GOAT Movie Review: Dream Big

GOAT is a staggeringly animated underdog story that boasts a fantastic cast and an effective emotional center, despite treading a relatively predictable narrative.

GOAT’s Will Harris (Caleb McLaughlin, of Stranger Things), and Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Mauser both want to be known for their respective athletic feats, despite the challenges they continuously face throughout their frenetic tales. The one difference between the two is that Will is a character you want to root for, while Marty consistently challenges our emotional attachment to him.

The heart of GOAT is absolutely in its right place, even if it treads on beats we’ve all seen before. It tells the story of Harris, a small goat, who wants to achieve the same level of success as his favorite ROARball (spelled Regionally Organized Animal Rollerball) player, black panther Jett Fillmore (Gabrielle Union, of Riff Raff). However, his size essentially prevents him from being taken seriously by the community, despite his athletic prowess at roarball, which could prove advantageous in the field. However, after a video in which Will tries to play against ROARball MVP Mane Attraction (Aaron Pierre, of Brother) goes viral, the goat is quickly signed by the league to Fillmore’s team, the Thorns, which attempts to win the coveted “Claw” of the competition, should they make it to the playoffs. 

At first, the team, comprising Fillmore and giraffe Lenny Williamson (Stephen Curry), ostrich Olivia Burke (Nicola Coughlan, of Bridgerton), Komodo dragon Modo Olachenko (Nick Kroll), and Indian rhinoceros Archie Everhardt (David Harbour, of Thunderbolts*), doesn’t get along with Will, as they believe a small goat like him would only get killed on the roarball stage. Of course, they’ll quickly realize that this is not the case when Will eventually proves himself useful during a tight game that propels the team to the playoffs for the first time. Then, you get the usual dramatic beats of a sports movie of that ilk, and while this critic will not spoil a thing in this review other than what was in the trailer, it won’t be hard for you to figure out who the real antagonist is in the team, and what will ultimately happen to Will and Jett. 

In an era where many of the athletes we grew up with are reckoning with their age and are thinking of stepping away from the spotlight (just recently, Lindsey Vonn’s likely final Olympic bid ended in a violent crash), a film like GOAT arrives at the right moment for both young and old viewers who look up to so many star players and recognize that, at some point, their time will end, and a new generation will take over. For Jett, this is a tough pill to swallow, especially considering that, despite her athletic feats of derring-do and the records she set throughout her career in the Thorns, she’s never won a Claw, and the internal struggles she faces when a goat is signed onto her team honestly make for some compelling character-driven drama. Her evolution is the best part of Dillihay’s film, which is staggeringly animated and consistently vibrant. 

Perhaps it takes one too many pages from the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse style of hyperkineticism playbook (which was also used in KPop Demon Hunters, from the same creative team at Sony Pictures Animation), but the thing is: it still feels electric within the prism of a basketball court, in the middle of a jungle, a sunken city, the Arctic, or a molten volcano. The climax, in particular, has some of the most visually stimulating action I’ve seen in a mainstream animated offering since Across the Spider-Verse, which might now feel like a “house style” for Sony Pictures Animation, but is consistently reworked to fit different considerations. The roarball scenes are bracingly exhilarating and emotionally propulsive, and they always give us something exciting to look at, which is more than welcome in an animated era in Hollywood that still believes the quest for “realism” (hello, Pixar) is the way to go. 

Here’s hoping KPop Demon Hunters’ eventual Oscar win will convince studios to craft more visually daring pictures, because GOAT contains exactly what children need to make them appreciate the art form of cinema on the biggest possible screen. The kid sitting next to me at the screening I attended was jumping up and down in total excitement at seeing animals from all shapes and sizes perform feats that may not be grounded in any form of realism, but looked so cool as Dillihay’s camera stretches and squashes to continuously adapt to the animals’ movements. These sequences make the theatrical experience of GOAT worth watching, even though the rest is as forgettable as it comes. 

While it’s understandable for animated films to not necessarily reinvent the narrative wheel, there was a golden opportunity for Dillihay and Rosette, alongside writers Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley, to tap into something deeper than the surface-level “mentor passes the baton to mentee” story. Unfortunately, such an emotional moment never happens, except for a genuinely heartfelt scene in which Will tells Jett why he wants to make his late mother (voiced by Jennifer Hudson) proud. The rest of the screenplay either treads on a bevy of dated pop culture references (and memes) as jokes that not even small children will understand, or egregiously promotes actual products within the games themselves. 

That said, the heart of the film still ends up being in the right place, and it won’t be hard for you to be moved by what’s on screen, despite GOAT’s obvious shortcomings. Unlike Marty Supreme, this movie actually inspires audiences to dream big in meaningful ways that won’t involve you doing anything illegal in the process, and makes you a better person who not only cares about your own personal growth, but also about the growth of others around you.

After all, life is a collective experience, even if we endure individual challenges. Kids will be dazzled by the film’s astonishing animation, while adults will enjoy the positive message at its center, which could inspire their children to aim for bigger goals than they currently have. In our crazy times, such message can only be perceived as a net positive for future generations.

GOAT will be released in US theaters, in UK & Irish cinemas, and globally in theatres on February 13, 2026.