Time Hoppers: The Silk Road

In 1312, Mansa Musa elevated Timbuktu to lofty heights of culture and scholarship. In 2012, Islamist jihadists occupied Timbuktu, destroying all the culture and scholarship they saw. Wisely, these time-traveling children journey back to the 1312 Malian capital. Frankly, they didn’t truly choose for themselves. They were chasing a bad guy who had stolen one of their time-traveling disks in Flordeliza Dayrit’s animated Time Hoppers: The Silk Road, which releases today on VOD.

Layla’s father Habib rather rashly and naively invented time-travel. Consequently, they must sneak out of Seattle, secretly relocating to Vancouver, to keep the technology out of the hands of the sinister Zoola corporation. Habib hopes to refine his work with the help of his sister, Hafsa, the dean of Layla’s new high-tech prep school. Instead, they expend most of their efforts tracking Layla, her cousin Aysha, and her new friends Khalid and Abdullah through time.

Basically, it is all Abdullah’s fault, and not just because he is the fat, goofy one. He accidentally activated a time travel disk, so his three friends grabbed their own, to bring him back. Unfortunately, he dropped his disk while Fasid, the bad guy who greatly resembled Jafar from Disney’s Aladdin, was chasing them. Now, they are chasing him.

Billed as the first Muslim-American-produced animated feature (which had nationwide Fathom screenings), Time Hoppers celebrates the great scientists and scholars of the ancient Islamic world. Yet, sadly many of the time hops take on tragic irony in light of more recent tragedies in cities like Timbuktu, Aleppo, and Baghdad. Sadly, the Time Hoppers must go all the way back to 950 AD to find an edifying moment in Syrian history.

Nevertheless, there are some worthy history lessons, courtesy of Dayrit and co-screenwriter Sakina Fakhri. Plus, Dads will also appreciate some of the Ramadan jokes, like “why don’t you want to race a Muslim during Ramadan? Because they fast.” That’s a direct quote. However, it will be tame for many preteens and 3D computer animation will underwhelm connoisseurs of the art-form.

The characters are also familiar stock figures, starting with Layla, the sensitive girl still grieving her late mother. Ayla is the bratty tomboy, while Khalid is the boy genius who explains the significance of the scholars they meet on each hop, but he sometimes isn’t very practical. Of course, you can tell Abdullah is comic relief just from looking at him.

Even though Zoola and their army of jumpsuit-clad ninjas provide the film’s initial catalyst, they spend most of the film off-screen, clawing for scraps of screentime. Yet, that makes sense, since they are such cliches. Instead, meeting Al-Khwarizmi, the legit father of algebra, represents something new and different—and for most kids, what dream come true, right?

Time Hoppers goes for the educational-meets-adventurous vibe of the 1982 series Voyagers!, but the execution is so-so. However, the elements of Islamic antiquity are a net positive, giving the film a distinctive identity and justifying some cool-looking ancient backdrops. It is perfectly fine for family viewing, because it never really pushes any religion or ideology on viewers, but it skews really young. Recommended accordingly, Time Hoppers: The Silk Road releases today (3/31) on VOD.