In a corner of suburban America next to woods, 13-year-old Adam Harrison (voiced by Pappy Faulkner) is distressed to find his body is growing at an alarming rate in particular areas while thick unruly hair grows uncontrollably in others. No, it’s not puberty – or at least not just puberty – but evidence that he’s actually the son of a semi-feral remnant of Neanderthal genetics, a real live bigfoot (Christopher L Parson), living in the woods to avoid the unwanted attentions of a crazed pharmaceutical company, determined to mine his genes to create a cure for baldness.
It’s a fundamentally daft premise, but the film-makers have fun with it, sprinkling wry one-liners along the way to perk things up and threading the plot on a surprisingly strong emotional through-line. The character design is a little uneven, a bit too cutesy at times, especially with the animal friends, but the rendering of hair, water and wet-hair textures is especially impressive and tactile. All in all, it’s an improvement on production company nWave Pictures last, the rebarbative A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures.
