Click to buy the DVD on Amazon
Okay, let’s review a kids movie for once! Diary of a Wimpy Kid, as most of you know, is a book by Jeff Kinney about a kid, Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon), written from his perspective as he goes through middle school. The book was written in the form of a journal, and contained doodles of a cartoonish style.
But we’re not here for the book. The recent film adaption, just released on DVD was, for the most part, true to the book. Of course, the book itself was mainly just everyday life, so there were plenty of storylines that didn’t make it into the movie, but what was there usually stuck to the story. I mean, they even stuck three hairs of the main character up, if you look closely! Yet it was… different. I mean, characters were cut, and one was completely added!
Jeff’s doodles (or his doodle style) were incorporated into the film as short animations, but they weren’t too often and really were just transitions. Maybe the whole film should have been animated. That would make the artists strive to keep to the story 98%… But the whole point of Diary of a Wimpy Kid is that it’s a diary. A kid was supposed to have wrote it, a kid with a life outside it. Really, the doodles were just Greg’s projections of his life. With live action, it’s not all about his diary… It’s filming his life, not his projections.
Just one thing I have to say… If you can only read the book or the movie, then for goodness sake just pick the book. You’ll enjoy it more.
Age Recommendation: Any, really. It’s a kids film. Young kids may not comprehend it, but it is appropriate for them.
Final Verdict: The film was good for an adaptation, but it left something to be desired… 5/10
{ 3 comments… add one }