I might be starting to sound like a broken record at this point but “this movie is underrated”.
First of all, as I mentioned in my review of The Prince of Egypt, I don’t actually have a problem with mood whiplash. I think that it enables an excellent blend of comedy and drama, like that offered by Avatar. Of course, this movie is nowhere near as good as those, I’m just responding to a critique of it.
The comedy of this film is absolutely hilarious. I find the running gag with Yagoobian not thinking things through extremely entertaining. And Wilbur’s efforts to conceal Lewis’s true identity from the Robinsons was something I found funny. And how Poke the Poodle the ineffectual sympathetic villain is is also entertaining.
Speaking of whom, I find the comically incompetent villain to be unintentionally sympathetic despite his being an obviously unreliable narrator and I like him well enough. And I think Doris is an extremely impressive villain.
I like the Aesop of keep moving forward and the Aesop of accepting the ones who chose to adopt him as his family despite them not being his biological family.
Is this film an animated classic? Not even close. But is it a great movie? You bet it is.
Keep Moving Forward
I might be starting to sound like a broken record at this point but “this movie is underrated”.
First of all, as I mentioned in my review of The Prince of Egypt, I don’t actually have a problem with mood whiplash. I think that it enables an excellent blend of comedy and drama, like that offered by Avatar. Of course, this movie is nowhere near as good as those, I’m just responding to a critique of it.
Also, I’ve seen this movie criticized for having a contrived ending which it does but to be fair it’s a time travel movie. I don’t think that Back to the Future ,Avengers: Endgame ,Alice Through the Looking Glass , X-Men Days of Future Past or The End of Eternity were any less contrived but I didn’t actually complain about any of those. I think that’s an almost inevitable pitfall of the time travel genre. So I’m cool with it.
The comedy of this film is absolutely hilarious. I find the running gag with Yagoobian not thinking things through extremely entertaining. And Wilbur’s efforts to conceal Lewis’s true identity from the Robinsons was something I found funny. And how Poke the Poodle the ineffectual sympathetic villain is is also entertaining.
Speaking of whom, I find the comically incompetent villain to be unintentionally sympathetic despite his being an obviously unreliable narrator and I like him well enough. And I think Doris is an extremely impressive villain.
I like the Aesop of keep moving forward and the Aesop of accepting the ones who chose to adopt him as his family despite them not being his biological family.
Is this film an animated classic? Not even close. But is it a great movie? You bet it is.