Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

Most would agree that books like "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Shrek" weren't famous until DreamWorks created their animated adaptations. Unlike those original books, "Captain Underpants" was very popular long before the DreamWorks' movie as evidenced by the fact that the series consists of 12 books and that's not including the spin-off books by the way. I forget at what point I came across a copy for the first time that my brothers brought home from the school library. I do remember being attracted to the sense of humor immediately. There was silliness, breaking the fourth wall and lampooning of elementary school life. The filmmakers thankfully were able to take these qualities and translate them onto the big screen quite effectively. Unlike other childish films, there is a respectfulness for the source material.

I think the biggest reason why "Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie" worked on the big screen was that author Dav Pilkey acted as the executive producer. This allowed for his original vision to be honoured and this was vital because the original books have such a large following. The story of the movie is a combination of two of Pilkey's books, "The Adventures of Captain Underpants" and "Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants", with the inclusion of the character of Melvin. I was impressed though that the filmmakers introduced some sincere storytelling when making the movie. For little kids to lose their best friend is a serious issue and the film depicts this. The film also causes you to feel sorry for Mr. Krupp and giving him a love interest was the perfect resolution because it solves everyone's problems. The filmmakers were very successful at bring the character of Principal Krupp and Captain Underpants to life. What makes him different from other superheroes is that Krupp has no idea about his alter ego. Pilkey, in his books, twisted the concept of a superhero's secret identity and the film has even more fun with it. It is not uncommon for a hero to be inept compared to his sidekicks and neither were Pilkey's books the first time elementary school was lampooned from the perspective of kids. After all, who can forget about Disney's TV show "Recess"? Pilkey achieved originality by combining these two premises together when he created a bungling hero in the form of a hypnotized principal. I loved the origin of the 3D Hypno ring as it references the One Ring. Some might say that it was too coincidental to have the ring in Krupp's stash pile of George and Harold's stuff but considering the source material and story, I can easily overlook this. In the first ever book, George orders the ring in the mail because Krupp is blackmailing him and Harold. As mentioned, the filmmakers did not follow the original book verbatim so there wasn't enough time in this story to mail for the ring with a friendship in immediate danger and all. I was impressed by the design of the movie. It doesn't look like a film from DreamWorks and that allows Pilkey's source material to shine. Turning his style into 3D worked better than I could have imagined. The only other films that I feel did a better job of turning a distinctive 2D look into 3D were "Tintin", "The Peanuts Movie" and "Tangled". I was waiting to see if and how the filmmakers would incorporate Flip-o-Rama and I wasn't let down. The fast pace of a film can sometimes ruin the story but I think the source material in this case demanded it. What I am most thankful to DreamWorks for in making this movie is that I finally know how to sing Captain Underpants' theme song.

When I read "Captain Underpants", I always imagined kid voices for George and Harold but I got used to the voices in this animated film. The filmmakers made good casting choices in the movie such as Kevin Hart. I also think that Ed Helms was the perfect choice for the title character. I'm glad DreamWorks didn't give this movie to a first-time director. David Soren has worked for the studio since the late 90's and this is his second directorial film. DreamWorks Animation is still a hit-and-miss company for me after years of comparison with Pixar. DreamWorks seems more interested in making as many movies and as much money as they can. They pick and choose which movies to work hard on instead of making fewer movies in order to work hard on all of them. What I find a little annoying is that their critical failures still seem to gross enough money to be hits. In the case of "Captain Underpants", it has the lowest budget for a computer-animated film in the nearly twenty-year history of the studio. I would hope that's because of the design of the movie and not another way for the studio to make the biggest profit possible. "Captain Underpants" is the last film from DreamWorks that 20th Century Fox will distribute before DreamWorks changes distributors again for the second time. This is evidence for me that DreamWorks is focused on business instead of true entertainment and art.

"Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie" is good enough to be a hit in my book because of how respectful DreamWorks was to the source material. They were the right choice to handle this adaptation. I usually don't appreciate childish movies but there is a difference this time in that the childishness is on purpose and the story was given the attention needed to entertain all members of the audience. The original books did draw some controversy because some people thought its immaturity and rebelliousness went too far. The filmmakers thankfully did not push the envelope. The film has everything you loved about the books. The question I keep asking myself is whether I would have liked the movie if I had no knowledge of the books. It is hard to say but I think I still would have liked the film. The design and sense of humor probably would have won me over.

3.5 Stars out of 5