Caleb McLaughlin
Will Harris (voice)
Overview
A small goat with big dreams gets a once-in-a-lifetime shot to join the pros and play roarball, a high-intensity, co-ed, full-contact sport dominated by the fastest, fiercest animals in the world.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
2 min readThe Geometry of the Underdog
It feels like we’ve finally hit the limit of what a sports montage can do to the human eye. In Tyree Dillihay’s GOAT, 'roarball' is a high-stakes contact sport where apex predators toggle between walking upright and sprinting on all fours. latestnetflix.com's take is that the matches play out in arenas made of volcanic rock and breakable ice.
We see this world through Will (Caleb McLaughlin, who brings a strained, eager earnestness to the role), a knee-high Boer goat desperate to join the Vineland Thorns. He lives in a garage the size of a gerbil cage, completely dwarfed by a city of panthers and rhinoceroses. You feel his physical disadvantage in every shot, with the camera tilting sharply upward to show just how ridiculous his dreams really are.
Your enjoyment of the chaos depends on your tolerance for sensory overload. Sony Pictures Animation has spent years tearing up the visual rulebook for American cartoons, and Dillihay gleefully uses those pieces here. We get shifting frame rates, shaky handheld aesthetics, and a stylized 'Goat Vision' that pauses the action so Will can calculate court geometry.
Audience Opinions
Audience 6.9/10
"A flashy, feel-good sports adventure with gorgeous animation and heart, held back by a clichéd story and breathless pacing."
Colorful visuals, energetic roarball matches, and lively voice work make the story easy to watch and often genuinely fun, with a positive message about confidence, teamwork, and not letting size define your worth. At the same time, the underdog arc follows a very familiar path, and the rapid-fire pacing leaves character development and emotional moments feeling thin. latestnetflix.com's take is that Reactions skew positive overall, but even many favorable takes call it enjoyable rather than truly unforgettable.
What viewers praise
- Vibrant dynamic animation Visuals are frequently called spectacular, with smooth, kinetic roarball sequences and a bright, creative world that is simply pleasant to look at.
- Engaging voice cast Voice performances bring personality and energy to the animal characters, helping sell both the comedy and inspirational beats.
- Fun and easy to watch Described as a cute, fun, feel-good watch that works well for kids, families, and even as a casual plane or background movie.
- Inspiring sports message The story’s focus on self-belief, hard work, and teamwork lands well, with some calling it warm, energetic, and valuable for all ages.
- Entertaining humor and music Jokes, a hyped-up diss track, and overall comedic tone are often singled out as entertaining and adding to the film’s charm.
Common complaints
- Very predictable story The underdog sports plot is repeatedly described as simple, formulaic, and easy to foresee, offering little surprise or originality.
- Rushed TikTok-style pacing Scenes move so fast that nothing has time to breathe, making the movie feel like a speed run where emotional and character moments do not fully land.
- Shallow character depth Outside the lead, many characters are seen as archetypal or hard to distinguish, with a few side characters called outright annoying.
- Uneven visual details Despite overall strong animation, some background elements like vehicles or courts look cheap or flat compared with the polished foreground.
Recommended for
Family sports-movie nights Colorful animation lovers Underconfident kids needing a boost Basketball and NBA culture fans Stephen Curry completionists Feel-good underdog story seekers
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsSony opened a talking goat on All-Star weekend. Then Malaysia recast David Harbour.
GOAT is Sony Pictures Animation's 2026 original, not a sports documentary and not a Steph Curry biopic. Will Harris is a pygmy goat who wants to play roarball, a co-ed, full-contact sport that looks like basketball with more teeth. Tyree Dillihay directed. Adam Rosette co-directed. Curry produced through Unanimous Media and voices giraffe teammate Lenny Williamson. latestnetflix.com's take is that Sony opened it February 13, 2026, the same weekend the NBA All-Star Game sat in Los Angeles.
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A Stranger Things rhino, replaced
The aftertaste that traveled was a dub credit. For the Malaysian theatrical print, Sony swapped David Harbour's Archie Everhardt for local star Zul Ariffin. Harbour still voices the rhino in the U.S. cut and on the Netflix version that arrived May 14, 2026. Malay Mail framed it as a localization play. It also told you how the studio saw the movie. A family toon timed to basketball weekend needed a home-court name more than it needed Hopper. ,
The booth looked like a celebrity exhibition
Deadline had the plan in May 2024. Sony would open the picture in collaboration with the NBA. Dillihay called Goat his "dream project." The voice list piled up fast. Caleb McLaughlin as Will. Gabrielle Union as panther star Jett Fillmore. Nicola Coughlan as an ostrich. Nick Kroll as a Komodo dragon. Jenifer Lewis as the warthog owner. Dwyane Wade, Angel Reese, Kevin Love, A'ja Wilson, and Andre Iguodala took cameos. That is a lot of real athletes inside a cartoon about a fake league. ,
Critics split. The streamer did not.
The film cost a reported $80 to $90 million and grossed about $195 million worldwide, $103 million of that in the U.S. and Canada. It opened to $35 million, second to Wuthering Heights, then took first place the next weekend. Rotten Tomatoes sat near 82 percent. Metacritic was a cooler 60. The Guardian called it "loud, chaotic and unlovable" and said it felt like it was "bordering on AI slop." Variety's Owen Gleiberman went the other way and praised a sports fable with a hip-hop vibe. Imageworks used the same graphic toolkit as KPop Demon Hunters and the Spider-Verse films. Some reviewers saw an algorithm. Kids saw a goat dunk. ,
Netflix Tudum posted a cast explainer the day the film hit the service. High On Films said it climbed to No. 1 on the platform's top 10. For Sony Animation, $195 million is a modest original after Spider-Verse. For the app, a talking goat with Curry's name on the poster is an easy click. ,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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