Rating: Grade: B
Score: 7.5/10
Family-Friendliness Scale: Level 3 (OK)
Kids ages 6+
Usually we see animation succeeding from Pixar and DreamWorks, but its' especially rare that we see one from Lionsgate, who rarely produces and distributes a hit movie. Coming from a deal with Richard Rich (producer of The Fox and the Hound) and his Crest Animation Studios, Alpha and Omega comes along as trying to become the next major animated hit.
Positive Notes
While we normally see potty-humor infiltered movies, Alpha surprisingly doesn't have as much annoying jokes as what would be seen in Open Season or Despicable Me. It also presents a simple story, but is told with a pleasantly emotional tone, with good morals about accepting responsibility, bravery, working together, selflessness, family and self-sacrifice. The cast is good, with Hayden Panettiere, Danny Glover, and the late great Dennis Hopper standing out.
The music also is top-class, with a nice scene where nice vocalizations combine with orchestrations of music that kinda remind me of Disney's musicals in some oddball-like way. The funniest parts of the film happen where Kate's mom (voiced by Vicki Lewis) brings out her wild side by comically threatening the other wolves to bite out their eyes and shove them down their throats. This is funny because the adult wolves are surprisingly intimidated by her unexpectedly rough attitude. Another funny moment was when a golf ball was pecked by a bird right before it goes into a hole.
Negative Notes
Alpha and Omega is a child's romantic comedy, which means that references to mature content does show up. Howling is used as a play-on for romance, and Paddy and Marcel the ducks say to Kate and Humphrey (voiced by Justin Long) "you have been relocated to, ummmm.....repopulate", and the mid-way stutter appears one other time as well. Longing looks and flirting are also shown. Typical bathroom humor shows up sporadically, but the worst it gets is one or two pee jokes and a few jokes involving the backside. There is one wolf fight and omnious looking wolf snarling and biting as well as a Lion King-like caribou stampede that might scare some of the youngest of kids and it would look a bit scarier in 3-D. The animation is relatively not good in quality, and while its' better than some other movies, it certainly pales in comparison with other flicks.
Conclusion
Altogether, Alpha and Omega obviously isn't the cleanest family movie ever made. And even though it has some mildly suggestive moments and bathroom humor, they both don't go very far and it doesn't get in the way of the films' surprisingly pleasant attitude. But that's just my opinion, some parents may disagree, so I do recommend them watching it first.
