Swapped ☆☆☆☆

Starring: Michael B. Jordan
and Juno Temple

Directed by: Nathan Greno

here was a time not too long ago when animated films provoked introspection. In recent years, however, the medium has pivoted to pacifying overstimulated children. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, for instance, is less a movie than a daycare to occupy kids’ time for 90 minutes. But hope has a tendency of revealing itself when you least expect it. Not many would’ve expected a new children’s movie on Netflix to offer more insight about the world than the recent films of Darren Aronofsky or Robert Zemeckis, but sometimes that’s how it goes, just look at KPop Demon Hunters. Now, the strea-mer’s latest offering, Swapped, takes the tropes of body-swap comedies of the past and filters them through a decidedly contemporary lens.

It serves as Michael B. Jordan’s follow-up to Sinners, for which he won the Best Actor Academy Award. Jordan famously played twins in Ryan Coogler’s film and funnily enough, Swapped requires him to adopt different personalities as well. Primarily, however, he voices the squirrel-like Ollie, who belongs to the Pookoo tribe in a lush world populated by magical creatures. When Ollie was a child, curiosity got the better of him despite the repeated warnings of his overprotective parents. He ventured into uncharted territory beyond the boundaries of his little village and made contact with a bird-like creature from the Javan tribe.

The naive Ollie offered his new friend some berries, but before he knew it, his village was being swarmed by a horde of Javans. Ollie and the other Pookoos were driven underground, forced to live on scraps. Years passed and Ollie found himself becoming a pariah. Perhaps his parents were right all along about not trusting outsiders, he wonders morosely. This goes against everything Ollie stands for, but how can he deny the devastating impact his kindness had on his community? There is only one way to win back their trust, Ollie tells himself. He needs to drive the Javans out of Pookoo land. Catastrophe strikes when Ollie touches a magical orb, not the first time one of Jordan’s characters has done this in a movie and transforms into the enemy of his people, a Javan.

Ollie must go on an epic quest to locate another magical orb to turn himself back into a Pookoo before it’s too late. Much to his annoyance, he is joined on the adventure by an equally curious Javan named Ivy, voiced by Juno Temple. She takes him under her wing for a while before accidentally switching bodies as well. Ollie and Ivy have no choice but to walk in each other’s shoes, learning about the shared struggles and successes of their people along the way.

“Shockingly, Swapped offers Hollywood’s most level-headed commentary yet on the Israel–Palestine conflict. It joins recent gems such as The Voice of Hind Rajab and All That’s Left of You to call for compassion over conflict, to end the cycle of violence instead of choosing to continue it. Of course, Swapped can also be read as a statement on similar situations unfolding around the world. It does, after all, take place in a magical land known as “The Valley,” which audiences from South Asia can draw comparisons to the Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan.”

Unlike recent digitally animated blockbusters, Swapped embraces an analogue aesthetic that often resembles stop-motion. More impressively, the movie doesn’t turn to TikTok-style editing to keep its audience engaged. Its opening flashback, which lasts around 10 minutes, unfolds wordlessly. At roughly 90 minutes long, Swapped moves at a clip, but it doesn’t feel rushed. There’s exposition, of course, but it’s relatively restrained. We learn that the Pookoos, the Javans, and all the other Pokémon-like magical creatures used to live in a land of abundance before an evil Firewolf drove them into their distinct corners. Ollie and Ivy discover that they have a common foe; their suffering was caused not by each other’s people, but by someone whose motivations were entirely selfish.

Directed by Nathan Greno and produced by former Pixar chief John Lasseter, Swapped chooses to engage its audience not with flashy visuals and loud noises, but with its themes. It’s a movie about political barriers, yes, but it’s also about the generational divide. And this is something every child can relate to, even if they do not fully comprehend it. In Swapped, it is up to Ollie and Ivy’s generation to educate their parents that living in fear of each other will only lead to more anger in the future. “Javans are liars and thieves,” Ollie yells as Ivy in a moment of weakness. “All Pookoos are jealous, petty little rodents,” she fires back. These are loaded words. But they’ve been raised on venom. It’s not their fault.

Shockingly, Swapped offers Hollywood’s most level-headed commentary yet on the Israel–Palestine conflict. It joins recent gems such as The Voice of Hind Rajab and All That’s Left of You to call for compassion over conflict, to end the cycle of violence instead of choosing to continue it. Of course, Swapped can also be read as a statement on similar situations unfolding around the world. It does, after all, take place in a magical land known as “The Valley,” which audiences from South Asia can draw comparisons to the Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan. The film’s original score, composed by Indian-origin Siddhartha Khosla, includes an end-credits track Airdropped directly from the Subcontinent.

For children, Swapped will perhaps be reminiscent of Moana and the 1967 Disney classic The Jungle Book. Ollie is, after all, a fish out of water who goes on a magical journey of self-discovery that comes to a fiery conclusion. For adults, however, it will be a sobering reminder to set differences aside and to embrace community. Of course, it will take more than an animated film to purify poisoned minds. Such is the state of the world right now that they will probably revolt against the film for trying to do just that. But we mustn’t let them. That’s what the Firewolves (and, indeed, the fiery-faced wolf of our world) would want.

– Courtesy: Collider.com