Film Review: Goat

Goat
Director: Tyree Dillihay
Sony Pictures Animation, Unanimous Media, Modern Magic, MACRO
In Theaters: 02.13.2026

It’s a great weekend to go to the movies, but families most certainly aren’t going to be rushing out to see “Wuthering Heights.” My nephews, Timmy Gibbs (age 10), Peter Gibbs (age 7) and Peter’s plush monkey, Neeno Gibbs (age unknown), are here to provide you with an alternative option with Goat, the new family-friendly sports movie from Sony Pictures Animation.

In the anthropomorphic animal city of Vineland (not to be confused with Zootopia), a broke dreamer billy goat Will Harris (Caleb McLaughlin, Stranger Things), grows up dreaming of glory in the sport of roarball (which, as Peter says, “is basically just basketball”) and idolizes a legendary player named Jett Fillmore (Gabrielle Union, Bad Boys 2), a black panther who is the lone bright spot on the perpetually losing Thorns. Ten years later, Will’s own life bottoms out when he loses a street match to Magma superstar Mane Attraction (Aaron Pierre, Mufasa: The Lion King, Rebel Ridge), an Andalusian horse with an attitude problem. Just when things are looking grim, a viral clip of Will tripping up Mane turns our hero into an overnight sensation, and desperate Thorns owner Flo Everson (Jenifer Lewis, Baggage Claim, The Wedding Ringer), an opportunistic warthog, signs Will as the first “small” (in Zootopia terms, prey as opposed to predator) roarball player. There’s immediate tension between Will and the territorial Jett, who resents the decision being made without her input and sees Will only as a further obstacle keeping her from a Championship Claw. As Will struggles to fit in, he’s kept on the bench until Jett fouls out during a crucial game and Will unexpectedly delivers the Thorns’ first win of the season, earning hard-won respect. As a playoff push builds, personal histories, corporate pressure and wounded egos threaten to fracture the team — until Jett finally chooses unity over pride, daring the Thorns to believe in something bigger than themselves.

Goat is very much a formula sports film with fur, hooves, tails, horns and the like thrown into the mix, and it never really aims higher or lower than that. The script earns points by declining to go for the kind of cheap potty humor that we see in so many films aimed at kids, but loses some for not putting emphasis on humor in general. The first section dragged on a bit for my taste, but once it starts getting into the action, it picks up a lot. There’s a moment where Patton Oswalt as Dennis steps forward, a proboscis monkey who serves as the Thorns’ head coach. He is clearly being given the chance to riff out his own dialogue, and he takes the shot and scores some big laughs, elevating the energy of the whole film going forward. 

Peter really loved the film’s message to dream big and pursue those dreams, which is right in line with his grand seven-year-old ambitions and imagination. Timmy enjoyed the unexpected plot twists, and both of the boys found a comic sequence involving the shooting of a promo for the team. Neeno, as an anthropomorphic animal himself, found the characters to be very relatable and believed that kids will love Goat, giving it a very enthusiastic recommendation. Timmy wants to be clear that there are some scary moments, and the sensitive Peter feels that it’s important to note that there were moments that made him sad, particularly those involving Will missing his late mother.

Sony Pictures Animation, fresh off a hot streak with the Spider-Verse movies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and KPop Demon Hunters, has been a very exciting presence in animation, and if they are the new Pixar, Goat is their Cars. It’s not as much fun for the parents as it is for the kids or their plushies, but it’s a solid family movie that will play well to sports enthusiasts. —Patrick Gibbs, Timmy Gibbs, Peter Gibbs and Neeno Gibbs

Read more film reviews from Patrick Gibbs:
Moor is Less in Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights”
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a Timely Warning