The Bob’s Burgers Movie can easily be compared to an actual burger. You have the buns which represent the casual and die hard fanbases. You can then move onto the meat patty which has a mix and range of flavours which doesn’t quite work together, this can represent the story. You then have the salad which can represent the colourful visuals of this film, then the cheese which is stale just like the humour. This burger is then complemented with a sweet sauce to represent the overarching theme of bravery.
The Bob’s Burgers Movie follows on the trend of long lasting animated TV series being turned into a feature film, except this film didn’t quite reach the heights as the original product. The Bob’s Burgers Movie has way too many storylines going on at one time that it feels as if the film is just three regular episodes mixed into one film. The film has a overarching plot point of the Belcher’s trying to gather as much money as they can so they can pay the bank for their business loan, we are then thrusted into a murder mystery plot point as the kids of the Belcher family don their Sherlock Holmes cap to solve and find this mysterious murderer. This is all mixed in with three very forgettable musical numbers which only serves the purpose to extend the runtime. This is what differs this film from something like The Simpsons Movie which is a film that had a clear and coherent story without juggling multiple plot points. The pacing of The Bob’s Burgers Movie moves at a frenzied pace as the scenes are rushed through and do not let the moment sit with the audience, it also doesn’t help that the film is overly stuffed with tasteless humour that garners a groan from the audience watching. The humour feels mostly watered down to cater to the casual audience and fails to capture the essence that is Bob’s Burgers. Now some of the humour does land well mainly from the middle child Gene and any scene involving Sergeant Bosco.
The film tackles the theme of bravery heavily throughout its runtime as we see two members of the Belcher family dealing with the concept of stepping up and being brave. Bob deals with the crisis of not being able to step up and be innovative in order to save his restaurant from going bankrupt and the younger child, Louise, deals with standing up for herself and showing her family, her school peers and pretty much everyone else that she is not a baby. The character arc of both characters are tackled in an efficient way and it is perfectly capped off at the end when they unite and test their bravery together in order to save the family.
The Simpsons Movie excelled in its visual quality when given the big screen treatment and the same can be seen when watching The Bob’s Burgers Movie. It upholds its classic 2D animation style but it’s given a nice makeover to suit the cinematic scale. The colours pop on the big screen which is further enhanced when there are close up shots of the characters. The only flaw in terms of the visuals of this film is the background textures, a bit more details could have been put into the background objects and surfaces to enhance the frames even more instead it comes off as a smudy 2D design which does not offer that much flavour to the scenes framing. The score throughout the film is highly forgettable, the musical pieces that are played throughout the film’s most emotional moments failed to capture the emotion and was at times distracting. Now let’s get into the musical number that I mentioned earlier. As said before they are clearly included in the film to extend the runtime to a feature film length, but the songs themselves offer nothing interesting or unique to the overall story. The five minute musical pieces could have easily been told in a minutes worth of dialogue, as for the music itself during the musical numbers is very repetitive. Each song sounds and feels similar when you incorporate both the musical instruments and the tone of the way the lyrics are being sung.
After 13 seasons on the small screen it can be said that Bob’s Burgers was long overdue a feature film. It’s just a shame that the film itself is so clunky, and offers nothing interesting to the franchise newcomers as it delves heavily into the long-time fans of the show. The loyal fan base alone will ensure that Bob’s Burgers will remain open in the months and years to come.
3.9/10
