Nelly and Simon‘s real hero is Nelly (Rachel LeFevre). She’s, a 1950s Quebecois detective who can parkour out of her way from bad situations. Well, the exception is when she gets on the bad side of Edward Martineau. She steals a cab from him. To leverage herself out of that, she inevitably teams up with Simon Picard. Simon (Noel Fisher) is an anthropologist who gets his funding from Edward. He’s one of the few characters in this animated film who have something to prove. His pet cause is proving the existence of the Yeti. It’s a hypothesis that unfortunately costs him his job at a university.

Nelly and Simon: Mission Yeti takes us to some interesting places to prove the Yeti’s existence. We the audience get to travel from the city spaces of Quebec City to the jagged Himalayas. It’s too bad that the animation here is rudimentary and lacks texture. The movie also relies of Nelly and the gang’s physicality which wears thin as the film goes on. I’m trying to be mindful of Nelly and Simon‘s target audience. However, even the kids I meet are smarter than this movie. Its bargain bin score also doesn’t help deliver a consistent tone.

Another thing that’s grating is the voice acting. The standout is Fisher, whose character actor features are on the background in this movie. Here he can flesh out Simon’s blind optimism and add dimensions to it. He especially shines during scenes in the story where bad luck hits him. The rest of the actors, however, deliver their lines like they’re talking down to kids in a local library. Even their screams, as they go from one gag to another, don’t seem convincing. This seems like a good story but the execution needs some better polish.