I’ve watched the various live action Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies and I kind of dig their askew view of middle school. And I even “read” one of the books with the same reaction. When I saw that Disney had a new animated flick based on the books, I realized they had yet another Fox property fall into their laps to turn into Disney+ content. I ain’t mad.

But I wasn’t super pleased by the result. They have taken the amusing 2D line drawings from the books and 3D-ified them to dubious results. These line drawings were animated in the original style for the live action films as interstitials and are also similarly animated in this film occasionally. And that’s charming. But that same style turned into 3D models is… disconcerting. And kind of lazy feeling (even if they are complex) since they are so basic. It doesn’t work in 3D. They don’t look or feel pleasant or charming.

I get why Disney went animated… at least now they don’t risk those pesky kids growing up on them between movies. It’s a wise choice for future films… and I imagine going with a different art style might have seemed wrong. But not sure the solution was right.

Not that the stories and humor are wrong – I mean, they bring back the cheese touch and that’s quality entertainment. But it wasn’t amazing or new and that art style wasn’t doing favors.

I ain’t mad they made this flick but wish they had made better creative decisions. The movie is alright, in the long run. Just alright.

Score: 73