Eggcellent, endearingly bonkers fun

Little Eggs: An African Rescue (PG, 89 mins)

Directed by Gabriel Riva Palacio Alatriste and Rodolfo Riva Palacio Alatriste

Reviewed Graeme Tuckett ★★★ 1⁄

2

Every week on this job I learn something new. Did you know, for instance, that there is a wildly successful and acclaimed series of animated movies from the Mexican film industry that follow the adventures of eggs – that grow to become chickens and roosters – and then have eggs of their own?

Nope, neither did I. But the home of Alfonso Cuaro´n, Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro Gonzalez In˜a´rritu and Tatiana Huezo is never to be underestimated. Critical acclaim in Mexico isn’t handed out to just anyone and if the great and the good of that great country reckon that Un Rescate de Huevitos is an export to be proud of then I am here for it.

And Little Eggs: An African Rescue (as the film is being released in English) is endearingly

bonkers, just as often as it is shrill, annoying and ... odd.

The Little Eggs are a couple of prize-winners on a chicken farm in rural Mexico. Their beauty and golden shells have attracted the attention of a Russian gangster – and egg collector – who has employed a couple of goons with radio-controlled moles to steal them. Yes, all of that happens.

More madness ensues and soon enough our eggs’ over-protective rooster and chicken mum and dad – and a selection of their animal besties – are on the run in Africa, or ‘‘The Congo’’, after hitching a ride on a plane.

Which somehow turns into a sub-plot about a talent show that is also quite possibly the best scene in the entire film.

Look, I wasn’t always following the twists and turns of Little Eggs:

An African Rescue. There’s only so much candy-coloured inanity I can take, especially that early in the morning.

In its original Spanish, I reckon this could have been a better film, or at least a more nuanced one. But the English-speaking cast are nothing if not committed.

And what I did keep up with was light, frothy and working very, very hard to be liked. Honestly, Little Eggs makes The Wiggles look like Kafka.

If you’re in charge of the entertainment options for a pack of under-8s – and you’ve already seen Strange World (seriously, it’s terrific) – then I reckon you’ll be happy that Little Eggs are here.

Little Eggs: An African Rescue is now screening in select cinemas nationwide.