The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Previously titled, All Creatures Big and Small and Two by Two before that, Oops! Noah is Gone is the latest European animated-take on the familiar Bible tale which has decided to spin the story of Noah’s Ark and tell it through the eyes of the animals. Cute but, awfully unengaging, the film manages to offer a few laughs but, unfortunately, not enough to override its flimsy script and generally unexciting plot.

The story follows the escapades of Dave (Malloney) and his son, Finny (Magennis); a pair of brightly-coloured troll-like creatures called Nestrians, who are shocked to learn that they won’t be allowed on board the specially-designed ark  that is to take all of the animals of the world to safety until the enormous flood passes.

In order to sneak past the security, the two decide to dress up and disguise themselves as members of Hazel (Flynn) and her daughter, Leah’s(Connolly) family; cat-like beings called the grymps.  However, when the floodwaters begin to rise, Finny and his newly-found ‘sister’ soon find themselves separated from the big boat and join forces with a blob-like creature called, Obesey (Tylak) who will help the two youngsters find their way back to the arc while their parents, are doing everything in their power to convince the lion captain (voiced by Stanford) to go back and find their kids.

Written and directed by Toby Genkel and Sean McCormack, Oops! Noah is Gone isn’t the worst animated feature you’ll see; the bright colours and the zany pacing will keep the youngsters happy and there’s a certain level of cuteness behind its main characters that even adults can’t deny. However, it’s certainly not the best one out there, either.   Standing as a cross-between Ice Age, Madagascar and Finding Nemo – minus the heart – Oops! Noah is Gone – a film with almost no mention of Noah – feels underdeveloped and annoyingly unfocused and while kids may have fun watching it unfold frantically on screen, there’s nothing to appeal to adults.

The jokes – of the poo-poo and pee-pee nature mostly – are aplenty and the quality of the CGI, although decent enough, don’t have that wow factor that is expected from an animated feature of 2015 which unfortunately, has to share its world with the ‘big boys of animation’ such as DreamWorks and Pixar.