Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) review

Dir. David Soren

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★½

Captain Underpants was among one of the first book series I not only worshiped but read on my own as a child. I was a super-fan, hording all of the installments, including spinoffs such as Super Diaper Baby and the two volumes of the All New Extra Crunchy Books O’ Fun. I even went on to buy the re-releases of the first two Captain Underpants books, which were reissued with hardback, holographic covers.

The Captain Underpants series was integral to my childhood, so much so that even as a young boy, I dreamed of a movie or a TV show finally coming to fruition. My only complaint after seeing the new Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is that I wish it had came thirteen years earlier, where I assume it would’ve been a theatrical event on-par with a second-tier superhero film like Ant-Man.

However, unlike Ratchet & Clank, another belated film-adaptation of a 2000s property, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is everything a past or present fan of the long-running book series could’ve hoped for and then some. Series creator and author Dav Pilkey serves as an overseer on the project, and makes sure everything from the hero’s catchphrase (“Tra-La-Laaaa!”) to the use of Flip-O-Rama technology is included in a lightning-fast, 85 minute film that knows how to be a sweet parable on childhood, a great-looking animated film, and a charmingly silly commitment to its source material.

Like the series, the film revolves around the lives of prankster young boys George Beard (voiced by Kevin Hart) and Harold Hutchins (Thomas Middleditch), who have gone through their elementary days with the simple goal of making one another laugh. Such a motive is disarmingly sweet motivation for two kids that specialize in the realm of whoopie cushion pranks and making life difficult for their curmudgeon principal Mr. Krupp (Ed Helms). Principal Krupp has confiscated a myriad of devices and trinkets the boys use to amuse themselves, including their own, homemade “Captain Underpants” comics, revolving around a briefs-clad hero dismantling a host of heroes with potty-mouthed names.

When Krupp threatens to place George and Harold in separate classes following their latest prank, George takes his confiscated Hypno-Ring and uses it in hopes that it will hypnotize his principal. Shockingly, it does the trick so effectively that every time George or Harold snap their fingers, Krupp turns into the best superhero in history, Captain Underpants. The hypnosis wears off in an instant, however, if Krupp comes in contact with water.

The hero’s inception comes at the right time as the disgraced Nobel Prize winner Professor Poopypants (Nick Kroll) applies for the newly vacant job as the science teacher of George and Harold’s school. His plan encompasses the removal of a part of kids’ brains that allows for humor to resonate and laughter to commence, something the two boys will need Captain Underpants to help stop.

With The Boss Baby, the other film from DreamWorks Animation this year, finally coming to a close in cinemas after a terrific theatrical run, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie comes at the right time in hopes to ignite a new fire and direction for the animation studio. Rather than trying to one-up Pixar at their own game, it looks as if, going forward, DreamWorks will operate as a studio intent on making films that resemble the visual fluidity and frantic sensibilities of cartoons. Intricate emphasis on gloss and lighting techniques don’t seem out of reach for DreamWorks as much as they seem unimportant in the face of making uniformly solid films that appeal to children first and adults second, and there’s nothing at all wrong with that.

But Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie could’ve unequivocally failed in bringing the inherently immature humor of Pilkey’s book series to the screen, but screenwriter Nicholas Stoller (Get Him to the Greek, The Muppets) emphatically commits himself to making a film that flows with the kind of imagination and interactivity of the average creative child’s mind. He creates a rip-roaring universe aided by exceptional animation and narrative sincerity that makes Captain Underpants work from the entertaining opening, which is designed like one of George and Harold’s comic-books.

The animation here also reminds me of Blue Sky Animation’s The Peanuts Movie, but isn’t totally the same. Captain Underpants favors a cool, midnight-blue color palette with a lot of graphic novel-like patterns that make the cylindrically rendered characters pop out like colorful tubes on-screen. What could’ve been wonky and unappealing to look at winds up being a noteworthy advancement from Pilkey’s simple yet engaging drawings.

One of my initial worries with the film, judging solely off of name-recognition and the accompanying trailers, was the voice-cast assembled for the picture. I remember reading your average Captain Underpants book as a young child and trying to rack my brain over who I would get to voice George, Harold, and Captain Underpants in a film or television adaptation. While I’ll admit Kevin Hart nor Ed Helms would’ve been my first choice – though I struggle to this day to try and coherently answer who would’ve been – it only took about one minute before I fully bought their spirited, if recognizable, cadence as the identities of two of my favorite characters as a child. The voice-cast here is splendid, particularly with Helms playing a challenging duality he knocks out of the park from the very first moment he goes from Krupp to Captain Underpants.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie moves along at a pace that keeps up with its zany storyline, and concludes by giving the caped hero a wonderfully exuberant theme song by “Weird Al” Yankovic. It works in making you realize how rare it is to discover a crowning achievement in animated slapstick in its most elemental form, and connects with the one’s wide-eyed, childlike wisdom despite the heyday of its source material existing largely in the rear-view. It’s not only a wildly successful adaptation, but it’s a strong testament to the potential of DreamWorks going forward as a decade of ups and downs nears its home-stretch.

My review of Dog Man

Starring: Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch, Ed Helms, Nick Kroll, Jordan Peele, and Kristen Schaal. Directed by: David Soren.