Missing lynx, The

There is definitely a vast global market for cartoon or CGI animation movies; they're the ideal family entertainment. Disney made fortunes out of them, as have Pixar, Dreamworks, the creators of South Park and The Simpsons, Tim Burton, Aardman and specialist Japanese studios. Art houses often show other nations' efforts, often grimmer or more bizarre, from Czechs, Danes, Israelis, French, Irish, Australians and Brits other than Nick Park. Other countries entering the competitive animation lists include Spain, whose The Missing Lynx [El lince perdido]was "presented" by Antonio Banderas (Shrek's now-spun-off Puss in Boots).

Released for the Christmas 2008 market in Spain, the original movie ran for an unlikely 140 minutes according to its Wikipedia page, lasted for 97 minutes when it went elsewhere in Europe, and is listed as a 75-minuter in the U.S. market. I saw the medium-length version and could see why cuts could have been made to speed up its pace.

The title character (appropriately, an Iberian wild cat) is an accident-prone comic hero whose menagerie of unlikely allies comprises a feisty goat, a paranoid chameleon, a convalescent hawk and a half-blind double-agent mole (like the movie's title, that must also be a wordplay in the Spanish language). Naturally, a lynxette arrives on the scene, along with an evil hunter, a pair of his bumbling henchmen, a flighty flamingo, and a modern-day Noah with a scifi ark.

In addition to this line-up of standard animated characters, there are other acknowledgments to classics in the scenery and plot developments (from The Lion King to Mouse Hunt). Above all, the animators do what all their peers do - display their talents for creating trickier effects such as dust and shadows, water and changing light, reflections and vehicular speed. They're admirable as are some of the animals' solo scenes, but group scenes exhibit a static staginess also evident in poorly-directed movies featuring human actors not transformed into an ensemble.

Lead writer and co-director Raul Garcia is a veteran from Asterix, the Smurfs and Disney. Co-writer Stephen Hughes has lived and worked in Spain since 1986, has worked on other animated projects there, and provides the voice of the vengeful hunter. A trio of English voices join him to render the whole animal cast in the English-language version (one channeling the intonations of Kenneth Williams), and they don't add depth to the overly-cute flawed personalities.

Several minutes in the final chase sequence exhibit a pace, flair and visual excitement that capture a viewer's sceptical mind. But most of the movie is no worse than many recent sub-standard Hollywood efforts, and that's damning it with a faint praise.