Mark Reviews Movies: THE BOB'S BURGERS MOVIE

The Bob's Burgers Movie, 20th Century Studios

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 26, 2022

The makers of The Bob's Burgers Movie don't try to do too much. The film, a self-contained story within the world of the animated TV show "Bob's Burgers," feels like an extended episode from the series—albeit one with more detailed animation, featuring a richer sense of light and shadow, and presented in widescreen. While that approach might not seem particularly ambitious, there's nothing wrong with it. After all, co-writer/co-director Loren Bouchard, also the creator of the show, knows the inherent strengths and charms of this material, and overshadowing them with any form of "too much" would likely be a mistake.

For those who don't know the show (and that should be corrected, because it's great television—animated or otherwise), the strengths and charms of it come from the amusingly quirky but sympathetically grounded characters at its heart. At the center of a large cast of supporting players is the Belcher clan, who own and run a burger joint on the main street of a small, coastal town. The humor is founded upon these characters, and while it occasionally touches upon the absurd, there's a real sense of this family, just trying to get by amidst assorted problems and adventures. Those elements have driven it to steady creative success over the course of 12 seasons.

That's enough about the show, except to say that Bouchard and co-screenwriter Nora Smith, as well as co-director Bernard Derriman, continue the spirit of character-based comedy, the occasional flights of ridiculous fantasy, and the notion of relatively ordinary plotting with this big-screen installment. It begins with Bob (voice of H. Jon Benjamin, whose distinct baritone also gives voice to other assorted characters here—which is amusing to notice, because his tenor is so distinct) worrying about being late on a loan payment. Bob is the straight man of the weird family, but he's not without his quirks, either—such as the oddity of the way he softly consoles and caresses a burger, which he fears he might have insulted by calling it "practice."

Bob and his wife Linda (voice of John Roberts), a nasally voiced woman whose enthusiasm and affection alternately irritate and bolster her family, fail to convince the bank to give them an extension on the loan payment. That means they have a week to cover the debt, but when a sinkhole opens right in front of the restaurant, the already-slow business grinds to a halt. The only sales come from regular and regularly desperate patron/friend Teddy (voice of Larry Murphy), who eventually comes up with a plan to sell burgers from a cart at the nearby pier.

Yes, that half of the plot really is that simple and down-to-earth. Like the show, though, the Belcher kids get a secondary plotline that allows for more silliness and—as often becomes the case on TV, as well—quickly outshines what their parents are up to.

The kids are Louise (voice of Kristen Schaal), whose tough attitude covers up an insecurity and sweetness that's reflected in her rabbit-eared stocking cap, and her older siblings: Gene (voice of Eugene Mirman), who's equally obsessed with farts and music, and Tina (voice of Dan Mintz), who adores horses and boys' butts in equal measure. A successive trio of fantasies, with each kid imagining some ideal goal with their various interests, shows how well the filmmakers know and can utilize these characters—as well as how clearly developed they are for the sequence to serve as a quick introduction for newcomers.

Anyway, the kids find a dead body, with a bullet in its chest, in the sinkhole. When the restaurant's landlord Calvin Fischoeder (voice of Kevin Kline) is arrested and charged for that murder, the kids have to investigate the crime and clear the wealthy man's name, if only to help to save the restaurant, too.

Both storylines are a good excuse for the separate groups to banter off each other, explore the wider world around the restaurant, and interact with some mainstays and recurring characters from the show. Some important ones to this plot include Sgt. Bosco (voice of Gary Cole), an envious and mostly incompetent robbery detective, and Mr. Fischoeder's brother Felix (voice of Zach Galifianakis), who is less successful than his brother but doesn't care—since his family's success lets him live in a tree house in the manor's backyard. David Wain voices a Fischoeder cousin who can barely stand his relatives' entitled aloofness.

As with the kids' schoolmates, a group of carnies, who work at the amusement park on Fischoeder's wharf, is filled with some familiar voices. They provide a reason for one of a few musical numbers, which feel a little forced within the otherwise restricted scope of this narrative (The show features a lot of original music, occasionally with enough level of scale for an episode to revolve around it, but the slim number of songs don't fit in as naturally here). A climactic song-and-dance, which has the film's villain hoofing and off-key belting a dastardly motive and plan, stops everything—and quite awkwardly—in its tracks.

Mostly, though, the film is as relaxed as its simple dual plots, and even when things turn potentially disastrous for the family and the restaurant and the entire town in the third act, The Bob's Burgers Movie sticks to its defining element—these loveably quirky characters—and its most endearing, enduring trait—that, beneath the jokes, there is a genuine sense of family that guides this wacky adventure.

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