Movie Review: Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie *** ½ / *****

Directed by: David Soren.

Written by: Nicholas Stoller and David Soren based on the epic novels by Dav Pilkey.

Starring: Kevin Hart (George), Ed Helms (Captain Underpants / Mr. Krupp), Nick Kroll (Professor Poopypants), Thomas Middleditch (Harold), Jordan Peele (Melvin), Kristen Schaal (Edith), DeeDee Rescher (Ms. Ribble), Brian Posehn (Mr. Rected), David Soren (Tommy).

 

I make a special effort to take my daughter to every animated movie that is appropriate for her – whether I expect them to be good or bad. It’s because I love the movie going ritual, and I want her to love it as well. Maybe she will, maybe she won’t – she will stubbornly become her own person one day – but at the very least I want her to be aware of what going to the movies can mean. It’s become our thing that we do together, and often I love it – there are a few animated films every year that are legitimately wonderful, but most are 90 minutes of inspired brightness, action and music – the time passes quickly enough, but doesn’t leave an impact. Sometimes, the movies are awful, but we go anyway – again, I want my daughter to be aware that not every movie is great – we go anyway. When I saw the preview of Captain Underpants, I knew we’d go to the movie – especially since my daughter laughed throughout. This wasn’t going to be a movie I could avoid, even if it looked dire. So it is with some surprise that I report that I mostly found the film to be an utter delight – the film is clever and funny, has a wonderful animation style, and full on embraces childhood silliness for 90 minutes. Is it ridiculous? Of course. Juvenile? In the extreme. It’s also a lot of fun.

 

The film is about two childhood friend – George (Kevin Hart) and Harold (Thomas Middleditch) – who are probably about 8, and are close in the way that only a pair of 8 year olds can be. They share a sense of humor, and their entire world is basically the two of them. Together they create comic books – and their “most famous” character is Captain Underpants – an overweight, middle-aged white guy, who flies around in his underwear and a cape, fighting crime. The pair have their own arch-nemesis, in Mr. Krupp (voiced by Ed Helms) – their short tempered Principal, who just knows that the pair of them are responsible for every prank in the school, but can never prove it. To make a long story short, eventually the pair of friends hypnotize Mr. Krupp with a ring from a cereal box, and convinced him he is the real Captain Underpants, and then eventually, he has to fight Professor Poppypants (Nick Kroll, giving an truly inspired vocal performance) – as a small, old German man, who poses as a science teacher as a cover for his evil intentions, as he is building a machine to rid the world of laughter, because he is tired of everyone making fun of his name. You know, that old plot.

 

The plot is probably the weakest part of the film – as there is so much to it, and it rushes by so quickly, that the entire film feels a little bit rushed. It is also not the reason to the see the film at all. The film is based on a series of books by Dav Pilkey – I’ve never read them to my daughter, but may have to start now, but I’ve seen them in bookstores, and the film wisely decides to keep the deliberately crude and cartoony visual look to those drawings. The film has a great let’s throw everything at the wall and see what will stick quality to its gags – there are throwaway visual gags that happen in the background, delightful comic asides and one-liners (an Oprah line made me laugh more than any single line in an American comedy so far this year).

 

Yes, the film is juvenile. Many of the jokes are toilet humor – in the action climax, literally – but its toilet humor aimed at children, so it’s not gross, just downright silly. This is the type of film that understands that humor that makes children laugh uncontrollably, while the clueless adults around them wonder what the hell is so funny. It’s funny, it’s goofy, it’s clever, it’s stupid, and it’s ridiculous. It’s not a great film – it does suffer from the same thing that many Dreamworks films do, in that it has the same house style in part, that make a film timely, than instantly date it – but it is a heck of a lot of fun. And for a film called Captain Underpants, isn’t that the best case scenario?

Movie Review: Turbo

Turbo
Directed by: David Soren.
Written by: Darren Lemke & Robert D. Siegel & David Soren.
Starring: Ryan Reynolds (Turbo), Paul Giamatti (Chet), Michael Peña (Tito), Samuel L. Jackson  (Whiplash), Luis Guzmán (Angelo), Bill Hader (Guy Gagné), Snoop Dogg (Smoove Move), Maya Rudolph (Burn), Ben Schwartz (Skidmark), Richard Jenkins (Bobby), Ken Jeong (Kim Ly), Michelle Rodriguez (Paz).

My daughter was mesmerized by the first 45 minutes or so of Turbo. Mind you, she’s two, and reacts with the type of joy only a two year old can have every time the Bubble Guppies comes on TV, so what does she know? Still, watching her drawn into a movie for the first time made the experience of watching Turbo more enjoyable than it otherwise would be. Turbo is by no means a bad movie – it is bright, colorful, fast moving, has good voice and I was never bored by the film. But I was also never drawn into the film either – perhaps I was too distracted by my daughter, but to me Turbo, like most animated films this year, is just another animated film that’s kind of there.

The story is about a snail named Theo who dreams of racing. He stays up all night watching old VHS tapes (how retro!) of Indy Car racing – where his hero is Guy Gagne – a seemingly humble man, who never the less always wins. Theo’s brother is Chet, and he’s a worried – he wants Theo to give up his dreams, and settle into a dreary life in the garden, picking and sorting tomatoes like the rest of the snails. Then, through a series of events too bizarre to recount, Theo gains super speed – he no longer has to go through life at a snail’s pace, but no he can race with the fastest cars on the planet. He is discovered by Tito, who along with his brother Angelo runs a Taco stand and food truck (because, I guess have them sell sombreros would be too on the nose). Tito, like Theo, is a dreamer – Angelo, like Chet, wants him to settle down into a dreary life. Then, through another strange series of events, Tito decides to take Theo – now nicknamed Turbo – to the Indy 500, and somehow, convinces everyone to allow Turbo to race against, among others, Guy Gagne. Turbo is accompanied on his journey by Chet, and a ragtag group of wisecracking snails.

Yes, the plot of Turbo is ridiculous – even by the standards of children’s animation – but it works in an old fashioned kind of way. Turbo at heart is an underdog story about the little snail that won’t give up, even though no one believes in him. It’s not a new story, but it’s survived so long because it’s an effective one.

The voice work is consistently good in Turbo – if only because the film stars precisely the actor you would expect in every vocal role, which means you don’t really have to work on developing the characters, the come wholly formed. Young hotshot – Ryan Reynolds, nervous, neurotic brother – Paul Giamatti, cool snail – Samuel L. Jackson, snail who sounds like he’s high on pot the whole movie – Snoop Dogg, nice Mexican – Michael Pena, seemingly mean Mexican who softens – Greendale’s own Luis Guzman, tough Mexican woman – Michelle Rodriguez, Asian – Ken Jeong (the fact that it’s a woman apparently doesn’t matter), guy who can do a phony French accent because we obviously wrote the role for Sacha Baron Cohen based on Talladega Nights but he said no – Bill Hader. You get the idea. One of the bad things about the now two decade old trend of casting famous actor in every prominent vocal role in animation is that really talented voice artists are now relegated strictly to TV – one of the good things is that instantly recognizable voices can act as a storytelling shorthand to tell us everything we need to know about the characters – and Turbo uses that to its advantage.

The film is well animated – even if I do wish it didn’t insist on being quite so blindingly colorful and fast moving at it’s ever moment – but based on the fact my daughter’s interest waned in the few moments the movie did slow down, but was instantly drawn back in when things sped up again, perhaps the filmmakers know their audience better than I do. Then again, I feel the need to point out once again that my daughter is two. If you have kids, that Turbo will keep them entertained. I don’t know if it will become a title they watch over and over again like kids love to do, but it will keep them distracted for 90 minutes, and it won’t drive you nuts as a parent (at least the first time through). Turbo does what it sets out to do – which is to be an enjoyable kid’s movie, so if you have kids, by all means, see it. But if you don’t, I can’t think of a reason why you need to see it.