‘Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos' funny and well done

“Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos” is the first Mexican CGI-animated feature to receive a wide release in El Norte, and it’s every bit as goofy-smart as one would hope.

The animation team at Huevocartoon Producciones has done a splendid job bringing their eggscentric Flash-animated and hand-drawn characters into the vivid, anything-goes world of computer animation. The story, written by director Gabriel Riva Palacio Alatriste, overflows with an abundance of corny gags, spot-on homages to everything from “The Godfather” to classic Warner Bros. cartoons to all sorts of global pop-cultural touchstones, chief among them “Rocky” and “Star Wars.”

As an added bonus, the film’s thematic core revolves around conquering youthful insecurity, literally, “learning to fly.” That’s the good news.

The bad news is that The Rooster with Many Eggs (as it translates to English) revolves around the inherently vile “sport” of cockfighting, albeit without the gruesome realities of the razored spurs, spurting avian gore, drug-enhanced killer roosters, and the overall seediness of the competitions and the human competitors performing a proxy duel to the death via their prized fowl. There’s also a very clearly gay character whose only purpose is to allow the audience to let off some homophobic guffaws. I’m pretty sure that both of these breaches of good taste and tact are cultural in nature.

Still, you can’t argue the point that “Un Gallo,” which is aimed at a young audience, will inculcate kids to the idea the cockfighting is a natural, normal activity. There’s no bloody, entrail-laden sawdust in this version of rooster-on-rooster ultraviolence, just talking chickens and eggs, and a silent slice of bipedal bacon.

The star is Toto (voiced by Bruno Bichir), a scrawny, terribly insecure teenage chicken who eventually must enter the cockfighting arena to save the bankrupt farm that’s home to his beloved Di (Maite Perroni), his parents, and a baker’s dozen of chatty organic and ambulatory eggs. The movie’s ending will come as no surprise to anyone over the age of 5, and yet “Un Gallo” feels fresh and breezily entertaining despite turning cockfighting into a fluffy-tough, preteen-friendly experience.

This is hands-down bravura animation. Other excellent, blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em moments include tributes and/or references to Daffy Duck, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Snoop Dogg, and LL Cool J.

Viewed entirely on the exceptional virtues of its CGI animation and its occasionally raunchy humor, “Un Gallo con Mucho Huevos” is a small gem of a film.

But its trivialization of cockfighting will surely be a stumbling block for many potential audience members.