Smallfoot review: A tale of building bridges, says Rashid Irani

A young Yeti chances upon a human and is banished from his village and an adventure takes off.

SMALLFOOT

Direction: Karey Kirkpatrick and Jason Reisig

Voices: Channing Tatum, Zendaya

Rating: ****

For the better part of a century, mankind has strived to prove the existence of yetis in the upper reaches of the Himalayas. In an inspired inversion of the myth of mountain-dwelling snowmen, this animated adventure finds the lives of the fabled creatures upended when a young yeti (voiced by Channing Tatum) chances upon the titular being: a human.

Expectedly the ‘bigfoot’ hero’s discovery sets off alarm bells within the disbelieving community eventually even leading to his banishment from the village. A ragtag group of fellow rebels is also on hand to help yetizens accept the truth and question hidebound beliefs etched on sacred stones since antiquity.

The wintry environment is gorgeously rendered and the narrative is interspersed with musical interludes by celebrity entertainers such as Common (the overbearing keeper of the stones), Zendaya (his daughter) and James Corden (the hapless human).

Unlike the hostile traits attributed to the deemed outsiders in Peppermint (also released this week) the cartoon espouses the need for communication and harmonious co-existence with the ‘other’.