GOAT Parent Guide

Will Harris (Caleb McLaughlin) may be a small goat, but he has big dreams of playing roarball, a high intensity sport dominated by only the largest and strongest animals. Despite others’ assertion that he could never play professionally, Will is determined to achieve his goals, especially after losing his mother, who always encouraged him to dream big. After a video of Will going up against one of the biggest players in the league, Mane Attraction (Aaron Pierre), goes viral, Will suddenly finds himself being signed as the sixth player of The Thorns. Will's hometown team is captained by his hero, Jett Filmore (Gabrielle Union), who isn’t exactly thrilled to have him on board. Could a small player be just what this struggling team needs?

I am famously not a sports person, and basketball ranks pretty low on the list of sports I might be convinced to watch. That said, I always appreciate a good underdog story. Most sports flicks are essentially the same, simply swapping out specific game details, so something I appreciate about GOAT is that it tries to stand out from the crowd (though it still hits most of the expected beats). Basing this story on a fake sport inspired by basketball was a smart move. It relieves the writers from the pressure of having to follow established rules, giving the story room to breathe when it comes to gameplay, while still being able to make references to real life basketball players and lore. This will be enjoyed by basketball fans, but I must admit that I only understood the cameos and references in the script after I read some articles about the movie.

GOAT does some great things but fails at others. It is a mixed bag which is disappointing because it has the same animation and some overlap in crew with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, which is arguably the best animated film of the past decade. The animation is the best part of the production, which isn’t surprising. The characters are incredibly well-designed, and the various natural settings are gorgeous. There are some great laughs, and a good amount of heart to balance out the humor. I also appreciated the messages around teamwork, persistence, and dreaming big.

That all said, the script itself is poorly structured, which leads to egregious pacing issues. The third act in particular feels incredibly rushed, while the first act set up takes far too long. Some of the side characters are sadly underdeveloped, which makes their brief moments of character growth feel unearned. Some plot points presented early in the film never return, leading to an overall feeling of dissatisfaction. I don’t think this is a case of the script needing another rewrite: my guess is that the original idea was dragged down by the studio and an unwieldy writing team, and would have been much better in earlier drafts.

My final verdict is that GOAT is fine. It’s slightly above average for children’s animation but has a lot of problems that I think will prevent it from having cultural staying power. Parents will be thrilled to know there is very little in the way of negative content short of some sports violence, making it appropriate for most audiences. It also won’t make parents want to rip their hair out, which is always a win in this genre. My son, who is much more athletically inclined than I am, gave it a 9.5 out of 10, so maybe take his word for it over mine.

About author

Savannah Sillito

Savannah Sillito is a librarian with a master's in library science, a bachelor's degree in English, and a certificate in early childhood education. She enjoys nonfiction books, travel, and is a staunch proponent of the Oxford comma.