WFG RATING: C

Vision Films presents a Fantastic Films International production. Directed, produced and edited by Ali Tahnaee. Written by Ali Tahnaee and Mehdi Saleh Aghdam.

Starring the voices of Innes Maas, Tara MacPherson, Jaryd Pilay, David Wilke, Jake Maisel, and Janeke Huisamen.

This Iranian animated film starts out pretty bad but finds redemption in the second half thanks to its more witty dialogue as we see an insect attempt to live its dream. 

Ryan is an insect who lives in a secluded area of the forest. After accidentally ending up in a home and nearly getting squashed, he makes his escape and discovers butterflies. Along the way, he runs into a bullied insect named Keenan and the two hit it off. As a thanks for helping him Keenan introduces Ryan to some of his friends, including the hulking beetle Dylan and his sister Megan. 

Ryan learns of a Golden Butterfly who will choose someone to join her on a path to the heavenly side, but he inadvertently messes things up. However, Ryan learns there is a white spider who may be able to help Ryan become a butterfly. When he meets the spider, Ryan is convinced that he could be the key to changing his life. The white spider actually has nefarious motives and when Ryan and Keenan learn the butterflies have been kidnapped by the spider, Ryan must become the hero he is destined to be. Will he be able to save the butterflies?

Originally made in 2016 and released in 2019, this Iranian animated film has the classic underdog story. However, for a good portion of the film the film seems pretty bad despite some good moments. The film has the themes of living your dreams, the power of friendship, and unexpectedly has an action-filled finale that along with some witty dialogue from the character of Keenan, who becomes the comic relief of the film, the film ends up getting redeemed from complete failure. 

The film’s animation is mostly okay despite some flaws when it comes to rendering the human character seen in the film’s opening. There are also characters who have noses and others who don’t. Seems a bit off sometimes. However, as mentioned, there are some pretty good moments and it’s clear that the animators took a page from Kung Fu Panda by adding a martial arts consultant for some of the action scenes. One has Ryan performing a Helicopter Kick to Julian, a local bully whose face resembles the alien-form version of the protagonist of 1978’s Laserblast. 

While Ryan is the main character, the breakout totally goes to Keenan, the bullied insect who becomes as heroic but uses his witty dialogue to threaten the spider villain (who is reminiscent of Spiderus of MIss Spider and Her Sunny Patch Friends) by telling him he would kill him and send him straight to Hell and call him a “little nasty” (Note, had this been an adult animation, Keenan would have followed that up with an expletive). He also goes as far as mocking the pompous Golden Butterfly when she mocks Ryan and Keenan while entrapped by the spider. 

What starts out as pretty bad and question if you want to finish, The Secret of Butterflies is a redeemable piece of animation that has some good moments but finds value in the second half thanks to supporting character Keenan saving the film from being a completely bad film. 

The film will be available On Demand on August 5.