Directed by Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel, David Wachtenheim
Written by Robert Smigel, Adam Sandler, Paul Sado
Produced by Adam Sandler, Mireille Soria
Starring
Adam Sandler
Bill Burr
Cecily Strong
Jason Alexander
Sadie Sandler
Sunny Sandler
Rob Schneider
Jo Koy
Allison Strong
Jackie Sandler
Heidi Gardner
Robert Smigel
Nick Swardson
Edited by Patrick Voetberg, Joseph Titone
Music by Geoff Zanelli (score), Robert Smigel (songs)
Production company Happy Madison Productions
Distributed by Netflix
The canon of Adam Sandler’s work can be…well, let’s be charitable and just call it “uneven.” It ranges from ‘fairly good’ to ‘that’s 90 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.’ Most tend to be rom-coms, a genre that usually promises little and delivers less.
So when I read that Sandler’s production company, Happy Madison, was coming out with an animated musical comedy for kids, I wasn’t too impressed. Animated movies that are meant for middle-schoolers tend to be any combination of vapid, preachy, or mawkish, and when you make it a musical, you usually combine all three elements with instantly forgettable songs.
But the Guardian gave it a good review, taking note in particular of the animation, the charisma of the characters, and the general realism of the lives of the fifth-graders portrayed. And animated movies that have reptilian leads tend to be good (think “Rango”).
Leo is a tuatara, a reptile more closely related to dinosaurs than lizards. Among its unique features is three sets of teeth—two on top, one underneath. Leo has another feature unique to himself—he can talk. Many years in fifth grade have taught both him, and a dyspeptic turtle named Squirtle, basic vocabulary skills. They get to leave the classroom and spend weekends at the homes of the kids as part of a lesson in being responsible for the care and feeding of a pet.
One day, Leo is informed that tuataras live to be 75. Realizing that he was born in 1949, he does some laborious arithmetic (something apparently not taught to fifth graders) and after a while, realizes that he is 74. This leaves him profoundly depressed.
His next weekend expedition is with a motormouth named Summer, and frustrated and trying to escape, he accidentally blurts something out to Summer. Cover blown, he swears her to secrecy, and assures her that she is the only one who knows that secret.
Summer is depressed because nobody enjoys her company. She talks constantly, and tramples any attempt at conversation with her by instantly reverting to another, usually self-involved, tirade. Summer, awed by the miracle of a talking reptile, asks Leo for advice. He tells her to start asking others questions about themselves, and to listen to the answers.
Summer does this, and her popularity immediately begins to improve.
The following weekend, similar scenario. Kid has problem, asks Leo. Leo comes up with intelligent answer that the kid, for a wonder, takes seriously. And so on, all the way through the class. Each problem has its own song, mercifully brief.
I know it’s not plausible that a classroom of twenty 10 and 11 year olds could keep a secret that big, especially from one another, but that somehow happens. And of course, in real life giving a child a correct answer to a problem, no matter how realistic (and the kids’ problems are very real, ones that most kids experience) by no means results in instant, or any, improvement in their lives. But the characters (and their voice actors) are very engaging, and the dialogue is snappy. The animation is clever, and the action sequences delightfully over the top. It shouldn’t work, but it does.
What saves it from being just a vacuous after-school special is a bright, keen edge of satire, particularly in the animation itself. Watch for the first-graders; they’re a visual delight.
Leo learns in the end that tuataras frequently live to 120 in the wild, and he might make it to 150, and he’s improved the lives of the kids, their teacher, and Squirtle. Truly a happy (Gilmore) ending.
On Netflix now.