2 out of 5

Directed by: Maksim Fadeev

Woof, this is some bottom barrel stuff.  But, like, not for lack of trying, exactly – A Warrior’s Tail’s intentions are, I think, solid, and I believe there was sincere effort here – but its director’s / crew’s grasp of movie making (be it kids’ film movie making, animated movie making, or just regular ol’ movie making) is so desperately lacking that the thing starts to crumble more and more as we go along.

Apparently a cobbled-together string of Russian folklore, said string gives us a small village held captive (as intended slaves) by some colorful hyenas (animated = anthropomorphic, duh), with the spirited Savaa (a young boy, somewhat confusingly voiced by the not-boy Milla Jovovich) escaping their clutches and running into the surrounding jungle in search of help.  Help doth arrive via Anggee (Will Chase), the last surviving member of a race of white wolves who were once mankind’s protectors.  There’s actually a semi-interesting, surprisingly complex mythology backing the wolves’ story up, and Tail – despite some janky animation and undetailed scenery – has an admitted homegrown charm as it gathers some other compatriots to assist Savaa and machinates us through some typical getting-the-band-together hijinks.  And while there are fart jokes and other such kid fodder, whether it’s due to the foreign origin of the film or just an unawareness of what typically plays well for youngsters (e.g. eye-rollingly lazy juvenile humor), the movie doesn’t dive deep into that stuff, remaining fairly on target toward its particular MacGuffin – a magician who can spell-save everyone.

But something happens at the midway point, when some mythology is revealed, after which that homegrown charm proves no longer able to hold this thing together, and event after event starts to feel dispirited and phoned in, with ante-uppers like a dragon that pops up not only coming across as kitchen sink additions, by drawing into question why the different races (hyenas, humans, monkeys, etc.) were ever at war if someone could just call down a dragon.

While there’s no doubt the creators were trying with A Warrior’s Tail, it never becomes distinctive enough to outgrow its budgetary limitations, and that’s well before the flick just starts throwing uninteresting nonsense at the screen to see what sticks.