Rumble review: a standard underdog sports story with a monster-packed makeover

Sometimes you just want giant beasts fighting.

RumbleParamount and World Wrestling Entertainment have teamed up to create CG animated movies called. This movie transforms the kaiju film spectacle of gigantic monsters destroying all things into a popular sport event. Hamish Grieve, director and co-writer of the movie, mostly spools Rumble It plays out as a classic underdog movie about sports, with the familiar tunes. The movie is saved by the giant-monster fight, which keeps it from being like millions of others. There isn’t a lot of substance beneath that spectacle, butGet up and go does monsters, wrestling, and monster–wrestling pretty damn well, and it makes young viewers’ possible first sports movie into something memorable.

[Ed. note: This review contains slight setup spoilers for Rumble.]

Image by Paramount Animation

Loosely based on Rob Harrell’s graphic novel Monster on the Hill — where country villages in Victorian England rally behind their own monsters in fighting matches — RumbleThe spirit of the monster fights in the towns is still alive, but the story has been updated with WWE elements. Although Stoker-on-Avon is located in England, it was home to legendary coach duo Rayburn (Charles Barkley), and Jim Coyle. Both passed away a few years before the movie opens, but their legacy lives on in every facet of the town, particularly in the Stoker Stadium, the village’s pride and joy.

After Tentacular (Terry Crews), the town’s current champion, decides to defect and join up with the neighboring town of Slitherpool, Stoker loses its primary source of income. Coach Coyle’s daughter Winnie (Geraldine Viswanathan) decides to train a new monster to rise up as a champion and bring glory to the town. She meets Steve (Will Arnett), a giant red reptilian monster who’s racked up some debt, and he reluctantly agrees to train with her. Thus begins the underdog sports story, as Winnie and Steve team up to save Stoker’s stadium from becoming a parking lot.

One of the best parts about Rumble It is exciting to see more of the world in which monster-fighting has become an international major sport. It’s just plain fun to watch monsters touting sports-drink partnerships, and to walk through the logistics of the settings. Others are gigantic, such as the locker room in which Winnie persuades Steve to go with her. Other monsters are smaller than human and must choose carefully. It’s charming to see coaches zip around on flying scooters so they can talk face-to-face with their towering monsters, and the wrestling matches themselves are totally wild. Take all the theatricality of WWE and mix that with tentacles, horns, and other monstrous appendages, and it’s a visual treat.

Image by Paramount Animation

The designs of each monster are unique. King Gorge is an example of a large bulldog-sized bulldog and the Tentacular has tentacles and shark heads. Steve is actually the least exciting creature, as he’s a big, red, scaly guy. The rest of the creatures are feathered and furry. They can be small or large, but they all use different attributes in their matches. The human characters don’t pop as much, but the ones the audience are supposed to remember — Winnie, for instance, and Tentacular’s new social-media-obsessed manager, Jimothy Brett-Chadley III (Ben Schwartz) — have distinct physicalities. Winnie’s purple space buns are especially endearing. She also walks confidently. Winnie commands every inch of the space in which she lives, just like the gigantic monsters with whom she works.

RumbleStays true to sports movie playbook as the plucky underdog attempts to beat the odds and live up to family tradition while saving a small town from an evil developer. Rumble hits every single expected trope for the genre — big coaching speeches! Training montages! The professionals are skeptical of unconventional approaches for winning! The glory and example of our parents. The final match! — and it doesn’t do anything new in that regard, except center the story on monster-wrestling. However, it is designed for young children. RumbleThis checklist might be your first introduction to the elements. What better way to get into the genre than by battling giant monsters?

However, the familiar plot beats make it easy to spot the bizarre monsters. The scene where Winnie looks into Steve’s eyes and gives him a big, triumphant coach speech that sounds like it was algorithmically generated from hundreds and hundreds of sports movies is a particularly charming take on a familiar moment, simply because he’s a giant monster, and she’s standing on an elevated podium so she can look him in the eye. Please join us Get up and go for the giant-monster wrestling… and also stay for the giant-monster wrestling, because that’s really where the movie shines.

RumbleParamount Plus only.