Fun Size (known as Half Pint in some countries) is a 2012 American teen comedy film directed by Josh Schwartz and written by Max Werner, starring Victoria Justice (who played Tori Vega from Victorious and Lola Martinez from Zoey 101), Thomas Mann, Jane Levy and Chelsea Handler. The film was released in theaters on October 26, 2012 by Paramount Pictures.
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 From the creator of shows filled with feet jokes, and before the show who's creator is involved in sexual harassment, comes a mistakenly PG-13 rated movie that feels like it should have been an R-rated one by a kids company (Nickelodeon Movies). Who thought it was a good idea to add tons of coarse language, sexual content, etc. in this movie?
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Plot
Wren DeSantis (Victoria Justice) is a high-school senior who can't wait to get away from her dysfunctional family. On Halloween, Wren's mother decides to go out with her much-younger boyfriend, leaving Wren to look after little brother Albert DeSantis (Jackson Nicoll). When Wren is distracted by an invitation to the party of the year, Albert disappears into a sea of trick-or-treaters. Enlisting the aid of her sassy friend, April (Jane Levy), and two other classmates, Wren sets out on a frantic search for her sibling.
Why It Can't Handle Halloween
- The biggest problem with this movie that's hard to disregard is that it has a ton of sexual content, obscenities, laughable dialogue and inappropriate jokes, in a Nickelodeon movie, and a PG-13 one at that. These include, but are not limited to:
- The scene in the beginning of the movie where Wren was taking a shower, sniffing a disgusting odor before opening the shower curtain and yelling out "ALBERT!!", then taking us to a scene where Albert is naked is very disturbing and unfitting even for a teen movie. Not to mention that scene came off as pedophilic since Albert's 8!
- In addition, after that scene, Wren says this line in the scene where she puts on torn clothing, "Where are my boobs?" is also very unfitting in a teen movie.
- The infamous scene where Wren pulls off a mask revealing a black boy dressed as Spider-Man, who calls her a "bitch" is an example of something completely vulgar and/or rude in a movie made by Nickelodeon. This is something Eric Cartman from South Park would say.
- The scene where two rude men (dressed as a chariot knight and Hulk) said "Move the babe magnet, asswad!" and "Yeah, asswad!", and the scene where Peng said "What's up, bitches? Why don't you get out of that honky-ass truck and come at me like a man?" are also way too vulgar for a teen movie. To be fair, some PG-13 movies do use profanity (though mild to moderate) in some places, but if Nickelodeon had to go this way for a PG-13 film, people wouldn’t be surprised.
- A man farting on Joy (Wren's mother) during the party.
- During the scene where April escapes Roosevelt and Peng's car while Peng was grabbing her legs, she infamously says this disturbing and unfitting line, "Okay, let me go and I'll let you touch my boob for 10 seconds."
- An infamous and disturbing scene that has close-ups of April's boobs that she showed to Peng, and forced him to touch them. And she even hits Peng in the face (showing that she is a very bad person).
- The disgusting scene where Fuzzy takes off his clothes is very gross and sexual.
- Because of all of these points, it will make you question why they would allow this to be produced by Nickelodeon Movies, and allow sexual content and heavy swearing in the movie, especially in a PG-13 movie. It feels like it would belong in an R-rated movie instead.
- Just like Glenn Martin D.D.S, this film is a poor attempt at Nick trying to target its audience for adults and teens.
- Adding onto that, the idea of a PG-13 rated film by a kids company has already been done before by Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, which is the first Disney movie to be rated PG-13 (and it actually worked there as well). But here, it fails miserably and ends up being the main problem of this film.
- Furthermore, Victoria Justice's previous film (which was also a Nickelodeon movie), The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (2010) looks better than this and it came out two years prior to this film.
- Even if it came out 10 years and four months later and being unrelated to this movie, Prom Pact, an original movie from Disney Channel, also has some mature content, yet it is also much better than this movie.
- In fact that movie was supposed to be produced by MTV Films, but it chose this than MTV, despite the latter having mature content than this and it should have been given in the first place; this would make the movie pointless and besides, this is not needed at all.
- Worst of all, the movie feels like the viewers would want to flip a middle finger to Josh Schwartz or the writers for their obliviousness and their terrible writing, considering that it would make sense if it belongs to MTV Films, as mentioned above.
- Overall, if it is on MTV Films, none of these situations would have happen and the viewers are fine with it.
- Worst of all, the movie feels like the viewers would want to flip a middle finger to Josh Schwartz or the writers for their obliviousness and their terrible writing, considering that it would make sense if it belongs to MTV Films, as mentioned above.
- False advertising:
- In one of the posters for the film, April is seen wearing a purple dress, but she never wears this outfit at any point in the movie itself. Instead, she wears a cat costume, which is very misleading.
- The title is also misleading, as it has absolutely nothing to do with the film's premise whatsoever. Sounds familiar?
- One of the DVD covers of the movie says that it's the perfect family film, which is false since it's not only a terrible film, but it's clearly not intended for kids.
- Albert wears Oshkosh briefs in the poster and the DVD/Blu Ray cover, despite only appearing for a short while since he wears Spider-Man costume in most of the screen time.
- Josh Schwartz is stupid enough to direct this movie, even though other movies are family-friendly.
- On the topic of the posters for the movie, one of the posters is basically an altered version of the "worn-out heroes" poster from The Hangover.
- The movie's tagline, "Some People Just Can't Handle Halloween", is literally The Hangover's tagline, "Some Guys Just Can't Handle Vegas" but with the words "Guys" and "Vegas" replaced with "People" and "Halloween" respectively, which is utterly lazy and unoriginal. It's like the creators couldn't even come up with an original tagline for the movie.
- Most of the humor in the movie is unfunny, as a lot of it consists of cruel comedy and gross out humor, as mentioned above.
- The acting is terrible, effortless, and annoying (except for Jackson Nicoll as Albert) especially from Jane Levy as April Martin.
- The pacing is really bad since it’s mostly boring and slow.
- The line "ALBERT!!" is used too many times, which will get on your last nerves.
- This film gives people a bad impression of looking out for someone who is being mean or rude.
- It is a poor man's version of "Have You Seen This Snail" (from SpongeBob SquarePants), and Arthur's Missing Pal, whereas they have half of the same plot, and with a bit of The Hangover thrown in.
- It has various blatant and unnecessary product placement, such as:
- Albert wears Oshkosh B-Gosh briefs, which is seen in the waistband.
- The scene where Wren takes out the candy from Albert's trick-or-treat bag which looks like a Kit-Kat candy bar.
- The Albert scene where he takes all of the candy from a female neighbor's paper Jack-a-Lantern with an Airheads bar holding in his hand. Also, before the scene where he comes back to the female neighbor for more candy, there are Hershey Bars.
- The phone that Wren was holding on her hand in the scene where she saw a text from Aaron was a Samsung phone.
- The man at the scene before his line "Honey! Honey! I think we need more candy" looks like a bag of Airheads.
- In the scene of the "COVENTRY" FOOD MARKET & FINE WINES store, the scene where Albert comes into the store and touches the bell, you can notice the Wrigley's DOUBLEMINT box next to the bell, along with the Hershey's Mr. Goodbar.
- Not to mention, that the scene where the manager was looking for an item for Albert has a ton of real-life objects such as the Durex extra sensitive, TROJAN STIMULATORS, Baby TEST, Rexall, Vagisil, Warm Touch, Dr. Sheffield's Anti-Itch Cream, Nature Shield, Laxative, diet DOTS, a balloon at the left which looks like SpongeBob's eye, and many more.
- The scene where Wren touches Aaron's arm and the soda drops reveals a soda can of Crush.
- The phone ringing in that scene has a label on the top named "Uniden".
- Some of the costume designs are terrible.
- April Martin looks very creepy and ugly, especially her face, as it looks like she used lots of eye makeup.
- Albert (despite being likable) looks ugly and uncanny, as he has a babyish and tired looking face. Worse, he wears briefs in a Nickelodeon movie, while it only appeared short, something that should belong to a movie that came from 20th Century Fox or something.
- Most of the main characters are unlikable, poorly written and annoying. For example:
- Wren DeSantis, the main protagonist, is a selfish, immature, and annoying jerk who's very disrespectful to her brother Albert in parts of the scenes where she interacts with him.
- Peng is a foul-mouthed, idiotic jerk who curses a lot throughout the movie.
- April Martin, Wren's best friend, is arguably the worst character, as she is very mean-spirited, stereotypical and very offensive towards nerds/geeks. She also does a lot of inappropriate stuff, like forcing people to touch her boobs, as stated in WICHH#1.
- There is very poor dialogue from the characters in the film, especially from Wren.
- It is easily forgettable due to its bland, boring, generic and very demented plot.
- The soundtrack is lackluster and forgettable.
- There are very destructive scenes such as the gang crashing into the restaurant pole, and the giant Captain Chicken statue landing on their car, which is just unnecessary.
- What's more is that there is a scene where the bystanders are laughing at the destruction which is very rude, disrespectful, and heartless, especially to people who don't have money and are also poor.
- Terrible release date:
- Being a Halloween themed-movie, this film should've been released in early October or mid-late September; instead, it was released only five days before Halloween. This gives the film a limited window for audiences to view it.
- Once it's November 1st, the film will no longer be relevant and people would immediately stop watching it.
- While the ending is good, it loosely rehashes the ending of Phineas & Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, replacing pictures with viral videos instead when linked to the computer.
"Treat Yourself" Qualities
- Albert is the only main character in the movie who is likable and funny, even if his costume looks ugly and somewhat pedophilic. He also provides some funny moments throughout the movie, which include:
- The scene where he had a dance party with his comic book character, Galaxy Scout (who was actually played by Riki Lindhome), which is actually very hilarious.
- The variety of collabs he makes in the post credits scene, which include The Prang Mantus and the Turdle.
- The scene where Fuzzy and Albert defeated Jörgen is amazing.
- Also, Wren finally learned her lesson about being responsible and looking out for someone, and she also becomes more likable.
- To be fair, it might seem tough dealing with a little brother who wanders out alone or gets lost in the street.
- Some heartwarming moments, such as the scene where Wren takes her little brother (Albert) to see her deceased father (Peter DeSantis).
- Decent ending: Wren finally meets up to her true boyfriend Roosevelt and they finally kissed. Peng and April also kissed in the ending as well (despite their sex reference). It even ends with a funny video of a variety of collabs made by Albert, as mentioned above in RQ#1.
- Jackson Nicoll does a surprisingly awesome performance as Albert, and did very well with the bad script he was given.
Reception
Critical Response
Fun Size received negative reviews from critics and audiences, several of whom criticized the adult humor and sexual content despite the film's Nickelodeon pedigree. Rotten Tomatoes reports that of 25% of 73 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4/10. The consensus states: "It occasionally shows surprising flashes of wit, but Fun Size is too safe and formulaic – not to mention unfunny – to survive comparisons to the '80s teen movies it eagerly imitates.". It currently holds a 5.4/10 on IMDb. On Metacritic, the film has a rating of 37/100, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." On Letterboxd, the film has an average rating of 2.4/5. Cinemascore gave the movie a B. In addition, it has been constantly listed as one of the worst Nickelodeon movies of all time, and it has gone on to be one of Nickelodeon's least remembered movies.
In fact, it is the third lowest rated theatrical Nickelodeon movie on IMDb, behind only Playing with Fire and The Last Airbender.
Box Office
Fun Size was a box office bomb, grossing $11.4 million against its $14 million budget, and is the lowest grossing Nickelodeon movie to date.
Trivia
- It was shot entirely in the film's setting of Cleveland which is rare in cinema as most films set there or in Ohio in general were shot elsewhere.
- This is the second film from Nickelodeon Movies to be given a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association, the first being Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging.
Videos
External Links
Fun Size at the Internet Movie Database
Fun Size on Rotten Tomatoes
Fun Size on Metacritic
Fun Size on Letterboxd
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Categories:
- Bad media
- Teen comedies
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- Nickelodeon films
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