Believe it or not Wonder Woman and Captain Underpants share a few things in common. Both are based on existing written material, are a different but unique type of superhero, plans for a feature film have been in the works for quite a long time, and are finally making their big-screen debut on the same weekend.
Born on the island
of Themyscria
Ever since her debut in Batman
V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman has been the one
glimmer of hope for these dark and dismal DC movies and sure enough it's the
movie that will finally please fans and other moviegoers after the likes of Man of Steel, Batman V. Superman and Suicide Squad. Maybe it’s because I up
grew up watching the Super Friends
and Justice League cartoons but I
found Wonder Woman better in
animation than in the live-action movie. From much of the dialogue, action, and
characters, it wasn’t always executed strongly as I hoped it would be.
Interestingly, while Marvel is doing well with its movies and DC not so much,
when it comes to cartoons, DC has had better success than Marvel. However, I
will give credit where credit is due. Wonder
Woman is one of the better DC movies in recent years thanks to Patty
Jenkins who is not only the first woman
to direct a superhero movie but has given us a good female superhero movie,
erasing atrocities like Supergirl (1984),
Elektra (2005) and Catwoman (2004) that gave superheroine
cinema a bad name. While there were moments where I saw actors instead of
characters the cast do a well job. Gadot and Pine are great and work well off
each other; the supporting cast are also great with Lucy Fields (Shaun of the Dead and U.K.'s The Office) as Etta who is Steve's
Secretary, French actor Saïd Taghmaoui as Sameer a master of disguise soldier,
Ewen Brenner (T2 Trainspotting) as
Charlie a drunk but skilled sharpshooter, and The Chief (Eugene Brave Rock,
stuntman on The Revenant) a smuggler
who gets them on the battle front.
Despite my critique on the action, it is spot-on on more
than one occasion, seeing Diana interact with mankind and society are the
highlights of the film as well as being an inspiration to everyone around her.
I may not be on the hype train but Wonder
Woman still delivers that you won’t regret watching it again and again.
Based on the popular book series by Dav Pilkey (who also
serves as executive producer) and a screenplay from Nicholas Stoller the
director behind Storks is DreamWorks
Aniamtion's Captain Underpants: The First
Epic Adventure. Like the books we follow George Beard (Kevin Hart) and
Harold Hutchins (Thomas Middleditch) best freinds who make comic books and play
plenty of pranks. Unfortunately, they have the worst principal ever Mr. Krupp
(Ed Helms), a mean and vicious curmudgeon who enjoys seeing kids miserable.
After getting caught in the act the two boys hypnotize their principal and
transform him into the bold but dim-witted brief-wearing superhero Captain
Underpants. While the boys try to keep Mr. Krupp's alter-ego under control, a
new science teacher is hired who goes by the name (and I can't believe I'm
typing this) Professor Poopypants (Nick Kroll) who plans to extinguish laughter
from the world due to everyone making fun his name with the help of the smug school
nerd Melvin Sneedy (Jordan Peele).
Like the live-action Disney remakes
(The Jungle Book and Cinderella) the movie has elements of
the first four books but isn’t an exact adaption as it focuses on being its own
story and similar to 2015’s The Peanuts Movie
it captures the style and tone of source material fluidly. My thoughts on the
movie are exactly as the books, Witty, zany and full of memorable characters
that kids will get a kick with small moments that adults will like. True it can
be childish and immature with its constant low-brow and potty humor, but like
its troublesome duo George and Harold it’s harmless and never mean-spirited.
While I am disappointed that adult actors were used to play kid roles, the fact
that the movie version respects the books it’s based on and preserves the
personalities of the characters, the performances eventually grew on me. The
movie could have kept Mr. Krupp as a stereotypical sadist principal found in
kid movies, but is instead given some humanizing moments, something that was
never explored in the books that I give the film props for it.
Is this movie for everyone?
Probably not, its sense of humor may not be for everyone but as one character
states once you get past the toilet humor it’s pretty funny. Did I mention the
movie’s theme song is sung by Weird Al Yankovic? Awesome!
Both movies made a strong on-screen debut and here’s to
hoping for the next exciting adventure with the Amazonian Princess and
Wristband Warrior.
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