A slick remake of Forties noir film, Detour
Ihad expected to start this review by saying that my now young-adult children were too old for Captain Underpants, which I assumed was why I had never heard of him. But then I did a bit of basic research and discovered that wasn’t true. They were bang on the right age to enjoy Dav Pilkey’s splendidly scatological books, so I can only put the omission down to snobbish cultural elitism – no child of mine was going to read something so silly and called something as offputting as, er, Captain Underpants.
For all of which, dear children, I apologise. For Captain Underpants (U) – at least based on the deliciously silly cartoon that’s just been made from those stories – is an absolute treat: funny, clever and quite beautifully constructed. Without a doubt it’s one of the best children’s comedies I’ve seen all year and, quite possibly, one that accompanying parents will enjoy even more than their offspring.
The basic premise is so witty and well executed. George (voiced really well by Kevin Hart) and Harold (Thomas Middleditch) are two eight-year-olds who have been best friends ever since they both giggled at the word ‘Uranus’ during a kindergarten astronomy lesson. Now they’re in fourth grade, where they like writing their Captain Underpants comics – ‘faster than a speeding waistband’ – and playing practical jokes on their bad-tempered principal, Mr Krupp (Ed Helms).
But it’s when, to their astonishment, they successfully hypnotise Mr Krupp that they realise they can finally bring Captain Underpants – the most well-meaning but wonderfully dim of superheroes – to life. From now on, when they click their fingers, Mr Krupp becomes Captain Underpants. ‘Tra-la-la!’ as his woeful catchphrase goes.
George and Harold are wonderful comic creations. I love that George does the words and Harold the pictures – an echo of the classic copywriter and art director divide from the grownup world – and I love that they are wise beyond their years but never inappropriate and always retain an eight-yearold’s love for fun and anything lavatorial. Which, given that their new science master is not just a fiendish villain out to rid the world of laughter but is also called Professor Poopypants, is just as well. So much more fun than I was expecting. Which is not something you can say of Monster Island (PG) which turns out to be the sort of dark, gothic cartoon you might make if you’ve been watching too much Tim Burton but haven’t got his talent.
Right from a surprisingly scary start, it’s clear that this cartoon – made by the Mexican animation house Anima Estudios – is not one for small children. The central character is Lucas, a 13-year-old boy being brought up by his slightly over-protective car-mechanic father. He’s desperate to get to the next stage of life and do proper teenage stuff like going to parties, but when he defies his father and creeps out of the house to go to one he is humiliated – Carrie-style – by a pretty classmate. Carrie destroyed the school gym but Lucas… well, he turns into a big pink monster. Which is definitely a surprise. Even when his father explains that he comes from a long line of monsters who originally hail from the difficult-to-find floating island of Calaca. Apart from some interesting walking trees that are part-tree, part-elephant, nothing really works in a clumsily constructed tale. The voice performances are so-so, the portrayal of women dated, and the sporadic and laboured attempts at humour close to lamentable. It does pick up a bit of momentum as Lucas closes in on the evil uncle who might be able to explain what happened to his longmissing mother but, by then, it’s way too late.