For 11 years now, masses of spectators around the world have been following the plots of the Belcher family and its small hamburger restaurant. After 12 seasons, more than two hundred episodes and almost two years of postponements for Corona’s reasons, the cute animated series “Bob’s Burgers” has also received a feature film, which was released last May. This cute animated series was not legally available in Israel until the rise of Disney Plus, and that is exactly where its new film came out this weekend.
“The Burgers” is considered an adult animated series, but is much more relaxed and family-oriented than “South Park” or “Family Man” on the one hand and has no high pretensions to artistic / ideological achievements or bending genres like “Rick and Morty”, “Big Mouth” “Or” Bujack Horseman “on the other hand. It’s just a nice, light-hearted sitcom, aimed at an adult target audience mainly because its main characters are a couple of parents who get entangled with a livelihood and a mortgage – not really materials that interest most teens.
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As is customary in sequels to animated series, “Bob’s Burgers: The Movie” is also an unusually long and invested episode of the series, which does not challenge its status quo or really promote the plot. You don’t have to be a die-hard fan to understand what’s going on and you can enjoy the film even as just an episode to get into the story with. Of course there are plenty of little characters and jokes that are more fun to watch with prior knowledge, but most of the background story the film provides on its own, probably as a service for spouses dragged with more devout viewers to the cinema (or an evening opposite Disney Plus, as mentioned).
So what’s going on in this long and boring episode – this movie? As mentioned, a lot of small and casual stories. The summer vacation has arrived and the children at Belcher House are excited but also anxious about the future. Tina wants to propose friendships to Jimmy Jr. but is afraid that in reality friend-girlfriend relationships will not be as amazing as in her fantasies. Gene invents a new musical instrument and plans a big performance of his band, but catches a performance anxiety. Louise fears that the rabbit ears she wears at all times limit her and make her look like a baby. Meanwhile, Bob and Linda, the parents, are required to pay a large debt to the bank just as a hole opens outside the restaurant and prevents customers from entering it.
But these small, casual stories, each of which could have stood alone at the center of a casual episode in the series, are a kind of distraction, and soon the real plot of the film turns out to be something bigger, proper to the format: a murder mystery (hinted at in the first scene). The family sets out to investigate the mysterious death of an employee at a nearby carnival and is swept away by a huge conspiracy that involves money, ego, amusement park facilities, gambling on bath ducks and the teeth of a dead man. All of this makes the film darker than the average episode, with some really fucking moments, especially if you have claustrophobia.
Despite the more grandiose mystery story, it can still be argued that the film does not go far enough from the original material to feel like a real film, but it has a clever structure that makes good use of its length (102 minutes). Each character has their own mini-journey that takes place in parallel with the plot of the mystery and each member of the family gets his chance to shine a little, while all the tools line up on the board for the more dramatic moments. The plot of the murder is just fine and provides some unique and suspenseful moments, but overall we’re here for funny songs and crazy scenes: say, Linda’s attempts to promote the business with a sexy burger suit, or the one where Jin dreams that robots from outer space come to tell him he has no chance Succeed in music.
Even when something dark is already happening, the “burgers” do it in their own way – in a neurotic and sympathetic way and always with some comic sting that makes the dramatic crazy. In the end – and again, here’s the essential difference between “Bob’s Burgers” and “Family Man” or “The Simpsons”, the Belcher family are completely normal, stressed and even anxious people, so there is something interesting about getting out of the comfort zone the film imposes on them. Life stresses them out so they are stressed out, and the fact that a dangerous killer is roaming the area and threatening their fate stresses them out. Unlike the equally realistic option of bankruptcy or contempt whistles at the show, but still it’s nice to see them step out of the comfort zone.
“Bob’s Burgers – The Movie” is now available at Disney Plus