My 6 and 9 year olds love this movie. As I type this we are watching it for the third time since it arrived a few days ago.
This is not Citizen Kane, obviously, but for what it is, it works really well. The story is simple and mostly predictable. The characters aren’t particularly deep. But this is based off a cartoon. I wouldn’t expect anything more than we are given.
Entering it with that frame of mind, it’s fun, moves along easily, and has a number of scenes that had my kids laugh out loud. There’s no profanity or suggestive scenes, so it’s silly and family friendly.
It’s a shame that Universal has largely turned their back on America’s favorite woodpecker. I would love to have seen this put out in theaters and actually given some support.
Still though, with a limited budget and seemingly minimal support, they were still able to crank out a nice, simple, easy movie with a long beloved cartoon hero.
I have a feeling we will watch this again (and again...), and I’m good with that.