G-Force

(PG) Walt Disney Studios DVD/BD

This film feels a bit like they’ve taken the storyline from Bolt, added a Toy Story villain and given the film a Transformers ending — which is not surprising because this was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

Firstly, I’ve never thought that a guinea pig (no offence to guinea pig lovers) would make especially good fodder for a feature film. But, let’s face it, Disney has made everything else talk so why not a guinea pig?

The premise: Ben and his assistant Marcie are federally-funded researchers charged with developing a government intelligence program using animals. Their team consists of three commando guinea pigs — Darwin, Juarez and Blaster — as well as a computer-whiz mole named Speckles and a camera-carrying housefly named Mooch.

The plot: A wealthy technology mogul named Saber, whose empire includes everything from telephones to coffee makers, is about to activate dormant microchips in every appliance he has manufactured and sold — supposedly to enable the appliances to talk to one another and, say, order more milk from the shops.

What Saber doesn’t realise is that an evil villain has world domination on his mind — he is determined that the humble coffee machine will take over the world. It’s up to G-Force to find out who the evil mastermind is before it’s too late.

Despite the film’s premise, Bruckheimer seems to have attracted a stellar voice cast to this film. Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz, Sam Rockwell are the voices of the commando guinea pigs, with Zach Galifianakis, Kelli Garner and Will Arnett filling out the significant human roles.

Your mission should you decide to accept it is to spend 88 minutes in the company of a flatulent guinea pig. You decide if this is a mission impossible.

Adrian Drayton