Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
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 "It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a flying egg salad sandwich! No, it's the amazing Captain Underpants!"
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Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (or simply Captain Underpants) is a 2017 American computer-animated superhero comedy film based on the children's novel series of the same name by Dav Pilkey. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation and Scholastic Entertainment. It was directed by David Soren from a screenplay by Nicholas Stoller, and stars the voices of Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, Thomas Middleditch, Nick Kroll, Jordan Peele, and Kristen Schaal. It premiered on May 21, 2017 at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles, and was released in the United States on June 2, in 3D and 2D formats.
Plot
George and Harold, two friends attending Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, create an imaginary comic book superhero called Captain Underpants. When their principal, Mr. Krupp, attempts to split up their friendship, they hypnotize him into believing that he is the pants-wearing crusader of their imaginations.
"Tra-la-laa!" Qualities
- Great animation that is faithful to the books, as similar to The Peanuts Movie, it looks like the characters actually came from the pages of a book, considering how DreamWorks Animation decided to use the low-budget and it was animated by Mikros Image in Canada and Technicolor Animation Productions in France, other than DWA Glendale, DWA India and now-defunct Pacific Data Images. Also, some scenes in the movie use different animation styles, such as a puppet scene, several 2D animated scenes and even a scene based off the "Flip-O-Rama".
- The film is essentially a gigantic love letter to the source material, not only mixing the plots of the first four books, but also throwing in subtle references that only the truest Captain Underpants fans would understand.
- The movie is an example of toilet humor done right and not being used as cheap ways to get laughs from young children, since there's plenty of great toilet humor in the movie. But here, it's essential the spirit of the book series it's based on.
- The film is a vast improvement over Dreamworks' previous film, The Boss Baby, which makes it pretty confusing to think how that film got a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars instead of this.
- Great voice acting that fits the characters perfectly.
- It led to a Netflix spinoff series titled The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants, which is just as faithful.
- As a buddy film, the movie does do a subversion of the "best friends falling out and separating in the third act, only to reunite near the end" trope; they only separate because of Krupp's orders, and it's clear that they don't want to part ways.
- The focus is put solely on its comedy, which can be rather effective with a mix of the juvenile potty jokes and the self-aware jabs.
- George and Harold have a great friendship and chemistry here and they show why they are best friends (they met in kindergarten and became friends over their shared sense of humor).
- In this movie, we explore a little bit more of how's Mr. Krupp's character is outside the school and he can be even relatable, rather than him being the principal who's grouchy all the time and extremely mean to students like he is in the books. Even the author Dav Pilkey himself was impressed with Mr. Krupp's depiction in the film that he wishes he could have done the same back when he was still writing the series.
- The life lesson in the story was found in the movie: even if you're separated, you're still best friends with each other.
- Theodore Shapiro's score is fantastic.
- Weird Al's Captain Underpants theme song is awesome and is a clever callback to the Weird Al (also known as "Weird Al" Yankovic or Alfred Matthew Yankovic) reference in the books.
- It has an amazing choice of songs for the soundtrack that fits the movie. Like "Think" by Adam Lambert, and "A Friend Like You" by Andy Grammar.
- It has some or most funny dialogue and jokes like when Mr. Krupp reads the sign, "Come See My Hairy Armpits!"
Poopypants Qualities
- Although funny, sometimes the potty humor and some jokes can get a little repetitive for some.
- While Kevin Hart and Thomas Middleditch gave out great performances and were fitting casting choices for George and Harold, they sound too old to voice elementary school kids, especially compared to Jordan Peele as Melvin.
Reception
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie received positive reviews, with critics praising the animation, goofy yet charming humor, faithfulness and references to its source material, and voice acting, particularly from Helms. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 138 reviews and an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With a tidy plot, clean animation, and humor that fits its source material snugly, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is entertainment that won't drive a wedge between family members.". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 70 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. On IMDb, 73% of user ratings are positive, with an overall score of 6.2/10.
Trivia
- The film was chosen along with Sony Pictures Animation's The Emoji Movie to inaugurate the removal of Saudi Arabia's cinema ban through a double feature screening on January 13, 2018, organized by Cinema 70; they were the first two movies to be given an official public screening in the country in 35 years.
- It is the 45th highest-rated CGI animated film on Rotten Tomatoes, with an approval rating of 87%.
- This is the last DreamWorks Animation movie to be owned by 20th Century Fox before the two split their partnership and stopped owning the studio in 2018 with Universal Pictures taking their partnership and owning the studio by announcing a third How to Train Your Dragon film in 2019 as the first DreamWorks Animation movie to be owned by Universal Pictures.
Videos
External links
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie at the Internet Movie Database
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie on Rotten Tomatoes
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie on Metacritic