GOAT

It's a strictly-for-the-kiddies game in this all-animal basketball animated effort that reminds us you can't win by just coasting.

The team-ups between animated movies and sports flicks has not historically been a winning combination. Other than the “Cars” films, it’s pretty slim pickings. The underwhelming “Space Jam” with Michael Jordan is probably the best of the rest, and the less said about the uninspired LeBron James remake, the better.

“GOAT” is about the titular underdog, a scrappy little mammal who dreams of playing hoops against the “bigs” — panthers, bears, rhinos, horses and the like. He overcomes his lack of size with gumption, a sweet outside shot and an endless supply of pluck.

Of course, the title is also a play on the acronym of the same form — greatest of all time — though our guy, Will Harris (voice Caleb McLaughlin), just dreams of getting on the court.

For a story about an epic overachiever, “GOAT” sure doesn’t try very hard.

It’s a cliché-ridden, hyperactive piece of glitz that’s made strictly for the kiddies. It borrows the backdrop of “Zootopia” (big vs. small critters) and slaps on a roundball frontcourt, with gravity-defying dunks and crazy court antics lifted from “Space Jam.”

Directed by television guy Tyree Dillihay from a screenplay by Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley, the movie focuses on fast-paced hoops action broken up by social media taunts between the players and a few maudlin scenes about the kid from nowhere who dreams big. The on-court editing is so fast, the eye struggles to clock everything that’s going on.

The animation style, from Sony Pictures Animation, is an interesting mix of realistic textures and wildly over-exaggerated animal features. There’s a deliberate aspect of herky-jerkiness to the motion, almost as if rendered in an anime-style lower frame rate.

Will grew up in the city of Vineland, a vaguely jungle-like place full of all sorts of creatures. (No humans in this world.) His mom died when he was young, but encouraged his unlikely dreams of one day playing Roarball like his hero, Jett Fillmore (Gabrielle Union), superstar of the local team, the Thorns.

Ten years later, Will is just the delivery boy for the diner where his mom worked as a waitress, and Jett has become an over-the-hill ball hog who never won the league championship, aka The Claw. Her nemesis is young upstart Mane (Aaron Pierre), a cocky stallion with gold teeth, chains and a braided hairdo he’s very particular about.

I’ll pause here to note the cast and creatives are mostly Black, and that culture — at least the very urban, very online portion of it — is reflected here. The style of play in Roarball is focused on flash, driving to the hoop and posterizing opposing players with dunks.

I should also mention the courts are different for every team is different, and add various challenges in keeping with the setting. So there’s a cave team where stalactites might fall onto the court, a frozen one where the parquet breaks up into ice flows, and a lava-themed one that actually grows a mountain on one side of the court halfway through the game. (Which kinda seems unfair.)

Seeing social media video of Will taking on Mane in a 1x1 match and holding his own (for awhile), the piggish owner of the Thorns, Flo (Jenifer Lewis), signs him to the team as a way of putting butts in seats. Jett, who’s grown insular and estranged from her teammates, is resentful of the upstart and refuses to let him play.

There is ostensibly a coach, the monkeyish Denniis (Patton Oswalt), but he’s spent so long deferring to Jett he now considers himself a glorified clipboard stand.

Other team members include Olivia (Nicola Coughlan), an ostrich who’s failed to live up to her high draft pick, leeching her confidence; Archie (David Harbour), the enforcer-like rhino who’s more focused on dealing with his terrorizing twin daughters; Lenny (real hoops star Stephen Curry), a giraffe who’s spent his career being looked over despite his height; and Modo (Nick Kroll), a Dennis Rodman-like weirdo and Komodo dragon, which is actually a pretty apt likening.

Do I even need to tell you how things go? Eventually Will is finally given his shot on the court and becomes a sensation; leading to more resentment from Jett; until they have a coming together focused on Will’s humble roots; reminding Jett of the true meaning of the game; building up to a championship showdown against Mane; complete with a Willis Reed-like moment where everyone learns that teamwork is more important than individual glory.

Look, most movies are formulaic and that’s especially true of sports flicks and animated movies. Even by that low standard, though, “GOAT” is utterly predictable and unsurprising. It’s an exercise in waiting for the movie to arrive, aka get to what everybody knows is coming.

Contrast that with actual sports, which I think people love for the very fact that anything could happen. Titans fall, modest heroes rise, and glory is there for whoever can take it. And shame for those who think they can win the game by coasting.