When the Queen's favourite dog, Rex, becomes lost, he must make new friends and embrace new adventures in order to find his way back to the palace.
Now, this is an interesting film. An English-language Belgian animated film, it was initially released in France and Belgium on April 3rd. Since then, the film has slowly been expanding to a wider release, making its way to China, the United States, Uzbekistan in June, the United Kingdom in July, but little old New Zealand gets it's release date 8 months late in mid-December. On the upside, it means the film is not competing with the likes of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Toy Story 4, The Secret Life of Pets 2, The Angry Birds Movie 2 (wow, that is a lot of sequels). It does have to compete with Frozen II, but The Queen's Corgi is definitely likely to be competing more with The Addams Family for the male children demographic.
The animation style of The Queen's Corgi is actually quite interesting. It has a peculiar "exaggerated" character design that actually is reminiscent of the old Aardman Animation style but built with 3D computer programs. The rendering and textures can look a bit unpolished, but that is the artistic style chosen by the studio for the film to have. One could try to bash the matte look and say that the animation looks cheap, but the devil is in the details. While the characters have odd designs and shapes, the control of their facial expressions is really good. The first six minutes of the film are brilliant, executed entirely without dialogue, making full use of the visual medium.
They do an animated version of Donald Trump, and you can tell the crew have done their research. From the dialogue that the character speaks to his lip movements, proportions of his outfits, the way that he gesticulates when he talks. The level of behavioural detail is actually quite impressive. If Trump had a larger part to play in the film, I'd have been very happy. One can't help but wonder whether the film will put off potential audience members with the thought that it might be politically biased. Put those thoughts aside and fear not, as the presence of the Trumps in the film have little to do with any of their media scandals (though there is one joke centred around encouragement to "grab that pu**y". Puppy, not the other word).
The film does try to include some more mature humour in it, with references to Fight Club and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which will go right over the heads of the target audience. Much of this maturer humour is also "dated", and by "dated" I mean prior to the #MeToo movement. There are a few extended sequences that struggle with the concept of consent and no meaning no, and it feels like it isn't sending the right message to the young ones, especially as the remainder of the humour is largely physical humour and slapstick comedy made to appeal to them.
It is the story that ultimately lets the film down. Full of plot holes, conveniently skipping obstacles, and a second act that kills the pacing entirely, nothing really happens in the film. The Queen's Corgi is a less eventful version of The Secret Life of Pets, and even some of the character designs do show influences show that film too.
The voice acting is adequate, though the two musical numbers leave a lot to be desired. In the end, The Queen's Corgi is a reasonably well-animated film. There are some good sequences and interesting framing of shots at times, but the story is dull and has obstacles that are not actually obstacles. Our main character Rex could find his way home with ease. Nevertheless, this will still likely appeal to the aged 2-8 bracket.