Voices: Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta, Dimple Kapadia, Rajpal Yadav, Gulshan Grover

Director: Kompin Kemgumnird

Jumbo is a lovable bite-sized pachyderm, looking for his lost father. Great hook for an animation flick: the only critter cuter than a baby elephant is a kitten or a pup. And the quality of the animation in this film, which originated in Thailand, is very good indeed. For once it’s not an unthinking Disney copy, and the characters and the lush background look three dimensionally filled out.

Except Jumbo’s tale—his travels through a jungle, where he misplaces his mother, bumps into pretty she-elephant Sonia who hates the name Pinky, and comes across good people—is not as good as it can get. The pace is lax, and the film is too close to Bollywood conventions to really feel fresh: romantic ditties, cartoonish sidekicks, and long dialogue, which don’t jell with the general tone of the film.

The film has been re-packaged for Indian audiences, which means it has been voiced by Bollywood actors. One of the much-publicised high-points of the film is Akshay’s presence—his older Jumbo aka Jayveer who goes into battle and saves his kingdom, is instantly recognisable. He also does a snappy item number, which unspools along with the credits.

But Jumbo needed to have been nimbler, and lighter on its feet, to be a lot more fun.

shubhra.gupta@gmail.com