Review of Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) by Brunovn00 — 10 Nov 2019

Well this was unexpected. Captain Underpants is a movie I didn't expect to like as much as I like it. At first I thought it would be another dumb kids movie with toilet humor every five seconds but it actually turned out to be something different, for the most part.

There were things I didn't expect to like as much, like the animation and the visuals. This movie is colorful, energetic, full of style and looks nothing like other Dreamworks movies. It is pretty obvious that they went for a look that is accurate to the source material and I like it.

I wonder how Shrek, How To Train Your Dragon or The Boss Baby would've look like if they went the same direction with those. The humor was surprisingly really good. This movie is very "meta" at some points and has some really good self-aware humor I did not see coming.

Sure it has some toilet humor here and there. For example, there is a scene where they start making fart noises with numerous whoopee cushions and it is so annoying, but thank god that it doesn't last too long, and the movie actually makes fun of the fact that toilet humor is for the lowest common denominator (which is something I totally agree).

The voice acting was also pretty good. Ed Helms as Principal Krupp/Captain Underpants was really good, so good that he even got a voice acting Annie nomination. I'm not a fan of Kevin Hart and his attempt to make the voice of a kid was a bit annoying at first but then I started to get used to his voice and it turned into an OK performance.

Other than that, the acting for the most part was really good. The villain was pathetic. His motivation was so dumb and his actions and dialogue are even dumber, but okay, I get it, that is the point.

He's supposed to be pathetic. He reminded me of the Joker from The LEGO Batman Movie, which was also a pathetic villain which you shouldn't take seriously. Really nothing in this movie wants to be taken seriously.

It's a really entertaining, cleverly written at times and fun movie and not much else. It's not a great movie. Mainly because the source material isn't "masterpiece material", because even if it is self-aware of its dumb toilet humor, it still has toilet humor, and I'm not a big fan of that.

Regardless you should give it a watch. It is definetely worth your time. I dare to say that this is one of the best animated movies of 2017, but to be honest, it doesn't have to much competition. 2017 s*cked in animated films.