This Canadian animation about a plucky little beluga whale in a hurry to grow up feels less like all-ages family entertainment, and more of a cartoon aimed solely at very small kids. It’s a fairly tepid and gentle-going adventure, except for some bizarrely PG-plus polar bear v killer whale action near the end.
Our pint-sized hero is Katak, a young male beluga living with his pod in a river in the Arctic. A late developer, Katak should have turned white and swum off to live with the adult males. Instead, the poor little guy is stuck at home, teased for his stubbornly grey skin. To prove himself, he runs away to find his famously brave grandfather up north. Perhaps belugas don’t have the looks for screen work, but there is something a bit unnerving about the way the animators have had flap their mouths open to speak; it’s more creepy than cute. The wacky supporting characters are more fun: a sturgeon with a large schnozz called Cyrano and a vegan orca – whose dad is the villain of the piece, killer whale Jack Knife.
