The Movie
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are a guilty pleasure for my daughters and me, and so I was cautiously optimistic about the big-screen adaptation. The resulting movie does manage to capture the stresses, the humiliation, and the too-cool-for-school attitude of ten-year-old kids, and will surely engage the youngsters. The grownups however, especially those familiar with the four volumes (soon to be five) might have a different take. So much of the charm lay in Jeff Kinney's subtle storytelling style, which is notoriously, wonderfully sparse, and so it had to be embellished for a full-length movie.
But often these additions are the typical coming-of-age (complete with sad music and a speech at the end) and my-family-is-wacky corniness, and like a growing middle-schooler's clothes, it's not always a perfect fit. Big brother Rodrick is meaner, for example, and the parents seem a little less real. Plot-wise, these are the free-flowing adventures of tightly-wound Greg Hefley (Zachary Gordon) and his often-befuddled musings on a new school, new rules, new responsibilities and life in general. Standing by him through (almost) all his indignities is his best friend Rowley, successfully captured by actor Robert Capron in all his endearing oafishness, although less of a mouth-breather here than in print.
Also read David Kempler's review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
The Picture
Colors are strong in this 1.85:1 HD master, with detail that is adequate but the backgrounds are particularly flat (Should this be forgiven since this story began its life as a pencil-drawn cartoon?) Some of this issue comes from the fact that characters have been digitally composited into their scenes, necessary since the movie shows an entire year's worth of weather. And although Wimpy Kid was shot on film, the image displays instances of apparent video streaking, likely introduced in post-production.
The Sound
The movie is mostly dialogue and incidental sound effects, so we shouldn't expect too much in the way of home theater excitement. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is front-heavy, although the soundstage fills out a bit whenever the original musical score or the pop songs kick in. There's also a little rain, a little thunder, or a little resonance in the rears, in addition to occasional interesting multichannel effects as when the boys are running through the devil worshipper's woods.
The Extras
Director Thor Freudenthal and writer Gabe Sachs, one of four credited screen scribes, join forces for the running audio commentary on Wimpy Kid. "Greg's Deleted Diary Pages" represent the nine deleted scenes, a few of which play as curious profiles of supporting characters, and one of which includes a bit shown in the trailer where Greg's unshakably perky mom (Rachel Harris) just can't help herself. These run about ten minutes total, and are in high definition. This is also where we can find "Rowley's Lost Zoo-Wee Mama Cartoons," still frames of his school newspaper comic strip as mentioned in the film.
Disc Two is a DVD of the movie, with all of the above special features. And the third platter carries a Digital Copy for iTunes and Windows Media. For fans, the box opens up to reveal a few pages from Rowley's diary, too. I believe that this was created by Kinney himself, and that it is exclusive to the home video release.
Final Thoughts
Heavier-handed, less lighthearted than its source material, Diary of a Wimpy Kid is nonetheless a fun family film for the ten-and-up crowd. Blu-ray-wise, I found the picture, sound and extras somewhat lacking, but the freedom to watch the movie in four different media has to count for something.
Product Details
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