“Well, I’m of two minds.
And by that I mean ‘drunk’.”
May goodness bless Kevin Kline to the end of his days and beyond.
There are good ideas in this life and there are bad ideas. An example of a good idea would be not to build a beachfront coastal town below sea level. An example of a bad idea would be to produce a feature-length episode of an animated sitcom without attempting anything new, even in the slightest.
The producers of The Bob’s Burgers Movie wisely chose the lesser of two evils though, as the Belcher family going on a wacky, worldwide adventure, engorged with gratuitous celebrity voice cameos, would have been a hateful act indeed. Quite rightly, the producers instead chose to keep it simple: “Hey, let’s make a regular episode that just happens to be 102 minutes long!”, one of them surely said.
Kudos for that restraint, I must say.
The problem is, The Bob’s Burgers Movie is a regular episode that just happens to be 102 minutes long, therefore utterly pointless. You can get the same information and experience from the series, with enough time left to cook dinner.
Perhaps a better idea would have been to have a locked-off shot of the titular restaurant’s serving counter or hatch for 90 minutes, as customer after customer come in and cause petty dramas for our beloved flamboyant family. Make it a strange art piece in the style of a “bottle episode”, to use the official industry term.
I’m genuinely struggling to think of what else to say about this thing, as there really isn’t anything. The Belcher kids go on a murder mystery so dull it makes the one in The Batman seem mildly diverting. Bob and Linda try to rescue their failing business, which I’m pretty sure happens in every other episode of the series. There are musical numbers, but they’re so irritatingly dull they make the ones in The Batman seem… oh wait.
Sadly, the characters don’t shine in movie form, as they are very much slaves to motion picture pacing, rather than the other way around as is the case with any television show. The Belcher kids’ dialogue seems to be handed out to them randomly, so Tina emotes when she should be dry, and Gene is dry when he should emote. Louise softened up years ago, and has become the Lisa Simpson of Bob’s Burgers AKA the exposition. What a tragedy indeed. Nowhere does she scream random nonsense and attempt to cause strife within the family for her own monetary gain.
I have a theory that, in the early days of the series, the producers just allowed the great, great Kristen Schaal to do whatever she wanted in the vocal booth, which was in the interest of humanity as a whole. Then, perhaps due to financial difficulties, an efficiency consultant was called in and suggested that Schaal be handed a teleplay to read from instead. Cue the quality of the show going down considerably.
I did not buy bunny ears and place them carefully on my fluffy sloth for this Louise.
So, yes, I’m very sad to report that I suffered The Bob’s Burgers Movie as one might suffer an afternoon in a dentists waiting room. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world, it was just sort of fine.
Just… fine.
As hinted at above, we are mercifully treated to Kline’s truly inspired returning Mr Fishoeder creation, a man who lives as though he sees the matrix every hour of every day, and cares not for our human concerns. He’s rich enough not to care, but cares enough to idly exist amongst lower lifeforms for his own mild amusement.
Wonderful.
By all means give The Bob’s Burgers Movie a try. I may have exaggerated somewhat with my above waiting room analogy, but you certainly won’t laugh much or learn anything new about the characters or, goodness forbid, yourself. At least everyone involved in the production got paid though, so that’s something to feel positive about.
It’s fine.
Do stay in touch, darlings.
Toodles!
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