“She’s free.”

From The One and Only Ivan.

Ivan (Sam Rockwell) is a silverback gorilla that is part of the Big Top Mall and Video Arcade.  Mack (Bryan Cranston) is the owner and ringleader at the Big Top who gave Ivan’s home years ago.  While Mack was kind and funny when Ivan was young, the falling business often leaves him angry and mean.  While he’s friends with all the animal acts including Snickers (Helen Mirren) the dog, Frankie (Mike White) the seal, Thelma (Phillipa Soo) the parrot, Henrietta (Chaka Khan) the chicken, and Murphy (Ron Funches) the rabbit, Ivan’s closest friends are Stella (Angelina Jolie) the old elephant and Bob (Danny DeVito) the stray dog.  Ivan also has human friends in the janitor (Ramón Rodríguez) and his daughter, Julia (Ariana Greenblatt), who gave Ivan his first crayons and inspired the gorilla’s loving fascination for art. Trying to bring life to the struggling business, Mack brings a baby elephant named Ruby (Brooklynn Prince) to join the Big Top.  The animals experience a wide range of emotions, especially Stella that is angry that the little elephant was taken from her mother, and Ivan that feels some jealousy with so much attention going to the new act. However, when Stella makes Ivan promise to look out for little Ruby, he agrees.  Ivan is desperate to keep his promise of protecting Ruby, but he knows that he really can’t do it at the Big Top Mall. So when all his other ideas fail, Ivan comes up with a huge plan for a painting to help Ruby, but getting the humans to understand might be the hardest part of all.

Adapted for the screen from Applegate’s bestselling book, this impressively-animated film easily blends humor and heart. The cast is filled with incredible talent that keeps each character unique. The One and Only Ivan manages to find the balance between sharing an important message and not alienating its audience.

| Rated: PG | Running Time: 95 minutes |Genre: drama/biography/fantasy|

||Family Viewing||Cursing: 0 of 10|Nudity: 0 of 10|Sexuality: 0 of 10|Gore: 0 of 10

|AVAILABLE FOR HOME VIEWING|