OK, this GOAT animated movie was released in theaters on February 13th, 2026. And it was hastily shoved to streaming platforms like Amazon Prime on March 24th 2026. Not the wisest business move to make, but we'll talk about that later.First of all, this is a kids 3D movie. And there are some portions that may have been generated by AI, which they tried to blend into the stylish camera shots. I won't criticize that, although I'm part of the "NO AI" crowd. When you or your family member have been fired from a job and replaced by an AI system, then you'll understand the negative sentiment ;)
But of course, I hope that doesn't ever happen to you, as one of my fans!
Anyway, the style of this GOAT movie is reminiscent of Spiderman into the Spiderverse movie... not my favorite style, but it still works.
This is basketball themed movie, and it has a few NBA players like Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala [both players from the NBAs Golden State Warriors, while Andre aka Iggy has retired]. Both Andre and Steph serve as voice actors for their anthropomorphic counterparts [a Zebra and a Giraffe], and a few female WNBA players are in the movie as well, along with the entertainer Jelly Roll.
The movie's main character, a little pygmy goat named Will, is voiced by Caleb Mclaughlin. And the lead female character is a black panther female, voiced by Gabriel Union [wife of Dewayne Wayde, former Miami Heat NBA team player].
Plot is very basic. Little poor Goat-boy can play basketball [called roarball, & played on various dangerous / elemental-styled B-ball courts]. Goat-boy is from a single parent family, and he dreams big. Soon he goes viral from a streetball challenge, and he get a chance at a major league roarball contract, to play with the big boys and girls, with a chance to win a championship. Fortunately, he gets signed to the Vineland Thorns, the same team as his idol, a female tough black panther gal named Jett. And with their team, they battle a bunch of odd animal teams, and get to the NBA finals, aka the roarball championship game. Some stuff happens and it seems like the team is getting sold off, while this drama is leading up to the big final game. Thus the team almost falls apart, but then they pull together, and they win championship game. And they get the Claw trophy. The End.
The cast is lively and colorful, and the voice performances are good. And the soundtrack lifts up the entire thing [my favorite tracks were "Alley Oop" by Chris Patrick and "Mention Me" by Curtis. And in general, the music flavor is for the younger generation, who were kids in the days of Kobe Bryant's prime].
The camera angles during the basketball / roarball segments are all fantastic. The movie emphasizes teamwork, to make the dream work. And it seems like one of the themes is... size doesn't matter, as long as you have heart... and one hell of a jump-shot. The camera angles were always on point, in the ballin' scenes. And the movie did have one thing that all family movies need: heart.
Now here are some Critiques that I'll give, as an artist for over 20 years: Overall, in this GOAT movie, the character designs were not the best... they were far too androgynous. For example, Ms. Jett [shown seated in the pic on the left], the lead female character, looks too much like a "Male" Black Panther, as do many of the other female designs in this movie. You can just study the Disney animated catalog spanning over 50 years, for better animal designs, or even Balto from the 90s; the 3D animators here didn't have to be "Disneyfied" in their style to create the GOAT, but the character designers should have done a lot better. Plus the female WNBA players still look like women in real life. But in this movie, their anthro / animal characters look like... male characters.. And at least, since Jett is female, then her panther-eyes should have been drawn differently and more sleek - study the female faces, in the 90s The Lion King, to see what I mean. The artstyle in this GOAT movie reminds me almost of the style of a theatrical feature like the Madagascar 3D movie, except that the animals there don't wear clothes. And those designs were created for slapstick comedic effects, as opposed to being intended to be realistic, like The Lion King. As an adult person, when you see a cartoon / animated character drawn as a male, but presented with a female voice, it can throw you off, for a while... until you hopefully get used to it. But when you've just seen better designs, then you've seen better. And the pic on the right shows Jett, looking overly manly or just "dudish", while going for one hell of a slamdunk.
So why does Jett look so manly? Answer is Simple: because this GOAT movie was contrived in the Woke Era, when women are not allowed to be women. They've got to be manly, gritty and tough girl-boses... definitely no "TNA", and the uglier the better LOL. Plus Jett is the idol of the little boy goat, Will. And thus Will looks up to her, as one of the greatest players in the roarball game.
In real life, it doesn't work like that. You can't force little boys to look up to female WNBA basketball players. It's not normal or psychologically sound, when the boys see the adrenaline-fueled male players in the NBA, violently slamming the ball and almost fighting each other or the referees. Like I said, this movie was contrived a few years ago, in the Woke Era. It's not a crime, but it certainly hinders the entertainment, appeal, and longevity of the feature film. And honestly, when little boys look up to female ballers, it's actually more of lust and sensual attraction, than for idol-like admiration. I won't be surprised if Jett's character was originally supposed to be a guy in the first drafted script proposal, but it got changed before animation began, to meet a strict diversity quota...
[If the article ends here, Click "Read More" below on the left side to keep reading!]