Entertainment One has a new film All Creatures Big And Small which has nothing to do with the James Herriot novels or the television series (and film) they inspired. Instead is tells a story that runs alongside the launch of Noah’s Ark. The arrival of this film is meant to coincide with Google Play’s recently launched “Family” sub-heading. To that end the film is available to stream free through Google Play for a limited time beginning July 1.
During the end credits, the only credits on the film, the technical names come before the voice actors. Martin Sheen and Amy Grant might be the only recognizable names as if the evidence is being buried. There is no information online about the film – IMDB.com and even the film’s distributor, Entertainment One, both have no listing that it exists.
Why is this? Is the film that bad?
What we get is a story of two “Nestian” creatures, a father and son who have lived a nomadic life looking for where they belong. Along comes the flood and the decree that animals “on the list” are being admitted into the ark. The nestians are not on the list, leading to them trying to get on any way they can and the consequences.
About halfway through there is a visual joke about falling rocks and equating it to Tetris. It is funny, but removed me from the film. You can see the joke at the end of the trailer below. Then in the last few minutes we get a sort of evolutionary twist that seems at odds with everything else from the film with certain characters acting under water in a way that simply shouldn’t happen if they were land animals or visa versa. This issue is never addressed and due to the relative newer timeline of when Noah’s ark is to have sailed, there is a lot of evolution that would have to happen in a very short period of time.
Besides these questionable story decisions All Creatures Great And Small isn’t a bad film. There is a fun story that looks at one aspect of the Noah’s Ark story that could be overlooked, and there’s an emphasis on family and friendship which is always nice.
I wanted to like the film. My 12 year old tried to like the film. My 5 year old really liked it and found it to be funny. Read into that what you will. All Creatures Big And Small is a kid’s film that is going to be available to stream free through Google Play. It is worth watching, at least for little kids.