Deadpool for kids
Ryan Reynolds, Fred Savage, Zazie Beetz, Josh Brolin, Julian Dennison Making a splash without leaving a stain
Lashings of very blue humour and very graphic violence — always delivered at breakneck speed by star Ryan Reynolds — have made his Marvel stablemates look quaint by comparison.
The red-suited motormouth can seemingly get away with anything.
Putting that notion to the absolute limit is Once Upon a Deadpool, in which the franchise makes a surprise play at the family-friendly market.
Naturally, there has been debate among fans as to how this could possibly work.
Well, Once Upon a Deadpool does indeed work, despite having its star conspicuously clean up his act.
Remarkably, Deadpool’s renegade spirit remains intact. The new movie is essentially a selective re-editing of the midyear box-office hit Deadpool 2.
No F-bombs are detonated in the dialogue, and the camera invariably moves away before flesh is pierced, limbs are severed or blood starts flowing.
To plug some of the sizeable gaps in the screenplay, a framing device has been borrowed from the classic 1987 all-ages movie The Princess Bride.
As in that much-loved affair, Deadpool’s anarchic adventures are relayed as a cosy bedtime story to a notso-enthusiastic Fred Savage (who played the same role as a child in The Princess Bride).
The bulk of the new movie’s fresh material can be found in the rapid-fire backand-forth between Reynolds and Savage. Both take broad, good-natured swipes at everything from gaping plot holes in the original Deadpool 2 to Disney’s impending takeover of Deadpool’s parent studio 20th Century Fox.
It will be interesting to see if Once Upon a Deadpool finds widespread favour with the franchise’s existing fanbase, as only 20 minutes of new scenes can be found in the two-hour running time. However, for younger viewers, this is one bedtime story worth hearing the whole way through.