The Bob’s Burgers Movie
Another animated TV sitcom is brought to the big screen with mixed results but some verbal wit.
Bob’s Burgers was not a critical success when it first aired on Fox TV in 2011. Even so, it secured a second season in 2012 and its critical standing has been growing incrementally ever since, winning raves by its fifth season in 2014. One could say it is an acquired taste. Then there was the cable syndication, the comic book series, the virtual pinball game, the two soundtrack albums and now the feature film, awkwardly titled The Bob’s Burgers Movie, which won’t make a lot of sense to most people. It’s not exactly Chicken Run or Ratatouille. Or even Sausage Party – thank God.
Aiming to capitalise on the brand’s emergent popularity, the sitcom’s creator Loren Bouchard expands the narrative framework here, if not the show’s ambitions. The animation retains the scrappy comic-strip look with which devotees of The Simpsons and American Dad will be familiar. And the voice artists repeat their small-screen characterisations, notably Dan Mintz as Linda Belcher, the matriarch, and John Roberts as her daughter, the hormonally confused Tina Belcher. And, yes, they sound like men. Then, for a bit of celebrity glitter, there are guest vocal turns from the likes of Paul Rudd, Jordan Peele and Sarah Silverman.
It is H. Jon Benjamin who voices the titular Bob, the future of whose fast food eatery is being threatened on three fronts: the bank is refusing to extend their loan (in spite of a bribe in the form of a burger), they are unable to meet the rent on their home and a massive sinkhole has appeared outside their premises, preventing easy access by any potential customers. But there’s a lot more going on besides, in which the three Belcher children, Tina, Gene and Louise, battle with their own adolescent issues, as well as the spectre of a murderer on the loose.
There is no denying that the script is very funny, all the more so as the lines are delivered in such a dry, understated manner. And in spite of much of the crudity, the dialogue is so whiplash fast that most of the rudery will fly over the heads of children. Even so, this is really adult fare, even if the bizarre on-screen shenanigans are unlikely to disturb any attendant juveniles – they may just feel that they are missing out on something. This is dialogue-driven comedy. Surprisingly, The Bob’s Burgers Movie is also a semi-musical, with five or six numbers thrown into the mix, depending on one’s definition of a song. It’s a bizarre mishmash and, being the acquired taste that it is, it gets funnier as it goes along (much of the humour is contextual). Nonetheless, the underwhelming visual style and the sketchiness of the material means that it may be savoured better in short bursts. It really does feel like an extended TV sitcom.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Voices of H. Jon Benjamin, Dan Mintz, Eugene Mirman, Larry Murphy, John Roberts, Kristen Schaal, Zach Galifianakis, Kevin Kline, David Wain, Gary Cole, John Q. Kubin, Nick Kroll, Stephanie Beatriz, Sarah Silverman, Jordan Peele, Paul Rudd, Jenny Slate.
Dir Loren Bouchard and Bernard Derriman, Pro Janelle Momary-Neely, Loren Bouchard and Nora Smith, Screenplay Loren Bouchard and Nora Smith, Pro Des Ruben Hickman, Ed Kris Fitzgerald, Music Loren Bouchard, Patrick & Tim Dacey, Elegant Too, John Dylan Keith and Brent Knopf.
20th Century Animation/20th Century Family/Bento Box Entertainment/Wilo Productions-Walt Disney Studios.
102 mins. USA. 2022. Rel: 27 May 2022. Cert. PG.
