Besides being a colorful and entertaining computer-animated journey into the frustration of a gopher who can’t get the vegetables he wants, “Gopher Broke” has important advice for all ages. If there’s ever an idea you have or work that’s important to you, don’t do it in an area where people can freely mooch off of you. The gopher sees a truck with tomatoes sitting in crates, and gets the idea to create a few potholes so some vegetables can fall to the ground and he can eat. A carrot is the result of the first attempt, though after he celebrates and tries to go toward it, a squirrel has already chomped into it, leaving only the top of the carrot for the gopher.
This keeps going for a few minutes and where Scrat from “Ice Age” was always faced with misfortune, the gopher shakes off each bad dealing and continues, even more determined. “Gopher Broke” is good for kids and adults, and adults who like to be kids once in a while. It has a near-Pixar animation sheen and its own skewed sensibility in its story, which is another example of how story should come before the animation technique. It’s a lot of fun.
