Critic Reviews

• Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle

  The whole thing runs about an hour too long: It should have been a TV show. The adventure's too big for the kids who would love it the most.

• Rafer Guzman, Newsday

  If only there were something on screen to keep your adult brain from dissolving into strained peas.

• Geoff Berkshire, Variety

  A prime contender for most peculiar wide release of the year.

• Abby West, Entertainment Weekly

  There are no villains in this movie but there's lots of suspense and problem solving involved in retrieving the balloons.

• Loren King, Boston Globe

  It's like paying to watch a dumbed-down mash-up of the least creative parts of "Teletubbies," "Barney & Friends," and "Pee-wee's Playhouse."

• Nancy Churnin, Dallas Morning News

  If you have preschoolers or fond memories of tots smiling at friendly costumed characters, you may find a soft spot for this gentle film ...

• Erick Weber, NECN

  Forget Saw, I'd argue this is the most freakishly disturbing outing of Cary Elwes career.

• Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

  I am somewhat hesitant to attempt to describe this...peculiar concoction for fear of being accused of base mendacity.

• Jackie K. Cooper, jackiekcooper.com

  Some of the words used are too adult for kids and the length of the movie is much too long.

• Brian Orndorf, Blu-ray.com

  Meant to tickle toddlers, Balloon isn't worth punishing multiplex pricing, delivering small-scale thrills on a limited budget. It's definitely a rental, offering parents a chance to escape while wee ones bop around.

• Sara Maria Vizcarrondo, Boxoffice Magazine

  There's potential to this picture, even if the initial box office reaction is, well, terrible

• Sean Means, Salt Lake Tribune

  The road to hell, they say, is paved with good intentions. Walking up that road are The Oogieloves, a trio of the most cloyingly unbearable characters a parent could ever introduce to their preschool child.

• Nick Johnston, Boston Phoenix

  The tale of three multi-colored blobs hunting for lost magical balloons feels like a bad pilot, the kind that post-Barney PBS would reject out of hand.

• Willie Waffle, WaffleMovies.com

  One of the characters proclaims this will be "the greatest movie ever", and you know it won't be. Even the 4-year old sitting behind me was dubious of that claim.

• Jim Judy, Screen It!

  I kept hearing someone mutter, 'The horror...The horror,' as the nearly 90 minutes dragged on for what seemed like an eternity, and then realized those words were coming from me.(Full Content Review for Parents also available)

• Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media

  Enthralling for preschoolers; much less so for anyone else.

• Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews

  The Oogieloves play a lot like Teletubbies in Pee Wee's Playhouse and it looks to become a staple in many a small child's DVD collection and possibly a cult item in college dorm rooms.

• Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

  Enduring this brainless kid's film is akin to witnessing the end of the world.

Read all 18 critic reviews