by John Tillyard, Contributing Writer
When Mr. and Mrs. Twit (Johnny Vegas and Margo Martindale) attempt to build their amusement park, Twitandia, orphan Beesha Balti (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) decides to check it out with her friend Bubsy (Ryan Anderson Lopez). After discovering it is powered by the tears from a family of Muggle-Wump monkeys, whom the Twits have imprisoned, Beesha puts together a plan to free them and stop the Twits from doing further evil to the town. Meanwhile, the Twits plan to convince the people of Triperot, the town where they reside, that Twitandia will be beneficial for tourism and garner enough support to control the town.
The animated children’s comedy The Twits is loosely based on the 1980 children’s novel by Roald Dahl, which is adapted and directed by Phil Johnson, whose previous work includes Wreck-It Ralph and Zootopia. While a couple of good names are attached to it, I’m not sure the world and characters created by the English author mesh well with Johnson’s style of messaging. The story draws virtually nothing from Dahl’s novel, except for the two title characters and a few minor plot points. Johnson appears to have had his own idea for a story — one which uses Dahl’s characters as toys for him to play with. All other references to the book seem to be in there as Easter eggs, perhaps to better justify the claim that it is based on the novel.
I’m not against adaptations that take only the source material’s name and fundamental setup. However, what is disheartening here is how even the setup seems to have been altered to suit the American style of gross-out humor. Most of the comedy centers around fart jokes and toilet humor. While there are many unpleasant things in Dahl’s novel, there is always more of a point to it than “gross means funny.” It portrays the Twits as horrible people, because their lifestyle is appalling.
Furthermore, Johnson appears to be using a British story to convey a message about the current state of American politics. Partway through the movie, the Twits attempt to run for mayor and convince the entire town that their actions will ultimately be better for everyone in the long term, while secretly having no intention of fulfilling these promises. Meanwhile, the townspeople are swayed by the fact that the Twits are saying things they want to believe. The only way this message could have been any less subtle would have been if the Twits had said, “Let’s make Triperot great again.”
The visuals are similarly unpleasant, with many scenes using a strange combination of color palettes. The art style doesn’t lend itself to any exciting character designs. Although the story features several fictional creatures, it lacks compelling or creative ideas or designs. Perhaps the grotesque appearance of everything is deliberate, fitting the theme of the Twits being and looking unpleasant. But even the characters and environments intended to appeal to the audience appear this way because the entire movie is like this. Perhaps we’ve been spoiled by studios like Pixar and DreamWorks, because no other CGI animated movies look as good to me. When you are having to look at them for close to two hours, that is a problem.
With that said, there are some original and creative ideas here, such as the powers possessed by the Muggle-Wump monkeys (the name is Dahl, but the idea is original), and the explanation for how Beesha and Bubsy can understand them. There is also a frog voiced by Alan Tudyk (of course!), who was an interesting concept of a fictional creature. Still, its main feature is underused until the end. By the time it is used near the end, it seemed like a bit of a cheat, given how quickly it enables things to be resolved. There’s also some typical messaging you frequently see in things aimed at kids: self-evident ideas like showing empathy and family being those you care about. Not particularly creative or thought-provoking.
There is quite a stacked list of names in the cast here. Vegas and Martindale do a great job in the title roles. However, it’s odd that Vegas keeps his Lancastrian accent, despite every other character being American. Other standouts in supporting roles include Timothy Simons, who delivers a few poignant emotional lines, and Jason Mantzoukas, who provides a few good comedic moments. One of the more confusing roles is Emilia Clarke, who plays a flea named Pippa, the story’s narrator who is telling the story to her son at bedtime. I’m not sure this framing device really adds anything, and I certainly couldn’t see the purpose of casting such a big-name actress in this role. On the whole, however, the cast does a good job.
Despite being a loose adaptation of a very popular children’s book, and written and directed by a writer behind two of the better Disney movies from recent years, The Twits ultimately becomes a confusing mishmash of writing styles, and a jumbled mess of ideas. The messaging is painfully obvious, even for a kids’ story, and not particularly interesting. The visuals align with the narrative’s messy feel, and while some of them are creative, they are often unappealing and visually dull. It fails to carry over any of the spirit or humor from Dahl’s novel, and instead stoops to low-end toilet humor. The Twits are still as wonderfully unlikeable as they are in the book; unfortunately, that unlikable feeling is true of everything else as well.
Rating: Didn’t Like It
The Twits is currently streaming on Netflix
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