My hopes and expectations for GOAT were sky high! Brought to us by the Into the Spider-Verse team, and it being a sports movie, I thought that this looked like a ton of fun. I love basketball movies; once again, my trifecta is He Got Game, Blue Chips, and White Men Can’t Jump, and with this being an animated movie, based on a more extreme version of basketball, I thought that this had sky-high potential.
Where to Watch GOAT
GOAT was released on February 13, 2026. You can expect to be able to stream the film from digital platforms a couple of months later.
The Movie Review
GOAT Story and World Building
The movie takes place in a world where animals live, and the number one sport and form of entertainment in this world is a basketball-like sport called, roarball. I thought that the setup here was cool, and like all the best animated movies that use animals as their characters, despite our main character being a goat, he is very human, and so are all the other characters.
Will is our main character. Will is a goat, and he loves to play roarball and dreams of becoming a pro like his hero, Jett Filmore. Will works a regular job and is struggling to get by, but one day, he ends up playing a pro roarball player, Mane Attraction, in a pick-up game, and even though he loses, his performance goes viral.
This brings Will to the attention of the owner of the team he supports, the Vineland Thornes. The Vineland Thornes are in a real slump and decide to take a chance on Will, and of course, he turns things around for the team. I guess you could say that GOAT is a coming-of-age story and a story about acceptance.
Animation Style and Characters
Sure, the action and the flashy games of roarball are great. However, it is the interactions with his teammates and opponents that really make this something pretty cool and give the movie a bit more substance. The movie looks fantastic, and if you like the art style of the Spider-Verse movies, and I would even say stuff like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, you will love how this movie looks.
Final Thoughts on GOAT
At first, when we came out of the theatre, I was a little disappointed; however, the more I have thought about it, the more I realized that I did like this movie. I think that my expectations for an animated movie with anthropomorphic animals playing basketball were way too high. This was a fun time, and the movie theatre was pretty busy. From what I could see, the kids there were having a great time, and I saw more than a few with their GOAT collectible cups that they were selling in the lobby. If your kids want to go and see this, I think you will have a good time with it too.
GOAT is one of those movies that I think I need to see again before I can really know how much I liked it. The art and animation style they went for here makes me think that when this comes out on 4K, it could look amazing when you watch it at home. Yet, despite that being said, I am not sure I would be willing to drop full price for this when it first comes out. It will probably be a movie I wait for to go on sale before I pick up the 4K release of it.
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