Directed By Loren Bouchard and Bernard Derriman

Starring – H. Jon Benjamin, Kristen Schaal, Dan Mintz

The Plot – The story begins when a ruptured water main creates an enormous sinkhole right in front of Bob’s Burgers, blocking the entrance indefinitely and ruining the Belchers’ plans for a successful summer. While Bob (Benjamin) and Linda (John Roberts) struggle to keep the business afloat, the kids try to solve a mystery that could save their family’s restaurant. As the dangers mount, these underdogs help each other find hope and fight to get back behind the counter, where they belong.

Rated PG-13 for rude/suggestive material and adult language

Official Trailer | The Bob’s Burgers Movie | 20th Century Studios – YouTube

POSITIVES

Following in the footsteps of previous animated shows taking the cinematic route, like “The Simpsons” and “South Park”, so too does “Bob’s Burgers”, with an experience ripe with juicy authenticity to lose nothing in ensuing translation. This will certainly make longtime enthusiasts of the show excited, as their typical expectations of punchlines a minute are delivered feverishly throughout the 97-minute run time, all the while cementing a uniqueness to personality and material that makes this stand out from other animated properties of the contemporary age. More times than not, audiences will leave elated with imaginative puns and clever references that not only elicit several long-winded laughs between prolonged payoffs, but also a deeper sense of respect for the gifted ensemble vocalizing such bizarrely intoxicating characters with such earnestness. On this aspect, Schaal is definitely the scene-stealer with regards to the magnitude of her material, combining an underlining rage and cunning wit for Louise that often make her such an unpredictable character, complete with spontaneous breakdowns that amplify and intentionally overexert teenage vulnerability with hysterical humility. However, in the most bang for the circumstantial buck, it’s Benjamin who makes the most of the animated opportunity, anointing the titular protagonist with a defined emotional registry that doesn’t require animation to sell what the scene calls for, and instead maximizes the most of Benjamin’s potential musically with several sequence numbers that help evoke the internal struggle persisting from within his life-shaping conflict. The animation is also kept faithfully maintained with two-dimensional simplicity of frame rate, however with an increase to contrast that vividly intoxicates the allure of colorful canvases emanating in the city’s many gorgeous backdrops. This is further complimented by the presentation’s authentic shadow-play, which attain with them believability in the color distortion of various characters succumbing to imposing buildings and objects influencing the balance of natural lighting in the context of the narrative. It’s a simple but effective tool that renders attention to detail in the most synthetic of circumstances, supplanting three-dimensional versatility to two-dimensional illustrations to produce something immersive in the environment they spawn from. If sleek surroundings don’t capture your imagination, then the vast variety in detail certainly will, with just as much persisting in the many backgrounds at any given moment that give each shot a lived-in believability rarely afforded to two-dimensional animated properties, all the while prescribing a necessity for future rewatches in order to catch everything that you may have overlooked based solely on the need to pay attention to the on-going narrative persisting in the foreground.

NEGATIVES

While my first experience with “Bob’s Burgers” was more beneficial than non, I can say that a few nagging aspects diminished my interests with increased annoyance and had me thinking this is a property that certainly transfers better to half hour television instead of 97 minute cinema. First and foremost is the structure of the script, feeling like two different episodes shoehorned and stretched into one cohesive unit, with very little synergy to the movie’s pacing between them. This is especially the case during the second act, where repetition and even unnecessity weighs heavily towards the diminishing intrigue of the narrative, removing any semblance of urgency from the peril of the conflict that keeps it from feeling any more climactic than the typical weekly installment that is introduced and wrapped up within a half hour. This aforementioned conflict springs to life in the form of a murder mystery, that while shocking in animated format of the PG-13 variety, is unfortunately predictable from the telegraphed familiarity of its navigation. Part of this is certainly in the lack of exploration for the night in question that is practically ignored throughout, but the bigger problem is in the suspect narrowing, which unintentionally plays its hand by sifting through all of the suspects but one, leading to an engagement that quickly becomes boring by feeling a few steps ahead of the film at all times. Diminishing returns are also conjured up by the movie’s many musical numbers, which while intentionally emotionless as a result of the strangely bizarre characters that croon them, are none the less unappealing in lyrical or musical synergy that keep them from ever attaining a big screen spectacle in their inception. Part of the desire to include them feel like intentional padding, especially by the film’s midway mark when they start to stack unceremoniously, and though it is a faithful callback to aspects of the show, it’s one I wish they would’ve used more time and creativity to resonate whimsical exuberance in the realm of introspective exposition.

OVERALL
With rapid fire jokes emitting a beneficial consistency, “Bob’s Burgers the Movie” is charming and mostly inoffensive fun for summertime diversion. It’s a part mystery, part musical hybrid that simultaneously embraces hardcore enthusiasts without alienating those discovering it for the first time, and though its simplicity diminishes its big screen necessity to a fault, there’s something endearing about a property remaining faithful to the fans that have kept it greenlit for thirteen seasons.

My Grade: 6/10 or C