Move over Space Jam, there's a new underdog holding court

Sony Pictures Animation has continued its recent vein of good form - we're looking at you KPop Demon Hunters and the Spider-Verse franchise - with GOAT.

The film, which is produced by and stars NBA star Steph Curry, is something of a mishmash of Space Jam and Zootopia. It follows Will Harris, a goat with dreams of joining this film's NBA parallel league, Roarball, for his hometown team, the Vineland Thorns.

But he's got some hurdles in his way, namely that he's a "small" and Roarball has only ever had "bigs". As a goat, he's just too tiny of an animal, the professionals believe, to go up against the horses, rhinos, giraffes, bears and other large animals in the league.

Will - voiced with great charisma and swag by Stranger Things' Caleb McLaughlin - has grown up idolising the Thorns' greatest player, panther Jett Fillmore (Gabrielle Union, Bring It On) and can't believe it when a video of him (briefly) besting professional Roarballer Mane Attraction (Aaron Pierre, Mufasa: The Lion King) scores him a position on the team.

The Thorns are the laughing stock of the league at this point, and Jett plays as though she's the only person on the team with any talent, refusing to trust her teammates and let them participate appropriately, creating a culture of division. When Will shows up she's thoroughly insulted and promises the young goat that he won't be getting any court time while she's around.

Of course it wouldn't be a very interesting film if our hero never makes it on the court, so it doesn't take too long for Will to get the call-up and he is an immediate sensation.

The matches are fun and exciting, but it's the relationships with Will and his teammates that make GOAT really shine.

Aside from Jett, there's loveable rhino girl dad Archie Everhardt (David Harbour, also from Stranger Things), giraffe Lenny Williamson (Curry) with a musical side hustle, social media-obsessed ostrich Olivia Burke (Nicola Coughlan, Bridgerton) and adorable weirdo Modo Olachenko (Nick Kroll, Big Mouth), a colourful and kooky Komodo dragon.

If kids are going to come out of this film loving any character more than the others, it's going to be Modo. He's hilarious and steals every scene and the occasional ball.

At it's heart, GOAT is about the importance of teamwork (much like Space Jam) and how much the love of a home team can bring a town or city together.

Everyone in Vineland longs for Thorns success, and while Jett is used to hearing the negative echo chamber of sports media, it's not until she visits the real fans on the ground that she finds her mojo again and remembers just what playing professional sport is all about.

You can consider a kids' film to be pretty good, or at least successful, if it holds the little ones' attention for the runtime, and that's certainly true of GOAT. In this reviewer's session there were quite a number of boisterous young cinemagoers before the film started who found themselves quietly transfixed as the action unfolded. The same cinema broke into applause on at least three occasions.

The adults will enjoy all the nods to real-life sports culture, from commentator dynamics to player promo spots and the corporate side of things being at odds with the heart of the sport.

GOAT also features a memorable cover of Crowded House's Don't Dream It's Over by Bryant Barnes, while the original plays over the credits. If this film allows a new generation to grow up loving the iconic song in the same way Shrek made 2000s kids fans of Hallelujah, then that counts as a W on our scoresheet.