Honestly, this show's sustained success has always fascinated me. Almost akin to King of the Hill's sustained success in the 2000s. Fox's (at one point appropriately titled) Sunday Animation Domination has always been dominated by The Simpsons, Futurama for a brief while, Family Guy, American Dad, and for a brief while, The Cleveland Show for the past few decades to the point that MANY animated programs that have tried to replicate and in the end fail to make a dent the way that Matt Groening and Seth MacFarlane have for decades. It is a revolving door amidst the recognizable faces of Fox's Sunday block that when a show not only has multiple seasons, but enough sustained success to avoid cancellation, it has my attention. It took years, but I finally got into King of the Hill back in 2016 and understood why so many people adored this show for so long. Unlike King of the Hill, Bob's Burgers success was big enough to give the property its own full length theatrical movie. Not even Family Guy has had a theatrical movie...yet....against all better judgment...That alone gives me enough reason to check out the show.
I know this was delayed two years, but you know what else was delayed for two years? Me giving this show a shot. I felt like I had to finally give this show a fair shake and I started before the movie even came out in theaters and binged almost the entire show (still got two more seasons to go) before I told myself that I think the show doesn't need to be 100% completed before watching the movie. After all, the movie was supposed to debut after Season 10, so why not watch the movie then.
I love this show. I absolutely get why it has stuck around for almost the exact same reason King of the Hill lasted as long as it did. Some would say it is a spiritual successor to King of the Hill and that comparison would be very accurate. Both shows have a contained scope and are the polar opposites of their contemporaries mentioned above in the sense that they have the star of the show not be a total idiot and are grounded characters who have wholesome family dynamics. Both have confident wives who nearly get themselves into scenarios at times where their husbands have to play the straight man to their antics. Both shows have eccentric children. Some would even say Bob's reaction to Gene's antics is comparable to Hank and Bobby Hill's. But yeah, I love the fact that the plots are contained and not completely zany antics all the time like Simpsons and Family Guy. I love the deadpan humor. Some would say that H. Jon Benjamin just has the perfect comedic voice like Patrick Warburton and can just make nearly anything funny. But yeah I love this show and it made me excited for the movie. And I will say that the movie...
The movie MOSTLY lived up to my expectations. They did a great job adapting this show into a movie. I will absolutely watch it again the way I do The Simpsons Movie (plenty of comparisons ahead). And just like The Simpsons Movie before it, there was plenty of fan service while also doing a great job making the movie accessible to non-fans even more so than The Simpsons Movie did. The judge of that aspect was my wife. We watched The Simpsons Movie together on Disney+ early on in the pandemic and she absolutely did not get a lot of the core references from the show. But with The Bob's Burgers Movie? Not only did she enjoy the movie without having to watch a single minute of the show; it made her want to re-watch the show with me so she can get into it as well. When watching The Simpsons Movie, you had to fully grasp some of these one-off characters and know who they were and why they were given airtime. Compared to Bob's Burgers where yeah some of these one-off characters appear, but they were blended into the movie so well that they were accessible to newcomers of what the show is. For that alone, I have to give them kudos for making it more accessible when there were people out there like me initially wondering why this show got a full-length movie.
And the movie also does a great job at showing the character progressions as the show continued as well. The oldest Belcher kid, Tina, started off as a shy character who wasn't sure of anything or anyone to someone who knows who she is and is glowing self-confidence. Then there is the Belcher child, who continues to want to prove herself in Louise. Louise has the most character progression in this movie as she gets called a baby and wants to prove to not just her peers, but herself, that she is brave and can do anything she sets her mind to. Louise countlessly proves in the show that she is more mature than her age lets on, but I like that she wants to prove to herself that she wants to be more. It is natural progression if you ask me. Gene's plot is just ridiculous, but that's more or less what he does in the show. He's just the comedic relief and it is just as hit or miss as it is in the show. One character progression in the movie that I did not expect was Linda Belcher not being confident. Hell even Bob refers to that in the third act when Linda, who is the optimist to Bob's pesimisstic behavior, more or less gives up. It helps evolve Bob as the hero in the story and not only furthers his arch, but gives Linda an arch simultaneously.
So that was one thing this movie did better than The Simpsons Movie. Now for one thing this movie did not do better than that. Pacing. I'm not saying the pacing is bad. No. In all honesty, most of this movie is paced very well. But when the movie is dragging, it drags really noticeably. It is especially noticeable in the second act where they try to throw a red herring over who the villain of the movie is and they go on and on in terms of trying to make us believe that one person is the villain and the movie knows that we know who the villain really isn't and outside of one admittedly great musical number (all the musical numbers in this movie are amazing btw...I did not expect Bob's Burgers to have multiple music numbers, but in hindsight, the signs were there throughout the show that I shouldn't be surprised), the movie honestly drags its feet to get to the third act reveal. Not saying that the second act isn't bad at all, but it is noticeably time consuming.
In the end though, The Bob's Burgers Movie was a good time. I enjoyed seeing this transition to the big screen and it seemed like everyone had a good time making it. The acting was great. The writing was clever most of the time. The animation is gorgeous; please make more 2D theatrical films Hollywood, I beg you. And it does provide enough fan service while not being at the expense of trying to swing in casual viewers. It knows what it is and it doesn't try to be something that it's not.
OH AND DID I MENTION THE MUSICAL NUMBERS SLAPPED!?
Final Grade: B for Bob's Burgers....+
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