Review: The Bob’s Burgers Movie

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Bob and Linda are dismayed when a letter from the bank tells them their loan is due. And when a sinkhole opens up right in front of the restaurant, their chances of paying off the loan in time go from slim to zero—no customers, no burgers, no money. Luckily, Louise has a plan to save the restaurant. And it involves proving her own heroism, of course. From digging up dead bodies to narrowly avoiding being murdered by harpoon, the Belcher family takes a bunch of hard knocks here… but at the end of the day, they’re made stronger for the chances they take and come out of it like perfect burger patties: well done and ready to go.

Our Take:

Bob’s Burgers has been gracing our television screens with laughter and lightheartedness for what feels like a long time at this point. The first season premiered way back in 2011 if you can believe it. We’ve had a full 12 seasons of content since then, but now the long-awaited movie is finally here and it’s the Belchers first time on the big screen. Was it worth the wait?

I’d say for the most part, sure. The Bob’s Burgers Movie is just about everything fans of the show would expect it to be. There are guest stars, musical numbers, and plenty of time spent with the core cast thanks to the movie’s runtime, which is basically like five-ish episodes put together. If we flocked to our TVs every week for a single episode of Bob’s, surely this much Bob’s would be even better, right? Well, let’s chat about it.

Overall, the movie does a nice job of taking what makes the TV show special and translating it into a major motion picture. We keep the same character dynamics, the same locations, the same slightly silly and surreal comedy—and just dial all of it up a little bit higher than usual. That makes it easy for fans (and maybe even new fans) to follow, but it also feels like it may have limited the scope a bit. While it definitely feels like a step up over the show in some aspects, in others it feels too similar or even a bit weirder.

Some things that work in short weekly doses don’t necessarily make for successful cinema, like the constant necessity to fill every second of screen time with jokes. In a short nightly animated comedy, if people aren’t laughing they’re changing the channel, but that’s not the case in a theater and the frantic pace of some of the one-liners felt a bit much, especially when not all of them were terrific. It would’ve been nice to cut a little of the excess here, maybe take away a Gene line or two, and let things breath.

The immediate thing most people will notice are the visual changes. It’s the same character designs and backgrounds we know and love, but they have shadows now, and the people move—oh, do they move. Even the difference between the limb movements of characters on TV and in this movie were so distracting during the first musical number that the characters all seemed like they were on an acid trip compared with how they move in the TV show. Linda’s wild dancing arms were especially freaky looking. I think I became more used to it as the musical numbers progressed, but man, it definitely felt like the animators might have been having a little too much fun at first.

In summation, The Bob’s Burgers Movie is a good movie for sure. It takes the people and places fans love and slaps them onto the big screen with a fresh coat of paint. The murder mystery plot is pretty predictable and honestly one of my least favorite parts of the movie, but all the extra time spent with our favorite characters makes it well worth it. And the big hype around Louise and her bunny ears? It definitely plays a part here, but the reveal wasn’t exactly what I expected. And maybe that’s a good thing, because so much of the rest of the movie does play out exactly how you’d expect.