Loren Bouchard’s Emmy-winning animated sitcom Bob’s Burgers has been a popular staple of the Fox network’s animation block since 2011, and while it has had the usual ups and downs, it’s going strong in its twelfth season. One true test of a television show’s mettle is its ability to be drawn out into a full-length feature, and with The Bob’s Burgers Movie in theaters this Memorial Day weekend, Bouchard – for whom this is a feature directorial debut -- and co-director Bernard Derriman are hoping that the wacky musical comedy can hold momentum and enchant audiences on the big screen.
Bob’s Burgers has always had buns of steel, but the meat of its charm is in its central relationships. The Belchers are a close-knit family of oddballs, each cherishing the others’ strengths and adding something special to its dynamic as a whole. In fully rendered Toon Boom glory, they are no different – and amidst the onslaughts of one-liners and quirky antics is a quiet heart of solidarity that pumps life into a surprisingly multi-layered story.Each of the main characters – and several secondary ones – get a chance to shine, even if they only appear for a few moments onscreen.
Bob’s Burgers has always had buns of steel, but the meat of its charm is in its central relationships. The Belchers are a close-knit family of oddballs, each cherishing the others’ strengths and adding something special to its dynamic as a whole. In fully rendered Toon Boom glory, they are no different – and amidst the onslaughts of one-liners and quirky antics is a quiet heart of solidarity that pumps life into a surprisingly multi-layered story.Each of the main characters – and several secondary ones – get a chance to shine, even if they only appear for a few moments onscreen.
As usual, the Belcher family is struggling to meet financial demands during a time of little business, and the universe seems to enjoy piling on the bad luck to prevent them from success. Hoping to make their loan payment before the bank can repossess their equipment, Linda (voiced by John Roberts) implores their eccentric landlord Calvin Fischoeder (Kevin Kline) for a break in rent payment. When an enormous sinkhole appears directly in front of the restaurant in which a skeleton is discovered, a murder mystery unfolds that jeopardizes their chances when Fischoeder is implicated as prime suspect – but the Belcher kids are determined to save their family’s home and business, so the adventure begins as they dig deeper into Wonder Wharf’s recent seedy history.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Bob’s Burgers without zany side-plots to color in the spaces between the main action, with plenty of musical numbers to showcase each of the characters’ main struggles. Bob (H. Jon Benjamin), full of worry that he will lose hold of his livelihood and his dream, despairs while Linda tries to remain optimistic that all will work out as it should and that the Wharf’s eightieth anniversary celebration will bring in much-needed revenue for a great summer. Eldest daughter Tina (Dan Mintz), forever crushing on classmate Jimmy Pesto Jr. (Benjamin), questions the very nature of love as she tries to work up the courage to finally ask him to be her beau, while middle child Gene (Eugene Mirman) doubts his musical passions and abilities as he attempts to reunite his old band for the Wharf-iversary’s live show. Nine-year-old Louise (Kristen Schaal), perhaps the show’s most complex character, worries that her peers see her as a baby because she isn’t brave enough – a fear which makes her doubly determined to solve the murder and bring her family the good fortune it needs.
The film dips in and out of the internal monologues and motives of each of its characters the way the show often does, tying the kids’ investigation with their parents’ efforts at continuing to sell burgers while their restaurant is blocked by a crime scene in typically funny, emphatic fashion familiar to anyone already a fan, often calling back to episodes and long-standing jokes and theories. But for the uninitiated, The Bob’s Burgers Movie is just as wonderful; the bond of the Belchers is at the center of its core, and there are plenty of laughs peppered throughout the action. It is as colorful, ridiculous, and earnest as its sister series, and for a summer movie with (mostly) low stakes and high entertainment, it is a sheer delight from the very first strum of the ukulele over the 20th Century ident.
--Dana Culling
