Storyline
Ivan is a 400-pound silverback gorilla who shares a communal habitat in a suburban shopping mall with Stella the elephant, Bob the dog, and various other animals. He has few memories of the jungle where he was captured, but when a baby elephant named Ruby arrives, it touches something deep within him. Ruby is recently separated from her family in the wild, which causes him to question his life, where he comes from and where he ultimately wants to be.
Directors
Cast
Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Angelina Jolie, Danny DeVito, Ramón Rodríguez, Mike White, Helen Mirren, Eleanor Matsuura, Chaka Khan, Ron Funches, Kriss Dillon, Roberto Vivancos, Ariana Greenblatt, Brooklynn Prince, Jeremy Oliver, Jacqueline Ramnarine, Davina Sitaram, Haley Flanagan, Ben Bishop, Phillipa Soo, Owain Arthur, John Flanagan, Betsy Graver, Filiz Fairweather, Chloe Stannage, Ireland Frost, Max Dowler, Dean Phillippi Sr., Jude Allenby-dos Santos, Kevin Mathurin, Jeffrey Crisp, Tyrone Love, Sean Casey, Danny La Placa, Richard J. Valentine, Jessica Hyde, Larry Ridley
Trailer
Reviews
75
Watching Ivan discover his love of art is intoxicating, too, particularly when his realization that he can use it to communicate results in a truly breathtaking tableau. The film’s genuine bursts of emotion, combined with the wry warmth of the vocal performances and the deftly realistic rendering of the CGI animals, give the project a silverback gorilla-sized heaping of heart.
75
It builds to a conclusion that, like the best parts of this film, combines movie-magic whimsy with hard-won realism, slipping some very grown-up ideas (and ideals) into a classic talking-animal charmer.
70
Jolie, who also serves as producer along with Brigham Taylor and the late Allison Shearmur, invests her fragile pachyderm with a gentle, world-weary wisdom, while Cranston makes you feel his world crumbling beneath him in a performance that could have easily flirted with cartoon villainy in less accomplished hands.
63
The real story of Ivan is more interesting even if it’s probably too dispiriting and shameful for a Disney movie. At the same time there’s some awkwardness in relating such an animal-rights tale with fart jokes and a celebrity voice ensemble.
50
The charitable representation of Bryan Cranston’s character greatly diminishes the emotional resonance of the film’s dramatic turns in the final act.
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