Animation Heads: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Hey folks, Jackson Mershon and Anthony Saccente here. And we’re the animation heads! Today we’ll give you our thoughts on Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a 2021 animated film from a script by Jeff Kinney and based on Kinney’s 2007 book of the same name. Serving as a reboot and the fifth installment overall in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series, the film marks the first animated entry in the series. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is produced by Walt Disney Pictures alongside 20th Century Animation (which originally produced the film but remained uncredited) and was released on Disney+ as a Disney+ original film on December 3, 2021. It received mixed-to-positive reviews, with some praising the film for its animation, voice acting, and humor, and others criticizing it for its short length and sophomoric state.

Greg Heffley is an ambitious kid with an active imagination and big plans to be rich and famous. The problem is that he has to survive middle school first.

Jackson’s Thoughts:

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, 20th Century Fox´s under-57-minute animated film, is a bizarre but spirited enough watch. This interpretation of Jeff Kinney´s bestselling book series takes a simple jab at the coming-of-age story as past film interpretations had, but in a condensed and more focused state, whilst having the animation attempt to stay faithful to the original art style of the books (a respectable attempt). The themes of friendship, growing up, and adapting to change stay consistent and are well-delivered in context of the plot, and the film succesfully avoids replicating the live-action film too much (something I was half-expecting). Though the film doesn´t stray too far from the source material, which is appreciable, it lacks strong delivery and overall originality. The film does reside in strong voice acting in it´s leads (Brady Noon as Greg and Ethan William Chidress as Rowley), as well as an easily-ignorable, albeit generic, soundtrack that is more effective and decently written than it first seems. The characters and screenplay are written effectively, which were appreciablly written by the series creator. Weird moments can be found (odd detail censorship, zoom-call-quality voice audio bits, and patchy frames in the animation), but these can be easy to miss, and do not detr this film from staying an overall enjoyable watch for fans of these books. The effort can be seen and appreciated, but nothing remains outstanding in the end.

Score:

5.5/10

Anthony’s Thoughts:

The best way to explain Diary of a Wimpy Kid is that it is certainly a quick watch. First off, the film is only 57 minutes long WITH credits. Even the older Disney movies could get over the one hour mark. I don’t know if that is because the filmmakers intended to keep the film short, or if they just ran out of time. Either way, it is extremely puzzling. But the biggest problem with the film is that the middle schoolers are not believable. Every kid not named Greg or Rowley is either a bully or someone who gets bullied. There is no middle ground whatsoever. To anyone who got through middle school, this does not make a whole lot of sense. The animation does not have the best execution, but its heart is in the right place. I love how 20th Century tried to replicate the visual style of the books it is based off of, just like what Blue Sky did with The Peanuts Movie (2015). Where it falls short is having that style mesh with the environment. The lip movements don’t always sync up properly with the dialogue of the characters. And the characters don’t seem to belong in the same world they are supposed to be in. Where this film does shine is with the voice acting. All of the actors, particularly Brady Noon (voice of Greg Heffley) and Ethan William Childress (voice of Rowley Jefferson), do a nice job of conveying emotion and bringing life to their characters. Combine that with the spirited character designs, and there will be room for some laughs. Overall, this is worth a watch for fans of the books and/or prior movies. If that is not you, then I would still give it a watch considering how short the film is.

Score:

6/10