Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon

Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon takes narrative and visual inspiration from several other 3D animated films, such as Moana, Pocahontas and Lion King, and there’s a clear pattern in their resemblance to this feature. This picture, however, is held together by a small string of plot that is borrowed from Wonder Woman – one that infers the wrongdoings of man as a result of mythology. While understandable, as this piece aims to showcase Peruvian legends at a global scale, it begs the question whether this is the ideal choice in terms of storytelling.

There’s nothing special in the film’s style or animation. Occasionally the facial expressions are too stiff and the landscape and backdrops are pretty simple. What really carries the visual impact of this movie is the use of colours; they are all vivid with a lot of green. In darkness, the vibrancy radiates the scenes with a beautiful array of light, from the flicker of the flame and the stars in the sky to the simple glow of nature. This palette takes after fantastic scenes found in the likes of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Frozen II and even Mission: Galaxy.

A lot of the picture’s narrative problems stem from the fact that it’s trying to do too many things at once. The result is hasty and unnatural exposition throughout the script – some of the lines purely exist to dump information onto viewers, regardless of the scene’s context. This breaks immersion and doesn’t provide any emotional investment. That said, there are a lot of small details that help strengthen the delivery of the plot. These features are subtle and only make sense at the end, but they do enhance the overall quality of the piece.

Specific tracks are associated with individual characters and their sound becomes indicative of their nature and role in the plot. This creates a sense of misdirection within the score and makes every twist and turn among the different characters all the more surprising. There are also little visual additions, like the presence of glasses and how Ainbo’s eyes are green compared to the brown and amber eyes of her peers. All these little elements aid in moving the narrative along and making sense of the unfolding storyline.