Well-thumbed playbook produces few wonders
Wonder Park (PG, 85 mins) Written by Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec and Robert Gordon Reviewed by James Croot ★★★
Wonderland. Home to the Clockwork Swings, Fireworks Falls and the Sky Flinger. Seemingly the brainchild of Peanut the Monkey, the animal-run theme park is actually the creation of June Bailey and her Mom.
Fuelled by June’s seemingly endless imagination, the pair have spent many hours drawing blueprints and making models to bring their flights of fancy to life. Tween June has recently taken
things a step further, causing chaos in the neighbourhood by enlisting the help of her school friends to create a real-life, health and safety nightmare of a rollercoaster.
But while she only ends up with ‘‘a raspberry on her elbow’’, the trail of destruction leads some community elders to suggest that military school is the only place for her. However, June’s parents love their ‘‘adorable lunatic of a daughter’’, happy just to suggest to her that she needs to be a little more ‘‘practical and safe’’.
It isn’t long though before a new threat to Wonderland looms.
Sickness forces June’s mother out of the house to seek specialised medical treatment. Terrified, June goes into an obsessive compulsive overdrive, deciding that she needs to put away childish things. Little does she know that her actions have everyone from Boomer the Welcome Bear to Steve the Safety Officer – and Peanut – fearing for their future.
Notable for being a rare cinematic release not to have a credited director (the original helmer, Pixar veteran Dyan Brown, was allegedly fired for ‘‘inappropriate and unwanted conduct’’), Wonder Park is solid, but unspectacular school holiday entertainment.
While the girl-creates-themepark premise produces some magnificent and intricate candycoloured creations, there’s precious little originality on display. The ‘‘darkness’’ threatening Wonderland is a threat straight out of The Neverending Story and A Wrinkle in Time playbook, while June’s journey into the inner reaches of the park reminded this adult of a kids’ version of Vincent Ward’s What Dreams May Come.
Even a ‘‘splendiferous’’ montage of mother-daughter moments feels like a lesser version of Up’s famous heartbreaker.
Likewise, while the writing trio do a good job of never letting the pace flag, their characters feel somewhat one-dimensional, with even the likes of John Oliver, Ken Jeong and Mila Kunis unable to make them truly memorable.
Seemingly destined to find a second life as a Nickelodeon television series, as a big-screen outing, Wonder Park offers mildly diverting fun.