2 months ago
26
Grand Prix of Europe
★★½
(G), 98 minutes
How many Australian children are familiar with Ed Euromaus and Edda Euromausi, the cheery blue-eyed mice who serve as mascots of Europa-Park in north-east Germany? At a guess, not as many as dream of being taken to Disneyland.
Still, the park, founded in 1975, attracts millions of visitors each year, while remaining in the hands of the Mack family, who have been in the fairground ride business for over a century and continue to supply rollercoasters to funparks around the world.
The two protagonists at the centre of all the race action. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
Half-a-dozen Macks are listed as co-producers of Waldemar Fast’s Grand Prix of Europe, their company’s first ever foray into feature filmmaking, with some assistance from Warner Bros. Originally the dialogue was in German – but as usual with digitally-animated family films from outside the Anglosphere, what we’re getting is the English-language dub, with Ed and Edda voiced by Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Gemma Arterton respectively.
Not wholly surprisingly, the story begins at a family-owned amusement park, the pride and joy of Edda’s hardworking dad Erwin (Lenny Henry). But compared to the sprawling Europa-Park the attractions are modest: a shaky-looking rollercoaster, a merry-go-round prone to mechanical failure, and a fortune-teller booth operated by a bespectacled mole (Ayesha Antoine).
Even in talking-animal land, the economic pressures are real. Erwin has given up hope of paying off his debts, when coincidence comes to the rescue: it so happens that the annual Grand Prix of Europe is about to kick off, that Edda is an aspiring race car driver, and that Ed, the arrogant reigning champion, looks so much like her he could be her twin brother.
Still more conveniently, Ed injures his arm, leaving him unable to compete. Technically this is Edda’s fault – but rather than withdraw, Ed agrees to let her secretly take his place, with the prize money to be split between them.
With half an hour’s worth of set-up out of the way, we’re onto the Grand Prix itself, a series of increasingly chaotic street races held in Paris, the Swiss Alps, the coast of Italy and finally London, with the competitors travelling by zeppelin from one location to the next.
Like the recent Pets on a Train, the film resembles a video game transferred to the big screen, stronger on design than anything else. I liked the sunsets we glimpse through the windows of the zeppelin, and the maroon leather jacket Edda favours when not in her official racing gear.
But I soon grew tired of the sparring between Edda and Ed, who get on each others’ nerves so consistently it seemed possible they really would turn out to be long-lost siblings, especially when we learn that Ed grew up in an orphanage.
Nothing comes of that, but then the plotting is careless in general: the most effective villains are a pair of feline bruisers named Mittens (Matt Moselle) and Fluffy (Nate Begle) who loom over Erwin at the outset then vanish completely. Raising such objections always seems like joyless nitpicking, but I’ll bet the Macks are a good deal more meticulous when it comes to their rollercoasters.
