Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) review

Now, I know what some of you might be thinking; why the heck am I reviewing a film called Captain Underpants? Seems ridiculous, doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t that ridiculous to me, and that’s because, like many kids of my generation, I grew up with this film’s source material. Yes, what we have here is a film that’s based off a popular book series of the same name by author Dav Pilkey. The Adventures of Captain Underpants: The First Epic Novel, a story about a pair of elementary school students who unintentionally turn their principal into a superhero, was first published in 1997 and was a major best-seller. It would ultimately go on to spawn a full-blown series, with the most recent (and final) entry, book #12, released back in 2015. At the same time, though, the books have often been banned in school libraries due to their [admittedly] juvenile humor. Still, they’ve been a big hit with their target audience, having sold over 70 million copies worldwide. And now, the famous superhero who’s ‘faster than a speeding waistband, more powerful than boxer shorts, and able to leap tall buildings without getting a wedgie’ stars in his own feature film; Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. This new film comes courtesy of DreamWorks Animation and is notably their last feature film released through their current distributor, 20^th Century Fox, before they begin their new partnership with Universal in 2019. And as surprising as it may seem, this adaptation of a book series about a principal who turns into an underwear-themed superhero every time someone snaps their fingers and is only reverted to normal when doused with water… is one of the most faithful book-to-film adaptations in recent memory.

Like the books that they’re based on, the film follows the adventures of fourth graders George Beard (Kevin Hart) and Harold Hutchins (Thomas Middleditch). These two best friends spend most of their time creating their own comics and causing all sorts of pranks at their elementary school, Jerome Horwitz Elementary, to provide their classmates with a temporary reprieve from the grim goings-on that occur there daily. However, this soon ends up attracting the attention of their mean principal, Mr. Krupp (Ed Helms), who threatens to put the two boys in separate classrooms if they get caught again. To prevent this from happening, George and Harold try to hypnotize him with a ‘3-D Hypno-Ring’ that George got from a cereal box. To their surprise, the ring does indeed work, allowing them to make Mr. Krupp do whatever they want. This culminates in them commanding Mr. Krupp to act like the main protagonist from their comics, Captain Underpants, a superhero who literally only wears his underpants along with a red cape. However, this joke soon turns into a serious dilemma when Mr. Krupp begins to go around the city acting like a superhero… even though he doesn’t have any real superpowers. As such, this forces George and Harold to keep an eye on him so that he doesn’t hurt himself. And things get even more complicated when a scientist named Professor Poopypants (Nick Kroll; and yes, that’s his name, Professor Poopypants) comes to town intent on ridding humanity of the part of the brain that causes them to laugh as revenge for the years of ridicule that’s he endured over his ridiculous name.

Even though it’s been a while since I’ve read these books (I stopped reading them during the time when the series was on a temporary hiatus due to author Dav Pilkey taking time off to care for his father, who died in 2008), I found this film to be a highly faithful adaptation of its source material. The plot is, basically, a combination of elements from various installments. In other words, while the main plot generally follows the same structure of the first book, the film’s main villain, Professor Poopypants, first debuted in the fourth book, Captain Underpants and The Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants, the evil sentient toilets from the second book, Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets, make an appearance, and there are several Easter eggs throughout that tie into various other entries of the series. Ultimately, though, the film does a fantastic job of capturing the overall feel and tone of the books. It never takes itself too seriously and it maintains the same general style of self-aware humor. Heck, they even managed to incorporate the iconic ‘Flip-O-Rama’ sections from the books, in which readers flipped pages back and forth to simulate action scenes, into the narrative. On that note, the screenplay by Nicholas Stoller is full of hilarious bits of dialogue. I mean, admittedly, I wouldn’t say that this film is an absolute comedic riot. And, yes, the humor is often just as juvenile as it was in the books so it won’t go over well with everyone. Still, there are plenty of great jokes as well as some hilarious visual gags throughout that satirize the superhero genre. At the same time, there’s also some surprisingly heartfelt moments in this as well, namely through the friendship of the main characters.

Unlike most DreamWorks Animation films, this film’s animation was handled by a different studio, Mikros Image. This allowed the film to have a cheaper budget compared to DreamWorks’ other projects in the wake of some of their more recent efforts underperforming at the box-office. And, overall, the animation in this film is solid. It’s very reminiscent of what Blue Sky Studios did on The Peanuts Movie, managing to establish a 2-Dish feel in this computer animated film. And just like The Peanuts Movie, this is a great way to pay homage to the original source material as, in this instance, it feels like a comic book coming to life. Heck, they even have a whole sequence done with sock puppets. As for the voice cast, the film assembles a solid group of voices to fit each role. It may seem a bit weird at first to hear famous voices like Kevin Hart and Thomas Middleditch portraying fourth graders, but they both do excellent jobs in the roles of George and Harold, respectively. But perhaps most importantly, the two have phenomenal camaraderie, doing justice to the friendship of these two classic characters which, as mentioned earlier, is ultimately the heart of the film. Meanwhile, Ed Helms is a nice pick for the dual role of Mr. Krupp AKA Captain Underpants. He provides the right amount of diabolicalness for when Krupp’s his normal self but then switches seamlessly into a charismatic persona when he’s the friendly but admittedly dimwitted superhero, Captain Underpants. And, finally, Nick Kroll gets some great bits of humor as well in the role of the main villain Professor Poopypants, mainly due to the exact reason that you’re thinking about (i.e. his name). I mean, between this and Sausage Party, Kroll does quite a great job when it comes to animated villain roles.

I cannot believe that I’m saying this but… Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is one of the most satisfying adaptations that I’ve ever seen. I mean, let’s face it, you don’t often get a film like this that is THIS faithful to the source material. And yet this film very much succeeds in capturing the spirit of the Captain Underpants books, right down to the implementation of their iconic running gags like ‘Flip-O-Rama’. Seriously, even though it’s been years since I’ve read these books, watching this film legitimately made me feel like a kid again, reading through these books and going on these wacky adventures with George and Harold. But, aside from that, the film’s just a fun superhero adventure through and through. The animation’s nice and colorful, excellently representing the visual style of the books, and the screenplay by Nicholas Stoller is full to the brim with great humor. At the same time, though, there’s also some unexpectedly heartfelt moments in this as well, primarily through the great friendship of George and Harold. Ultimately, it’s just a great feel-good film that celebrates imagination through the crazy antics that George, Harold, and Captain Underpants get into. Thus, to make a long story short (See what I did there? It’s a nod to the books, which always had one chapter that tied up all loose ends in just one sentence, hence why they’re always titled ‘To Make a Long Story Short…”), who would’ve guessed that an adaptation of a book series that has, no joke, been around for two whole decades now (Feel old yet?) would turn out this good? 

Rating: This may seem crazy, but… 5/5!

Vacation (2015) review

In September of 1979, humor magazine National Lampoon published a short story by iconic 80’s film director John Hughes titled “Vacation ‘58” which was inspired by a family trip that he had taken with his family when he was younger to Disneyland. Four years later, Harold Ramis directed a film written by Hughes based on his original short story. Starring Chevy Chase as the enthusiastic but borderline crazy Clark Griswold, who embarks a series of misadventures with his wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) and their two kids, Rusty and Audrey, as they take a cross-country trip to California to visit the theme park Walley World, ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ became one of the most famous comedies of the decade, spawning a full franchise of films starring Chase, D’Angelo, and continuously changing actors/actresses in the roles of Rusty and Audrey. While both the immediate follow-up ‘European Vacation’ and the 1997 sequel ‘Vegas Vacation’ weren’t as well liked by critics and audiences, the 1989 entry ‘Christmas Vacation’ is now considered as a modern holiday classic. Almost two whole decades after the last official ‘Vacation’ film, the series returns again with a brand new film simply titled ‘Vacation’. Though for the record it is not a remake of the original film, even though it does share the same primary plot. Instead, it is a sequel that now centers on a grown-up Rusty Griswold as he goes on the same road trip that he took with his family 30 years ago. The end result is a solidly funny comedy that pays homage to the legacy of the franchise while also doing its own thing as a ‘modern update’. 

30 years after the events of the original ‘Vacation’, Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) has become a pilot for a low-rated airline company and has raised a family of his own, living in Chicago with his wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) and their two sons James (Skyler Gisondo) and Kevin (Steele Stebbins). Recognizing that the family has become rather dysfunctional, to the point where younger brother Kevin constantly bullies his older brother James, Rusty decides against the idea of the family going on the same trip to their cabin in Sheboygan, Wisconsin that they had been taking every year around this time. Instead, he decides to take them on the same cross-country road trip that he had taken with his parents Clark and Ellen (Chase and D’Angelo reprise their roles in cameo appearances) and sister Audrey (played here by Leslie Mann) 30 years earlier to Walley World in California. Taking off in their new rental car, the Tartan Prancer (the ‘Honda of Albania’), Rusty and his family begin their cross-country road-trip to Walley World, which Rusty hopes will allow the family to reconnect. However, just like that original Vacation that he took with his family back when he was a kid, what is intended to be a nice little family road trip ends up becoming a nightmare as Rusty and his family end up in a series of misadventures on the long journey to Walley World.

Even as a film that follows the same plot of the original ‘Vacation’ film from 1983, which of course results in a few meta jokes including the one from the trailer in which Rusty declares that ‘the new Vacation will stand on its own’, this new ‘Vacation’ film actually does manage to stand on its own by not following the exact same beats of the original. Of course, being a part of this long-running franchise, there are obviously a few callbacks to the original, from the use of the iconic tune ‘Holiday Road’ to even an appearance by the classic Family Truckster station wagon. But on a positive note, they don’t overshadow the film at all and are pretty subtle in terms of execution. As far as the humor is concerned, overall I’d say that it’s a pretty darn funny film. No, not every single joke hit but there are definitely quite a few major ‘laugh-out-loud’ moments in the film, from the opening credits (and the beginning of the end credits) in which we see much more than one would expect out of seemingly nice family vacation pictures to a fight sequence right at the end of the film involving the Griswolds and the family of a rival pilot (Ron Livingston). Compared to the original film which, while rated R, is fairly tame by today’s standards, this ‘Vacation’ opts for much raunchier humor but even then there have been comedies that have been far raunchier than this one. In other words, this new ‘Vacation’, like the original, is actually rather tame by today’s standards.   

  

Obviously Chevy Chase was one of the key elements that made the previous ‘Vacation’ films so successful. Sure at the end of the day, Clark Griswold may have been a womanizer and a bit of an asshole but his unnerving optimism even in the face of extreme adversity actually managed to make him rather charming and relatable. Ed Helms is a solid successor to Chase in the lead role of Rusty as he carries the same confident and optimistic attitude of his father to a fault. And considering that Rusty isn’t a womanizer like his father, he’s also arguably the more likable lead. Helms has great chemistry with Christina Applegate, who also gets some really hilarious material to work with, primarily when it comes to the reveal that Debbie used to live a wild lifestyle during her college years. Both of their sons are also great as well, especially Steele Stebbins as younger brother Kevin in a rare case where the younger brother is the one bullying the older brother and not the other way around. And of course, like any ‘Vacation’ film, there are also some extremely memorable cameos. The most notable is ‘Thor’ AKA Chris Hemsworth as Stone Crandall, the husband of Audrey (Leslie Mann is unfortunately underused here despite being in the role of one of the series’ main characters) who of course loves to show off his six-pack abs. And of course, this wouldn’t be a ‘Vacation’ film without a cameo by Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo as Clark and Ellen Griswold.  

‘Vacation’ may carry the same plotline of its 1983 predecessor but it is not a remake and because of that, it is able to do its own thing and it does that quite well. This film may currently only carry a 28% on Rotten Tomatoes (which certainly means that you’re going to be hearing a lot of fanboys on the internet complain about how the directors, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, are slated to write the screenplay for the next ‘Spider-Man’ film) but I thought that it was pretty darn funny. No I don’t think that it’s the best comedy of the year but as someone who may not have grown up with the franchise but likes both the original ‘Vacation’ and ‘Christmas Vacation’, I think that this film is a worthy successor to those films and continues the franchise’s tradition of celebrating both family and Americana even amidst some of the more mean-spirited bits of humor. And on that note, yes the humor can be quite raunchy at times so it’s not for everyone. But ultimately I thought that it worked out fine here and it isn’t even that overt when compared to some of the other R-rated comedies that have come out over the years. If you’re a fan of any of the other ‘Vacation’ films, then you’re definitely going to like this new film that continues the tradition of having the Griswold family go through all sorts of chaotic misadventures on what were just meant to be simple family vacations. They may be going through all sorts of hell on-screen but for us, the audience, it’s another fun little trip on the ‘Holiday Road’.  

Rating: 4/5