Rumble, the film by animator turned writer/director Hamish Grieve (Shrek 2), writing with Matt Lieberman (Free Guy), brings kaiju out of Japan and into the wrestling ring. Unfortunately, though the concept is good, the story never creates a connection between the characters and the audience. In a world where monster wrestling is the lifeblood of many cities, Stoker is the heart. Rayburn and his trainer Jimbo Coyle were the champs and the soul of Stoker. But they have disappeared, and a new combatant, Tentacular (Terry Crews), is in town. Unfortunately, when Tentacular wins the championship, he bails on Stoker, leaving them with no monster and no hope. To keep the stadium dedicated to her father from being destroyed, Jimbo's daughter Winnie (Geraldine Viswanathan) goes to the seedy world of warehouse wrestling to find a new champ. Instead, she finds Steve (Will Arnett), a career loser more interested in dancing than winning. With no other candidate, Winnie must mold Steve into a winner; otherwise, the stadium will become a parking lot. Grieve has a good idea in using Rob Harrell's Monster on the Hill as the basis for an animated feature. But in adapting it, the story loses something. The focus is on the two main characters while virtually excluding all others. Without adding connections to those around them, even Steve and Winnie remain two-dimensional. Because of this, the film doesn't stand out from any other mismatched buddy or coming-of-age movie. Instead, it gets lost in the pack. Mismatched voice casting doesn't help, either. It isn't that the performers do poorly, but except for Crews, there just isn't believability between the vocals and the bodies from which they emanate. One other obvious exception is having veteran boxing announcer Michael Buffer essentially play himself. Hearing his classic, "Let's get ready to rummmbbbllllleeeeeee!" set a mood to which the rest of the script couldn't rise. The primary saving grace of the film comes in the animation - particularly the monsters. They are fun, individual, and joyful to watch. The wrestling scenes are easy to follow, and each monster's unique moves are original at fit the characters to a tee. The backgrounds are great, too. The artists did a fantastic job of conveying a town whose economy is based solely on the sports arena that it hosts. Rumble isn't a failure at entertaining, but it doesn't have much in the way of originality, either. The characters are mostly flat, the story follows a standard progression without connecting with the viewer, and the message the screenwriters try to send doesn't have much impact. Kids, and adults, are likely to enjoy the monsters and the wrestling, but everything else fails to capture the belt, or even to become a contender for it.