Movie Review : Wonder Park

Wonder Park is a new movie from Nickelodeon.

The boys are old enough now that we thought we would venture out. We have a new cinema that boasts to be one of the best new theaters in the country. The kids cinema has a playground which allows kids to play a half hour before the movie. I grew up on drive thrus with slides and it comes full circle.

This was advertised as a goofy fast paced kids movie like The Nut Job. It isn’t. It is a pretty grown up take on imagination. The movie starts with some excitement before the disclosure that “Mom” is sick and needs to go away. It never reaches any level of fun after that.

There certainly are predecessors like The Neverending Story or Bridge to Teribitha, and so it’s probably robbed of those expectations (though this does not have those ambitions). As an adult, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. There are some moments that are laugh out loud funny but totally are lost on kids. It is by no means a great movie, but for the right family, it might be a fun fantasy movie. In any case, I enjoyed it quite more than I thought.

That said, it really isn’t what I expected. The near-3 year old was scared. My 5 year old was more in awe of it than anything (I am ok with that). It really was a downer though, and though there’s cute animation, it probably should be catered more towards an older crowd. Indeed, history will consider this a Bomb. Which is probably unfair, since it is a better movie than that. It’s just a not good fit for its ambition