Theatrical Review: GOAT

Date: Saturday, February 14 2026
Time: 12:20 (start time was 12:36)
Party: 2 (my sister and I)

Setting the Scene

It was Winterfest in East Stroudsburg where they place unique ice sculptures in front of the various small businesses around town. It was also the warmest weekend we'd had in months. It finally peaked into the 40's after several weeks of 20's and lows as low as -6.
Needless to say, it was CROWDED in town. We took the back roads up to a point and by the time we got to the theater, it was movie time.

I'm not sure if this is going to be a common thing now, but they had a sign saying to buy tickets at concession. They have a kiosk to pay by credit card or gift card. I don't know if it's laziness or they're short staffed or it's an elaborate trap to get people to spend money on refreshments when buying tickets. But I'm not really a fan of this approach. It's also kinda hard to choose your seats on the screen when the screen is upside down.
We got in when they were already into previews. There was nothing special. They had "Hoppers" for the zillionth time. Not sure if constantly doing ads during the Olympics is convincing more people to see it or it'll have the opposite effect.
"The Breadwinner" looks like a modern remake of "Mr. Mom" but they kicked the absurdity scale up to 11. I think it could've been a halfway decent movie if they didn't make the missteps look so ridiculous or overblown.
"Minions & Monsters"- I don't know if this is a sequel or a mid-quel or what. But my sister and I had seen nearly all of the Descipable movies so we'll see this one at some point, if only on cable. 
Then they had a trailer for a non-Miyazaki animé film with a really long title that I didn't have time to write it down.

The Movie

The two of us grew up with "Space Jam" and that was part of the reason my sister wanted to see this movie. Plus we like Steph Curry, more for him being behind "Holey Moley" than his skills on the basketball court.
Actually, we're not really big basketball fans. I've been filling out March Madness brackets since 2009 but that's basically it.
That is to say- you don't need to be a basketball fan or have any idea of the rules to be able to enjoy this movie. The game is technically called roarball and each of the teams in the conference plays on fields with different climates, including volcanos and glaciers. That in itself is a pretty cool twist on the game. 

Will Harris is a small medium goat with big dreams. He loves his hometown team, the Vineland Thorns and their top player Jett Fillmore, despite them not having won a championship in 50 years. That on its own is something a lot of sports fans can relate to, being devoted fans to a home team that isn't always playing their best.

Will is experiencing some other setbacks of his own- including falling back on his rent and ultimately getting booted out of his apartment by his landlord. A gerbil (played by Wayne Knight, making this his first basketball movie since Space Jam) with LOTS of mouths to feed.
At the local court, he gets into a match with the movie's antagonist, Mane. Although he comes up short, his friends had the foresight to film the game. The resulting edited video goes viral and it catches the attention of the owner of the Thorns. Ergo, Will gets drafted to become the 6th player of the team, much to the chargin of Jett and confusion of her teammates. 

As cool as Jett is- played to perfection by Gabrielle Union- it was a bit frustrating how long it took her to give Will a chance to even play. But much of her reluctance comes down to her own struggles and not wanting to be that player who's put out to pasture before their time.

The rest of the team has their individual quirks too and they're really fun characters. Archie the rhino is a single dad and his twin girls have some hilarious dialogue. Lenny the giraffe (played by Steph Curry) has a side hustle as a rapper. Olivia the ostrich is a little high-strung from too much scrolling on social media. And Modo the komodo dragon... he's easily the most memorable of the characters in the whole movie. He's so weird and out there with plenty of moments where you're either laughing or uncomfortable or a bizarre mix of both.

There'd been a number of animated movies in recent years featuring animals with human characteristics- Zootopia and Sing come to mind.
But while characters in those franchises mostly walk on two legs, the animals in this movie stand out. They still have that anthropomorphism thing going on but when they're angry, scared or even excited, they'll get down on all fours and act as you'd expect them to act if you'd seen them in nature. Jett does some cat things, including recoiling when someone hits her with a spray bottle. And Will has those goat clichés people either love or hate, depending on whether you think they're overdone. He also has this weird superpower where his eyes turn from circles to ovals and it helps him have better peripheral vision on the court. 

I'd commented how I'm not a big fan of Gen Z lingo being slowly incorporated into movies and things like cancel culture and social media. This movie takes these things and handles them really well. Except Will getting feedback at a press conference about outrage from the cockroach community after complaining his roomate's house is full of roaches... that joke just felt like cheap and throwaway. 

For the animation, it's very colorful and lively. At times, it almost feels overwhelming how much is happening on screen at once but I suppose kids who are already hyped up on sugar and whatnot will be into it. 
Our theater had a fair amount of kids in it and there was some laughing. But easily the best moment was at the end where one kid just starts cheering and a few moments later, the movie caught up to that amount of excitement. Plus there was a short round of applause at the end. 

Steph Curry had said how this movie is partially inspired by his own story. While I wouldn't call 6' 2" short, that is considerably short compared to most basketball players. There's a few little references to him. I'm sure I'd seen his "night night" victory pose on some commercial so I recognized it when Will did it during the scene the Thorns win their first game with him playing.

Overall, yeah, it was a fun movie. I'm glad we went out to see it. It did have its setbacks and its slow points, but the action is really good and there's a lot of heart with these characters. What's not to love about that small town underdog mentality?

Grade: B+