lilly. I couldn't stop thinking about how Lilly reminds me of me a bit. She's quiet mostly and hides in the shadows like myself. Even though I'm loud online with my opinion, if you see me in real life, I'm quiet and in the background of a lot of parties. I'm really just a wallflower when it comes right down to it. Her character really spoke to me for the small time it was up on screen. I'm not so fond of Kate and Lily's mom much. She just seems like a rather quiet, yet harsh character who controls the pack threw her husband. Her husband might not actually do all that she says, but she has a very harsh concept of justice. There are times she has a right to say what she says but then other times it just feels like they pushed her character to an extreme.

The animation is rather beautiful, everything pretty much working together. Some textures seem slightly more detailed then they should be but that's all a matter of taste since it doesn't mess up the over all picture. Rock textures are really hard to get right anyway without making them overly bumpy. The rest seem really nice with a larger look at the fur textures. I love how they made the fur into hair up on top of their heads and styled it depending on what personality the character had. For example, Lilly is a very shy girl and so her hair cut is over her eyes a bit and makes her look rather quite while her sister Kate has a rough cut hair that makes her more like a tomboy type with a girly side. Humphrey is a rather easy going personality so his haircut is sort of a messy thrown together look while Garth is more of trying to be smooth jock type so he has a bit of a curl in his face while the rest is slicked back. It makes it a bit easy to pick out who the characters are when the fur is so similar.

The voices are really nice, well, except for Garth's howl that sounds like a dyeing animal. But that's really what they were going for from what I got. The spin they did on all the howls reminded me a little of what they did in 'Happy Feet' since one of the characters couldn't make the right sound as well and how all the others had there own style of howling like singing. If you have ever listened to a wolf howl, you will understand what I mean when I say that a wolf has many different emotions they can convey as they howl. If there is a lone wolf howling, his howl may sound a bit sad compared to if he is howling with a group. Same for if it loses someone special against finding the mate he has been looking for. They use their howl to show all these and more so I wish we had even more of the howling aspect. He comes out alright in the end but its how he did that that made me like his story. Though the dialog was a bit rough in some aspects, the over-lining meaning was as clear as day making it so much better.

Okay, I wasn't really wanting to see this but my friend did and since we already watched my choice-Easy A-I decided to humour him and view this one next. It's not too bad, certainly with a voice cast that includes Justin Long and Hayden Panettiere in the leads and Danny Glover and the late Dennis Hopper, of which this film is dedicated to, as support. The scenes are wonderful, there are some amusements-both visually and aurally especially when we hear what a couple of ducks traveling along are saying-so on that note, this was a pretty pleasant and occasionally exciting picture. No great shakes but if you're interested in computer animation, Alpha and Omega is worth a look. 7.1/10

{The Howling scenes in this film are the best parts of the movie}