User Reviews

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is the animated adaptation of the book and the existing live-action film.

The film is about Greg Heffley wanting to find ways to bond with Rodrick, even though he is a bad role-model to him and isn't always the brightest of people. When Rodrick throws a party and Greg promises that he will not tell his Mom or Dad about it, Rodrick showcases him his own rules of how to go through in life, which includes a visit to Leisure Towers, and a winter talent show as well.

The main problem I have with the movie is that like with the animated adaptation of the first book, the movie doesn't make you feel all that excited if you've read the book, it just throws together scenes without any excitement whatsoever. The live-action movie did a better job at this because you don't expect to see the impossible happen in that. There are a few notable scenes I would say are random, like when Greg plays Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" on a gramophone to get rid of Rodrick's friends, which I think is meant to be based on a scene where Greg's Dad plays classical music to get rid of some teenagers in the book version. The "Peeping Tom" scene was quite humorous and the chase sequence, while uninspiring as it's been seen before in other movies, was entertaining to watch seeing the Leisure Towers ladies chasing Greg around.

As with the first animated movie, the characters are made to be more likeable, which still sorta takes away the character given to Greg, Rodrick, etc. Still, some may like this change, but some may not like it.

The voice acting is okay at best, not much to say there. You still have the cast from the previous movie playing their roles, but there are two notable additions here are Jimmy Tatro as Bill Walter, Rodrick's 35-year-old friend, and the late Ed Asner as Grampa Heffley. Both pretty interesting additions to the animated cast, and may Ed Asner rest in peace.

The animation is once again the same outsourced CGI from Bardel Entertainment, so it's pretty bland at times. It has improved a tiny bit, but barely noticeable.

Overall, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is just an okay film. The main fact that it takes things away and simplifies some of the storyline much like the first animated adaptation says something, but at the same time it is still an entertaining movie to watch.

This movie sucked. I was partially excited for this one, but the more I think about how they will make a movie out of EVERY book, they won't be able to because a new book comes out every year, also The Last Straw may not be good either. Despite being a good book.

On to the review. When we open the movie, we skip at least 40 PAGES and 20-30 MINUTES of the orignal live-action movie. Greg and Rodrick weren't punished. Apparently the parents go on a honeymoon with.... Manny? You know what, I just sum it up in 30 words or less now.

This movie is dumb, it's disrespectful to the source material, it's boring, it's forgetable, don't waste 70+ minutes of your time, watch The Pagemaster instead.

I wasn't really expecting a sequel to the first animated adaptation of Diary of a Wimpy Kid after how badly it turned out to be. As expected, this animated adaptation of the second book with the same name isn't much better.

This one being about Greg Heffley and his older brother Rodrick Heffley learning how to get along is only slightly better in terms of the story. I'll admit there are like three minor improvements being the fact that it's longer than its predecessor with an actual feature length runtime, the fact that it doesn't feel as tedious, and the scene with Greg's grandfather was a nice addon to the story. This is all I'm going to give this film. It still feels like a poorly written brother bond plot that tries to stretch out the story from the original book. The first movie lacked a cohesive story because it was too short, but this one lacks a cohesive story because not much is able to be added. When the live action adaptation of Rodrick Rules was made, the filmmakers also adapted the third book Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw into the picture which honestly helped structure the storyline better due to the simplicity of the second book it's based on. It may sound like a nitpick but not much really happens in this film and the characters still have trouble developing properly.

Rodrick Heffley is meant to be the careless older brother who bullies Greg and his only goal is to play at a school talent show for his Loaded Diper band, unfortunately he's not very imitating here. Greg isn't really unlikable which is good but he doesn't develop either and both Heffleys are just seen arguing in a series of events that leads to mostly nothing. It also confuses me how Greg's parents Susan and Frank Heffley left them at home and went on the Heffley trip without them when neither of them have done anything wrong to deserve it. Oh wait that's because they left out the scene where Rodrick embarasses Greg at church, no wonder that feels off.

Just like its predecessor the animation still looks uncanny and unfinished. I would've thought after a whole year of production Disney would let the animation team upgrade the awful 3D models but they didn't. It once again just looks like nobody cares about the visual work of this movie that needs to be polished in order to fit CGI. It's even more noticeable when some of the background characters look like disfigured shapes smooshed together.

Yeah this is pretty much what you would expect from a Disney+ cashgrab sequel to a cashgrab adaptation. They had a chance to improve and they didn't. It's just telling us how worthless these newer animated movies on their streaming service aren't worth anyone's time.

Rodrick rules was absolutely awesome. Kids will go crazy when they watch this on Disney plus . I have a feeling diray of a wimpy kid will have more projects next year and the year before that . The cast for this movie have made a remarkable comeback playing the characters in this movie . The live action films will always be the best for 20th century studios. But now it's Disneys turn to make more diray of a wimpy kids movies . And maybe release them in theaters for all kids and sell merchandise in all stores and that will draw lots of kids to see the movie over and over again .

Merry Christmas 🎄 Roderick.

Santa's watching you.