Nathan Greno’s new animated feature “Swapped” is, like many movies for children, about not judging a book by its cover. Or at least its first page. And just in case that wasn’t clear, he opens this movie with a mid-disaster freeze-frame and a voiceover that says, basically, “Yup, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here.” It’s such an eye-rolling start that discerning members of the audience will probably think it’s all downhill from there.
But after a heavy-handed and didactic first act, “Swapped” reveals itself to be a more absorbing, intelligent, emotional film than it appeared at first glance. What could have been a simple “Freaky Friday” story with cute little forest animals is, instead, a lofty and quasi-religious story about fantastical transhumanism. (Always watch the whole movie before you criticize, folks. Always watch the whole movie.)
Yes, there’s a body-swapping bonanza in “Swapped.” Michael B. Jordan voices a little varmint named Ollie, who lives on an island with the rest of his species, eating the local seeds. Ollie’s parents warn him that no other species can be trusted, but he’s kind and curious and befriends a bird, teaching it how to open one of their seedpods. The bird is thrilled and grateful and immediately calls over its flock, which take over the island, eat all the food and drive Ollie’s species to starvation. Great job, Ollie. Great job.
A few plot points later, Ollie touches a magic pod — there’s a lot of backstory, don’t worry about that right now — and transforms into a bird. Ostracized by his own kind, he’s taken in by another bird, Lily (Juno Temple). Ollie couldn’t speak bird before, or dung beetle for that matter, but the magic pod also lets him speak with every other species. It should be wondrous but he just wants to be changed back, and wants nothing to do with Lily and the animals who ruined his life.
He finds another magic pod, pretty darned quickly, but Lily touches it first and transforms into a varmint. Now they have to live in each other’s … well, not shoes, but “feet” sounds weird. Anyway they find out what it’s like to live as another species of animal, which is scary, liberating and enlightening, often at the same time. They also learn that what they hate most about each other is just part of the ecosystem. Ollie’s species isn’t the only one that starves. Not by a long shot.
These types of fairy tales are a dime a dozen, to the extent that in last year’s “Freakier Friday” the body-swapped characters tried to skip ahead and admit they were wrong and come to a mutual understanding, just to speed run a hackneyed plot. “Swapped” has all the familiar rhythms but it plays better than most, partly because of the wonderful, colorful animation and fascinating character designs. Almost all of the animals are also half-plant, highlighting their coexistence within this vast ecosystem. It’s both eye-catching and smart.
But “Swapped” also takes this premise one step further. These bodily transformations aren’t special. They used to be common, back when the gigantic gods of the forest — giant creatures called Dzo — gave every animal the power to transform into all of the others. There were no superficial divisions, and every creature understood every creature’s needs and perspectives. In “Swapped,” transformation is beautiful, a natural extension of worldliness and/or piety.
These transformations ended after one of the animals chose to become a firewolf — half-wolf, half-fire, don’t overthink it — and kill their gods, driving them out of the world, and overseeing a new age of ignorance and fear. But even that firewolf, when we finally learn more about it, has its own perspective on what really went down. (Although it’s still, even with all the powers of understanding and empathy at its disposal, a great, big, dangerous jerk.)
Jordan and Temple won’t change the art of voice-acting forever, but they’re good together, and they play all the banter you’d expect from this sort of story. Tracy Morgan also co-stars as a giant fish who helps them on their journey, who thinks transformation could finally cure its lifelong loneliness. (There’s an irony to this particular subplot but hey, no spoilers here.) The real star, however, are those lush environments and creative animal creatures, and the nuanced magical world-building which is, of course, an obvious metaphor for how the rest of us should live our lives.
But it’s not a bad metaphor, and “Swapped” goes further than most films of its ilk when it comes to thinking out all the ramifications. What it never addresses, and we may have to call this “The Hoppers Dilemma,” is that no matter how much these animals learn to understand each other, some of them can only live by eating the others. We can accept this as the so-called “circle of life,” and forgive the carnivores for doing what they gotta do, but on some level the socializing is always going to be awkward. At least a little.
“Swapped” won’t change the world, probably, but it’s a step above a lot of similar films and an effective fantasy story for all ages. It’s got ambition, it’s got drama, it’s got rubbing yourself all over with dung (which makes sense in context). I suppose you could ask for more, but unless you really want more dung, you won’t need to.
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