Now it is… Review Time!
Captain Underpants: “Tra-la-laaaaaa!”
While the humor, mainly potty humor, may be hit-or-miss at times, “Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie” makes up for it with its colorful animation, excellent voice cast and fun storyline.
George Beard (voiced by Kevin Hart) and Harold Hutchins (voiced by Primetime Emmy nominee Thomas Middleditch) are two 4th-grade students and mischievous pranksters who accidentally hypnotize their cruel principal Mr. Krupp (voiced with charm by Ed Helms) into their comic book creation: the dimwitted but incredibly kind-hearted Captain Underpants.
Pros:
Animation:
As previously mentioned, the animation is colorful as well as impressively faithful to its source material.
Source Material Faithfulness:
The film includes the books’ signature potty humor, the comic book animation, as well as the flip-o-rama.
Humor:
Although there are moments that might make an adult cringe, there are some instances of laughter, such as the two aforementioned children having break-the-4th-wall moments.
Theme Song:
Performed by “Weird Al” Yankovic, the song has both a catchy beat and lyrics, with a guarantee that it will stay with you once you step out of the cinema.
Voice Cast:
The cast is fantastic, particular praise goes to Helms’ voice performance as the titular character who can funnily and effortlessly switch between being mean principal and kind hero, as well as Nick Kroll’s performance as the antagonist; Professor Poopypants who wants to rid all laughter from the world, after being tired for too long of people laughing at his name, and Primetime Emmy winner Jordan Peele’s performance as Melvin, the only student with no humor at all.
However, one might wonder why the choice of adult voices for the main children but that can be overlooked as it has happened before with previous media, such as the TV series, and one of my favorites, “Codename: Kids Next Door” (2002–2008).
Silliness:
Pure silly moments, if you are in the mood to find the inner child in you, as well as escapism, like all films.
Storyline:
Cute with the obvious theme of friendship, and laughter being a powerful one, literally, which will not be spoiled here.
Cons:
Humor:
As previously stated, some moments with humor might make an adult cringe, since the majority of it is potty humor.
Predictability:
As with most superhero films, the movie has both a happy, and funny ending.
On a personal note, I read some of the books when I was in my pre-teen years and liked them.
Overall, an enjoyable cinematic ride with a guarantee that it will make your kids laugh as well as something for adults, if they can overlook some mentioned flaws.
