ANIMATION FOR ADULTS: A Sloth Story (2024)
February 26, 2025
Talking animal movies are not exactly rare in animation. Often what distinguishes them is what particular species of critter takes the spotlight. A Sloth Story is, to the best of our knowledge, the first animated film to centre around sloths (following their prominent role in Zootopia).
A Sloth Story- released in Australia and the United Kingdom as The Sloth Lane- is an Australian CGI animated feature. It is directed by Richard Cusso and Tania Vincent, and written by Ryan Greaves, Erica Harrison and Tania Vincent. It is produced by Like A Photon Creative and Screen Q
The film is actually the fifth entry in the Tales From Sanctuary City multi-media franchise, that also includes films such as Combat Wombat and Daisy The Quokka. The other films in the franchise largely revolve around Australian wildlife, so A Sloth Story is a bit of a departure for the series. You don't need to have seen any of the other films to understand A Sloth Story, however. It functions perfectly well as a standalone story with no prior knowledge required.
Sloth Laura- known for her uncharacteristic speediness- lives with her family in their restaurant. When one day a massive storm destroys their home and livelihood, they pack up and head to the big city, hoping to make their business a success. There they encounter celebrity fast food mogul Dotti Pace, who wants to get her hands on the family's book of recipes for herself.
The film wins some points for opening with real footage of sloths, before cutting to the animated variety. Then we cut to an Indiana Jones-aping sequence where the family is on an adventure to find a new recipe. It's extremely well executed and surprisingly thrilling and makes for an impressive opening to the film.
It's one of several excellent and visually inventive set-pieces that occur throughout the film. Standouts include a video game style neon chase and escaping from sort-of-zombies
In fact, the visuals are top-notch throughout the film. The characters have a wonderfully fuzzy look to them, and the animation almost has a stop-motion look to it. The animation is frequently accompanied by hand-drawn 2D elements- lines and sketches that add extra character to the animation. The characters all have distinctive looks and designs, helping them all look unique.
The film's characters are at the film's big fuzzy heart. Laura in particular is a likably spunky lead, but the whole family are easy to warm to. Their family dynamic is rather sweet too. Laura is also befriended by a local cricket team, which provides another set of likeable characters. The characters are all backed up by decent voice performances from the likes of Teo Vergara (as Laura) Olivia Vasquez, Ben Gorrono, Facundo Hache Herrera, Remy Hill and Leslie Jones.
It's understandable why the film's producers decided to make them 'speedy' sloths- incredibly slow protagonists might work for a scene or two but it's easy to see how it could be waring for a whole film. But with the sloth's defining characteristic removed, one might wonder why make a film starring sloths at all? Probably because they're cute and fuzzy, and not for any more sophisticated reason than that.
And why not? A Sloth Story is a pleasant surprise of a movie. It's a very sweet movie, and often heartwarming. It's got decent gags, some impressive set-pieces and its surprisingly fast-paced. It'll provide plenty of entertainment for kids- and is surprisingly watchable for adults too. Hotfoot it your local multiplex and check it out.
