Hitpig! (2024)

"Pickles" is a circus elephant who is neglected by his owner and left, caged, to survive on a diet of tinned dog food. Naturally, he's pretty unhappy with his lot so readily accepts the offer of freedom from "Leticia" - a woman famed for freeing animals from inhumane captivity. All "Pickles" wants to do it go home to India and so off via London (where we don't have yellow cabs!) he sets. His erstwhile owner "Leapin' Lord" wants his prize possession back, though, and so engages "Hit Pig" - the acclaimed bounty hunter - to get him back. There aren't that many elephants flying commercial, so tracking down his quarry isn't so difficult but when they meet, it soon becomes clear that nothing from now on is going to proceed as expected. Except, well it proceeds exactly as we expect it to but along the way the pair have some enjoyable enough escapades across the globe and even venture into outer space for some acrobatics that truly do defy gravity. The animation is all fairly standard, but the characterisations work well with plenty of action; some wit from the dialogue and it shines a spotlight a little onto issues of animal welfare as it rolls along. It's probably not a film you will recall for very long, but it's an effortless ninety minutes that combines a little bit of "Thunderbirds" with some "007" and "Dumbo", and I didn't mind it at all.