‘Despicable Me 4’
It’s tough to imagine that this Illumination franchise will ever stop churning out movies. Children keep watching, so why not continue with Minion mania? This time around, Gru (Steve Carell), supervillain gone good (sort of), is in the witness protection program with his wife, Lucy (Kristen Wiig), and their kids, including his new baby son, Gru Jr.
The actual villain here is Maxime Le Mal (Will Ferrell), an old boarding school classmate of Gru’s who is out for revenge because Gru once humiliated him. As payback, Maxime schemes to kidnap Gru Jr. and turn him into cockroach. Maxime and his girlfriend, Valentina (Sofia Vergara), employ an army of roaches as their henchmen in this quest (they also want to conquer the world while they’re at it).
My son, who has seen all of the films, didn’t tire of the Minions humor or Gru’s antics. There’s a surprise bonus scene after the credits, so make sure your little ones stick around. The franchise director and producer Chris Renaud co-directed with Patrick Delage. Ken Daurio and Mike White wrote the script.
‘Kung Fu Panda 4’
Jack Black returns as the voice of Po, the lovable martial arts master at the center of this DreamWorks franchise. Po would rather munch on cookies and dumplings than meditate or find inner peace, but that doesn’t stop his mentor Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) from asking Po to succeed him as spiritual leader.
In past films, Po has fought and conquered fearsome villains, but none as powerful as The Chameleon (Viola Davis), a new baddie determined to steal Po’s Staff of Wisdom and summon back all the evildoers Po defeated in the previous films. Po sets off for Juniper City to find and stop The Chameleon, with the help of a wisecracking, thieving fox named Zhen (Awkwafina). Po’s biological dad, Li Shan (Bryan Cranston), and adoptive father, Mr. Ping (James Hong), follow along to protect him.
This installment is not as clever as the previous films, but it’s still beautifully animated, funny and action-packed, and should appeal to older children who remember the original and viewers who are meeting Po for the first time. Mike Mitchell (“Trolls”) directed (Stephanie Ma Stine gets a co-directing credit). Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger and Darren Lemke wrote the script.
‘Felix and the Hidden Treasure’
This animated adventure out of Canada follows Felix (voiced by Elias Harger in the English-language version) as he sneaks away from his seaside home on the Magdalen Islands of Quebec to try to find his father, a fisherman who was lost at sea two years earlier. On this mission, he and his dog, Rover, set sail with a white-bearded, wizened lighthouse keeper named Tom (Vlasta Vrana) to Darkshadow Island.
The villain here is Morgäa (Karine Vanasse), the leader of what she calls a “community” but which is, as most adults watching will realize, a New Age cult. Her power comes from a silvery spider who seems to have the ability to grant eternal youth and life, but when Felix, Tom and Rover arrive, her hold on her subjects (and on her eternal youth) is threatened. When Felix finds his father trapped on the island, he learns important lessons about wisdom and age. It’s a lesson that might land with adults and not children, but the movie should appeal to youngsters who love adventure stories about hidden treasure and characters’ battling the high seas. Nicola Lemay directed, and Arthur Holden wrote the English adaptation.
‘The Garfield Movie’
The Garfield character made his big debut in Jim Davis’s comic strip in 1978, and the portly, lazy, lasagna-loving orange tabby cat quickly became a meme generator of sorts long before memes were a thing. There were “I Hate Mondays” coffee mugs and T-shirts that read, “I’m not overweight. I’m under tall.” There have been specials, TV shows and movies. This year, Sony brought the tubby tabby back for a new generation of children, now with Chris Pratt voicing Garfield and Nicholas Hoult as Garfield’s owner, Jon.
Garfield is living his best couch-potato life with Jon and his canine pal Odie (Harvey Guillén). He binges shows on Catflix (yes, really) and tries not to exert himself, but when he and Odie are kidnapped by thugs working for a vengeful cat named Jinx (Hannah Waddingham), Garfield has no choice but to go where the adventure takes him. And what started as a comic strip about a cat whose goal was to be as inert as possible becomes an action-packed heist film.
Yes, it’s a little silly and not exactly true to Davis’s original character, but children looking for a few laughs and a little fun should be entertained. Mark Dindal “(The Emperor’s New Groove,” “Chicken Little”) directed, and Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove and David Reynolds wrote the screenplay.
‘Good Burger 2’
With this sequel to the 1997 film about the goofball fast-food workers and best buddies Dexter (Kenan Thompson) and Ed (Kel Mitchell), 1990s Nickelodeon nostalgia is in full force. Decades later, Dex returns to Good Burger to get a job after his latest entrepreneurial venture fails. Ed now owns the restaurant, and he’s been trying to fend off corporate bigwigs who are trying to take over his beloved little burger joint. Desperate for money, Dex ropes Ed into signing a contract without reading the fine print, and Good Burger is sold to Katt Bozwell (Jillian Bell), the head honcho at MegaCorp who wants to replace Good Burger’s human work force with robot lookalikes.
There are food fights, pranks, pratfalls and throwback cameos from the original movie including from Carmen Electra and Lori Beth Denberg. Older children who like over-the-top antics and gross-out humor probably won’t care about the timely A.I. plotline, but they’ll be entertained by Thompson and Mitchell’s shtick. Phil Traill directed, and the original “Good Burger” writers Kevin Kopelow and Heath Seifert teamed up again for the script.
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