Movies Week 23: GOAT, Vox Machina S4 & Spider-Noir Begins
Week 23 in movies: GOAT earns its 10/10, Vox Machina Season 4 premieres on Prime, Spider-Noir impresses with bold monochrome aesthetics, and summer hits the multiplexes.
This post contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.
🎬 Three Good Reasons to Cancel Your Plans This Weekend
Week 23 in movies and TV delivered on three separate fronts — and two of them are on streaming, which means no babysitter required. GOAT finally got the full Dadnology treatment and confirmed what the opening weekend numbers already suggested: it’s the best animated film of the year. Vox Machina Season 4 dropped on Amazon Prime for everyone who followed our recommendation and binged Seasons 1–3 over the past few weeks. And Spider-Noir arrived with a visual identity that made me sit up and pay attention within the first ten minutes.
Plus the summer multiplex season is in full swing. Let’s cover all of it.
No bad choices this week. The harder problem is finding the time for all three.
AdGOAT (Digital / Prime Video) (opens in a new tab)
Stream it tonight — and it looks extraordinary on Apple Vision Pro.
🐐 GOAT (2026) — The Animated Film of the Year
You’ve probably seen the headlines: 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, $194 million worldwide, Stephen Curry’s film debut as producer. All of that is accurate, and none of it captures why GOAT is actually worth your time.
Here is the honest version: it is a sports underdog story that borrows the kinetic cartoon physics of Space Jam and the lived-in anthropomorphic world-building of Zootopia, then welds them onto an invented sport called roarball in ways that feel completely original. Caleb McLaughlin voices Will — a tiny goat trying to crack a professional league dominated by apex predators — with the kind of stubborn, un-saccharine determination that actually hits hard as a dad. Every kid has a moment where they’re the smallest in the room. GOAT gives them a hero who turned that deficit into his whole identity. We talked about it for a week afterwards.
The art direction is why it’s a 10 and not a 9. The neon-soaked roarball arenas, the species-specific movement design, the color saturation — it is the year’s best-looking animation, full stop. And on the Apple Vision Pro it graduates from “really good” to “reference-grade showcase reel.” The spatial arenas wrap into your peripheral vision. When the camera dives courtside you feel the game happening around you rather than in front of you.
It’s the rare kids’ film that doesn’t make the adults in the room check their phones.
Our verdict: 10/10. Buy it, don’t just rent it. Read the full GOAT review →
🎲 The Legend of Vox Machina — Season 4 Has Landed
Season 4 of The Legend of Vox Machina is now on Amazon Prime, and if you followed our recommendation and binged Seasons 1–3 recently, you are exactly where you want to be: ready for what comes next.
A quick recap for anyone still on the fence: Vox Machina is the adult animated series that emerged from Critical Role’s D&D campaign, and it works perfectly without a single hour of D&D or Critical Role background. Season 1 is a 10/10 — one of the best series premieres I have seen, period, in any medium. Season 2 raised the stakes with the Chroma Conclave arc. Season 3 was the slightly messiest but earned its finale.
Season 4 picks up with the party at the cosmic stakes the third season’s ending built toward. Too early for a full verdict — we are in the thick of it — but the first episodes confirm that the animation quality, the voice performances, and the show’s particular gift for making you laugh and gut-punch you in the same scene are all fully intact. Full season review incoming.
The 30-minute episode format remains a gift for tired Tuesday nights. Three episodes is a Friday luxury. You can invest at whatever pace your week allows.
If you haven’t started the show yet: read the full series overview → and start from Season 1. The first episode costs you 28 minutes. It will hook you.
🕵️ Spider-Noir — First Impressions: The Black-and-White Risk Pays Off
I will say this upfront: I went in expecting to like the concept more than the execution. A live-action Spider-Noir series — Peter Parker transplanted into a 1930s hard-boiled detective noir — sounds like the kind of thing that looks great in the pitch deck and loses the thread once the cameras roll. The first episodes have not lost the thread.
What immediately strikes you is the visual commitment. The show switches between color and black-and-white depending on context, and it is not a gimmick — the monochrome scenes have a grain and shadow depth that earns the comparison to classic noir cinema. The moment the palette drains from the screen and the world snaps into black-and-white, you feel it. The tone sharpens. The city gets heavier. It is a genuinely striking effect deployed with enough discipline that it never wears out its welcome.
The story delivers on the premise: Peter Parker is a private detective in 1930s New York, carrying the Spider-Man abilities but operating in a world with no capes, no public personas, just a city full of criminals and a press that wouldn’t believe him if he told them. The cast is excellent. The writing has the wry, self-aware quality that good noir demands without sliding into pastiche.
Too early for a rating — the season is still establishing its arc. But the first impression is strong: this is a show made by people who understood why Spider-Man Noir worked in Into the Spider-Verse and trusted the aesthetic enough to build a full live-action series around it. I am genuinely invested.
🎟️ Summer at US Cinemas — This Week & Next
The multiplexes are delivering an interesting mix right now, and the next two weeks get even bigger.
On screens now: The summer surprise story of the year is Scary Movie 6 — nobody predicted this one would land hard, and yet here we are. Pure comfort-food horror-comedy, and apparently the crowd is showing up for it. The Mandalorian & Grogu is doing exactly what everyone expected it to do: printing money and filling seats with families who grew up on the TV series. And on the horror front, two genuinely unsettling films are holding strong: Backrooms and Obsession both arrived as relative wild cards and have clearly found their audience among dads who prefer their Friday nights uncomfortable in the right way.
Next week — Disclosure Day: Big expectations. This is the one that has been generating serious heat in the run-up, and the tracking numbers back that up. More coverage as it lands.
Week after — Toy Story 5: Yes, really. Pixar’s return to the franchise everyone thought was closed with Toy Story 4. The expectations are enormous and the anxiety is justified — they already stuck the landing once, which makes this the highest-stakes animated sequel in years. Full Dadnology review incoming once it’s in cinemas.
🎯 Who Should Watch What
The practical breakdown for a dad with limited screen time:
| You are… | Your pick is… |
|---|---|
| Have kids aged 6–12, own a Vision Pro or OLED | GOAT — a guaranteed perfect evening |
| Finished Vox Machina S1–3 recently | Vox Machina S4 — do not wait, go now |
| Adult animation fan, new to Vox Machina | Start from S1 — series hub here |
| Noir fan or Into the Spider-Verse devotee | Spider-Noir — strong start, worth committing to |
| Want a cinema night with guaranteed laughs | Scary Movie 6 — the surprise hit, no homework needed |
| Family night at the cinema | The Mandalorian & Grogu — the kids already know who Grogu is |
| Horror fan, prefer unsettling over gory | Backrooms or Obsession — both doing something interesting |
| Planning ahead for next week | Disclosure Day — put it in the calendar now |
If you can only do one thing this weekend: GOAT with the family on Friday night, Vox Machina solo on Saturday. That is the correct Week 23 schedule.
Dadnology Take
Week 23 is a reminder of why streaming has been genuinely good for animation and adult content. GOAT is the kind of film that gets built because the numbers for animated originals finally justify the ambition — and it arrived on every platform simultaneously. Vox Machina Season 4 is here for the audience that stuck with the show through three seasons of emotional gut-punches and earned this payoff. And Spider-Noir is placing a very stylish bet that black-and-white cinema aesthetics work in prestige TV. So far, that bet is paying off.
Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins Graphic Novel Vol. 1 (opens in a new tab)
The illustrated backstory for new fans who want more Vox Machina between episodes.
❓ FAQ
What is the best streaming pick for the week of June 7, 2026?
Do I need to watch Vox Machina seasons 1-3 before Season 4?
Is Spider-Noir a kids show?
Can I watch GOAT on Apple Vision Pro?
Disclaimer: This review and its visuals were created with the help of AI. Some links may be affiliate links – we may earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you.
You might also like
Dadnology Week 23: Wolverine, GOAT & a Week Built for Dads
Two gaming showcases dropped everything at once. A perfect animated film finally got the 10/10 it deserved. Season 4 of the best adult animated series on Prime started. Spider-Noir impressed. Week 23 was a genuinely strong week to be a dad with a screen.
Gaming Week 23: State of Play, Summer Game Fest & Wolverine
State of Play dropped Wolverine, Tomb Raider and a new God of War chapter in one go. Summer Game Fest answered with Star Wars twice, AC Black Flag rebuilt from scratch, and Tupac in an action game. Week 23 was an embarrassment of gaming riches.
Dadnology Week 22: Too Many Great Games and Shows, One Tired Dad
The week's only real problem was choice. 007 First Light is a 9/10 and the dad's game of the week, but it sits atop a stacked games slate; on screen, Spider-Noir and The Boys' finale lead a loaded week. Too many great things, not enough evenings.