User Reviews

I saw "Captain Underpants:The First Epic Movie", starring the voices of Kevin Hart-The Ride Along movies, Meet Dave; Ed Helms-Vacation_2015, Meet Dave; Nick Kroll-Vacation_2015, Get Him to the Greek and Thomas Middleditch-The Bronze, Fun Size.

This is an animated movie based on the books written by Dav Pilkey-the first one was published in 1997 and no, I don't know exactly how many books there are. FYI:In 1997, when the first book came out, Dav Pilkey wanted Chris Farley to play Captain Underpants in a live action movie or TV series but unfortunately, Chris passed away and plans were dropped. For those unfamiliar with the books-like me-the premise is about 2 kids, voiced by Kevin and Thomas, that are best friends. They collaborate on their own comic book, with Kevin writing it and Thomas doing the art. Their favorite subject is a super hero called Captain Underpants, voiced by Ed. Ed also voices their principal at the school that is tired of the mischievous pranks that the 2 boys are always playing on him and other teachers, so he decides to separate them into different classes, thus destroying their friendship. That is when the boys, in a last ditch effort to stop the separation, whip out their hypnotizing ring that puts Ed under their commands. They try several things-act like a chicken, etc.-before settling on making Ed think that he is their hero, Captain Underpants. The animation has a low budget look to it but it works and it is funny. I must warn you though, there is a lot of potty humor-the kids will probably laugh more than the adults-but hey, there is nothing wrong with a little potty humor every once in a while. In fact, Nick plays a teacher named Professor Poopypants and there is a giant robot that is an actual walking, stomping toilet. As the end credits begin, there is a scene, but there is not one at the very end. The theme song is by Weird Al. It may not be for everyone but if you are looking for a good babysitter to pass some time for an hour or so, it should do the job. It's rated "PG" for some rude humor and has a running time of 1 hour & 29 minutes. I would probably buy it on DVD.

Based on the popular epic series of children's books by Dav Pilkey (also producing), I remember flicking through the first novel as a child, so I was really looking forward to seeing this cartoon adaptation. Basically in Piqua, Ohio, George (Kevin Hart) and Harold (Thomas Middleditch) are best friends in the fourth-grade, next-door neighbours and share a naughty sense of humour, which they often express, bringing joy and laughter to Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. The duo frequently prank the mean teachers, especially ill- mannered and fiendishly stern principal, Benjamin "Benny" Krupp (The Hangover's Ed Helms), and also create comic books about Captain Underpants, a superhero who fights crime while wearing only underwear and a cape, they sell their comics to school students through their company Treehouse Comics Inc, from their treehouse. George and Harold's pranking comes to an apparent end after tampering with a toilet invention, the Turbo Toilet 2000, at the extremely boring Invention Convention, the toilet's creator is the school's local snitch, intellectual Melvin Sneedly (Jordan Peele), who shows Krupp footage as evidence of their misbehaviour. Krupp decides as punishment to separate the boys in different classes, annihilating their friendship, to stop this Georhe and Harold route through Krupp's office to find the documents he needs to sign, in doing this they find a number of their confiscated items, including a 3D Hypno Ring George received out of a cereal box. When Krupp catches them and takes them to his office, George points the Hypno Ring at Krupp, he is surprised to discover that it actually works, he and Harold hypnotise Krupp into acting like animals. Finally, seeing that Krupp bears a resemblance to Captain Underpants, without his wig, they command him to become Captain Underpants, the headmaster strips to his underwear and uses the red curtains as a cape, but then he runs away to cause trouble in Piqua. Captain Underpants is a ridiculously enthusiastic, incredibly dimwitted superhero, but he does unintentionally foil a bank robbery, but the duo see the severity of their acts. George and Harold take him back to their treehouse, there they discover that they can turn Captain Underpants back into Krupp by splashing him with water, and can turn him back clicking their fingers. Believing that Krupp will continue with his plan to separate them, they decide to settle with Captain Underpants, but insist he be dressed up as Krupp, Captain Underpants agrees, with the pretence this is his secret identity, his sudden change of personality attracts the attention of and affection of shy and clumsy school lunch lady Edith (Kristen Schaal). Just when George and Harold think their troubles are over, an odd, German- accented scientist named Professor P. (Nick Kroll) visits the school, Captain Underpants (disguised as Krupp) hires him to be a new teacher, the duo are suspicious of him. As it turns out, Professor P. has a dastardly plan to get rid of laughter altogether, due to the fact that that people have made fun of his full name, Professor Pee-Pee Diarrheastein Poopypants, Esq., for years, he recruits Melvin to help him, due to his extreme incapability of having fun or humour. There is a point when Captain Underpants is unintentionally turned back into Krupp, it is raining, meaning that he remains wet, and the duo cannot transform him back clicking their fingers, they are finally separated and taken to separate classrooms, they believe their friendship is over. Soon, Professor Poopypants tries to take over town with a giant giant version of the Turbo Toilet 2000, fuelled by toxic food waste from the school cafeteria, and technology uses the power of Melvin's brain to turn all children into glum, humourless zombies. Krupp is starting to see the error of his mean ways, the duo manage to get back together, knowing that he is their only hope, Krupp becomes Captain Underpants, but having no actual superpowers he is effortlessly defeated trying to stop the villain, he is thrown into the toilet full of toxic waste. George and Harold are captured and turned into zombies, but when Professor Poopypants mentions the planet Uranus, this triggers the memory of the duo meeting and their sense of humour sparking, this breaks the trance and escape, their excessive laughter damages the Turbo Toilet 2000's computer. Upon consuming the mutated food leftovers, Captain Underpants acquires real superpowers, including super strength and flight, he rescues George and Harold, and defeats and shrinks Poopypants, but he does manage to get away flying on the back of a bee, vowing to return. Knowing that they cannot control Captain Underpants, George and Harold destroy the Hypno Ring to turn Krupp back into himself, permanently, they assume he will break them up as planned, but Krupp has had a change of heart, having read their comics, he finds them very funny, and he feels lonely and lovesick, so the duo set him up on a date with Edith. However, the remaining toxic waste has transformed a number of toilets into vicious monsters, while Edith and Krupp are dining, he snaps his own fingers, he once again becomes Captain Underpants, and carries George and Harold with him to help save the day, Harold exclaims his catchphrase said as the end of every Captain Underpants book (apart from the last), "here we go again!" Also starring Dee Dee Rescher as Ms. Ribble, Brian Posehn as Mr. Rected and director David Soren as Tommy. The actors are well chosen for the voices, the story is wonderfully silly, with good themes about friendship as well, the lead character that is "faster than a stretching waistband" is a hilariously incompetent hero, and it may be short on actual poop, but there are plenty of great slapstick and written jokes based on toilet humour, funniest scene is an orchestra of whoopee cushions, with burps and farts galore, the adults will have just as much fun as the kids watching, a fabulously funny and enjoyable family animated comedy. Very good!

"Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie" is an American English-language film from this year (2017) that runs for approximately 1.5 hours and is among the contenders for a spot as an Oscar nominee in the Best Animated Feature category. You probably have not heard too much yet about director Soren and writer Stoller, but they are both relatively experiences. By the way I am writing this review as somebody who watched the film today, but has never come across the Dav Pilkey novels that this is based on. Okay the story is about two best friends at school who hypnotize the principal into believing he was a superhero wearing nothing but his underpants because many superheroes kinda do. It is a pretty ridiculous plot, but the film is never essentially about that, but about the amazing love to detail that makes this one also worth seeing for grown-ups. It is 100% comedy, even if there is here and there a reference to society or characters that is not entirely comedic like the one about loneliness. But the moments that make this movie worth seeing are all about the fun, like when that stuffed camera animal looks sad when we hear that the principal even has it with him under the shower. And there are really many of these, at least one every 2-3 minutes. It is definitely a witty work.

But it also makes me a bit sad that the film is overall so pointless. If there is any message in here, then it is that friendship and love are better than being alone and that you should not take yourself so seriously and laugh about your own name too if it's Poopypants and that fart jokes and sounds and vulgar obscene humor is not childish, but accurate. I am not sure if I can agree with that. Anyway, from a translator perspective I found the Uranus/Urahn part especially interesting as I watched the film in German and they really did their best there in mastering the impossible challenge to not have one of the key jokes (appeared twice) getting lost in translation. As for the film itself, it was definitely a fun watch and almost all characters were memorable somehow, which shows again how well-written it all is, and another success for Jordan Peele who's truly enjoying a terrific 2017. I won't go into any great detail about the other voice actors here as I have watched the German version, so didn't hear any of them. But there are some fairly famous names in the list and you can check them out for yourself. I can see why this film has such an amazing reception at RT with the IMDb rating being relatively mediocre though. The title implies that they may make a sequel at some point and I'm all for it. Until then, this film here gets a thumbs-up from me and at this point it may be the best 2017 animated film I have seen so far, even if many contenders for the Oscars (especially Coco) are yet to be released. Captain Underpants gets a thumbs-up from me. 90 minutes very much worth seeing.

Now I know I haven't reviewed a movie and a TV show since my Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs (2017) review, but I decided to not only go back with IMDb reviews since the most recent movies I've saw didn't make me fell like reviewing it, but to express my opinions on movies and TV shows, anyway, let's review Captain Undrepants, yeah! Before I explain the plot, let me tell you about the Captain Underpants books by Dav Pilkey, I read them as a young kid (Ok, not all of them, but just the four first books, the 6th, the 8th and the 9th), anyway, back to the review. The plot is about George and Harold, two best friends who study with the worst principal ever, Mr. Krupp, when they hear that they're going to live in separate classes after one of Melvin's inventions catch them, George finds a hypnosis ring which turns Krupp into Captain Underpants, while George and Harold are having fun with the captain, a mad scientist\teacher named professor PoopyPants wants to exterminate a brain organ which makes people laugh, since at a bunch of people laughed at him when he presented his shrinking ray and a lady says his real name out loud, so he joins with Melvin (the bummer) to defeat this organ who ruined his reputation. Let's start with the pros: The first pro of this movie is that the story does pay some homage to the 1st and 4th book, hell, a lot of the scenes from the movie where taken by the books, and that's what makes it feel like a book adaptation, the second pro is the animation, my god, is the animation wonderful, first off, it really pulls of some cartoon style animation, which pays of a big relation with the illustrations of the books, the character animation and character design really fit the characters very well, and when you compare this to something like The peanuts movie, you'll notice relations, with the character design, but the movements are much fluid instead of cartoon effects mashed together, and when the animation becomes different, it really feels like this guys really experienced the animation and how can they change a lot of things, the third pro is the humor, I know some parents might come to the review and say "But this is gross, our kids need better", yes, but when you look at the titles of the books, you'll notice both of these have immature humor, but even at that, a lot of scenes can have slapstick and pull of strong humor, hell even some of the gross out made me kinda laugh, hell, the humor was so funny, the whole theater was laughing together, and they're right, this is funny, a lot, and the fourth pro is the characters of George and Harold, I really like how they depict school and they're teachers as evil creatures that'll transform there future into pure crap, I like how there fourth wall breaks that talk to the audience, but not something that can make the audience insane like the newer SML videos, but they aren't in a level of Deadpool, is just kids talking to the audience in there own way, and they really have a strong relationship together. Oh, but wait, you thought there were no cons, I'm sorry, but there are: The first con is that the story, while paying a great homage to Pilkey's amazing collection of Capatin Underpants, is very clichéd, I mean, "beings discover an unknown creature and they try to hide it from society", now where you've seen this plot before, ahem ahem E.t, ahem ahem, Iron Giant,ahem ahem Monsters Inc. ahem ahem, see what I mean, there are so much movies this rips off, and it rather becomes an unoriginal piece of work, another issue is the ending, while giving some George and Harold character development, the ending isn't very good, it's about the Talking toilet 2000 spewing goo which makes toilets come to life, and this is the other time Attack of the talking toilets come in handy, then Krupp turns into Captain Underpants and it ends with them revealing what will happen in the sequel, and this ending has a problem, because this scene introduces the talking toilets, and Dreamworks wanted to mix in the first four books, so it has no reason to the toilets to get introduced in the ending, rather than in some prat between the final battle. Overall, Captain Unedrpants is definitely the most popular animated movie of summer 2017 and certainly the 2nd best animated film of 2017, even if you didn't read the actual books, I still think you're going to enjoy this film.