Based on the German children’s book series by author Julia Boehme, Nina Wels’s “Tafiti – Across the Desert” does not claim to tell a story that is fresh, or is told from a perspective that instantly needs attention. Like most animated movies that are made for kids, this one also takes the traditional route of learning something on the way, so that the adventure’s final destination feels like an effort that was well worth the wait. In that accord, this one is a classic adventure with pint-sized life lessons that the kiddies would enjoy. However, their accompanying adults might find its lack of rhythms and surprises a tad tough to sit through.
The story here focuses on a Meerkat family of 5, with the eldest Tafiti (Cosima Henman) being the story’s central focus. The 3 kids, including Tafiti, live a sheltered life with their grandparents – assuming that their parents are largely absent, missing, or dead. The film never seems to care for it. But I would like to give it the benefit of doubt and an extra layer of poignancy, because the reasons why the kids are not allowed to leave their home, beyond the dangerous wild animals, make much more sense that way.
Anyway, Tafiti, being the eldest, is occasionally allowed to venture out of their home. Which is where he meets the mumbling pig – Bristles (Steve Hudson). Bristle is the token representation of the kind of slow-witted young guy who latches onto people because they have so much to say, but no one to listen to. He tags along with Tafiti, thinking that the kindness the young Meerkat showed him is hard to come by. However, Bristles is also the kind that brings trouble along with him. Appearing at the Meerkat family’s home bring unwaranteed danger for them as a snake bites Tafiti’s grandpa and the venom slowly seeps into his body.
The only way to cure his slow death? Tafiti should journey across the desert to find a mystical blue flower that the myths claim has healing abilities. What follows is an adventure full of all sorts of animals – some recurring, some we-here-to-have-fun, and some that help the duo (did I not mention that Bristles tags along?) realize their journey that is full of harsh situations with no water in sight for miles.
Now, talking from the point of view of purely basic storytelling capabilities, Nina Wels’ narrative is pretty familiar. If you have seen one of the many coming-of-age movies where animals have to go on an adventure to realize how some of the things that the elders told them weren’t exactly true, then you have seen them all. There isn’t much in terms of freshness that “Tafiti – Across the Desert” offers.
It is, however, colorful and just about enough to help the kids learn the basics of how to understand who is right and who is wrong, and why some people who later turn into lifelong friends are worth sticking by, even if they might seem like they aren’t worth being your found family. There are some really pertinent lessons about hope, sacrifice, and failure that the younger generation would love to see, whilst also having a kind of kindred adventure that isn’t hard to follow because it isn’t paced in a way that gives you an unwanted color-graded stimulation (looking right at you, recent Pixar movies).
That said, I wish there was something more for the adults to take home beyond the very important looking beyond your ‘own kind’ just because you are scared to open yourself to love beyond the familiar. The film also does not have the kind of escapism that the older kids would want, and that is the reason why this would specifically work for the kiddies, who might just get a little kinder seeing Tafiti struggle through the desert.
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