The world premiere of Nickelodeon's new, made-for-TV movie based on their long-running TV series "The Fairly OddParents" aired this evening. I spent a good portion of my morning and afternoon watching the 10 original "The Fairly OddParents" shorts (made between 1998 and 2001 for Nickelodeon's "Oh Yeah! Cartoons") so I could refresh my memory of the beginnings of the series before seeing the end. Those original shorts, and the earliest seasons of the series (which started its first full season in 2001) are full of offbeat humor and larger-than-life characters. Every character, every story line is over-the-top, but always brilliantly so.
That's why I'm happy to report the new, live-action movie is just as over-the-top as the earliest episodes: a now 23-year-old Timmy Turner is still in the 5th grade, completely content to live like a child if it means he can keep his fairy god parents, Cosmo and Wanda (much to the chagrin of his parents). Unfortunately for Cosmo and Wanda, the once obnoxious Tootie has moved back to Dimmsdale as a full-grown woman. Even worse: she's captured Timmy's attention. When an evil oil magnate teams up with Denzel Crocker to capture the fairies and harvest their magic powers for evil, Timmy has to make the biggest decision of his eternally-youthful life: will he grow up and be with Tootie, or will he leave Tootie to rescue his oldest friends?
The editing and pacing of the movie are reminiscent of a typical episode from the TV series: Mom & Dad quickly swoop into scenes to toss out some quick dialogue, and swoop out as quickly as they came; Denzel Crocker's erratic twitches when he says "FAIRY-GOD-PARENTS" are intact; Cosmo's idiocy is as smooth as ever. Long-time fans of the TV series will find a lot of little touches in the styling of the film to appreciate it (my personal favorite: an appearance by Chompy the Goat).
As a capstone to one of Nickelodeon's biggest successes, it is as good as a live-action movie based on an over-the-top, highly stylized cartoon could be. It is not, however, a perfect movie. The whole thing isn't much longer than an extended episode of the TV series. It only filled its 90-minute time slot because of the long commercial breaks. As a result, most of the supporting characters are only seen briefly, and are anything but developed. Tootie, who hasn't lived in Dimmsdale for thirteen years, has somehow never gotten over her third-grade crush on Timmy. Timmy's feeling of repulsion toward Tootie quickly switches into admiration, and not too long after, his Love-O-Meter (which Wanda checks regularly) is beeping madly. Evil babysitter Vicky appears so briefly, there's almost no point to her being in the movie beyond a one-note joke (it involves Vicky's chosen career for her adult life). Timmy's childhood pals, Chester and AJ, appear just long enough to establish what has become of them since elementary school, but do little else to support the story than give Timmy a ride because he only owns a bicycle.
Then there's an issue of inconsistency with the fairies. The Schwarzenegger-like fairy Jorgen Von Strangle is portrayed in the movie by a human actor. A scene in the later part of the film depicts many other fairies in human form. So why do Cosmo and Wanda spend all but maybe five minutes of the movie as creepy computer-animated versions of the series' classic 2-D depictions? For that roughly five minutes of screen time, Jason Alexander and Cheryl Hines portray full-sized human versions of the magical duo. Susanne Blakeslee and Daran Norris continue to provide voices to the animated Cosmo and Wanda (as they have done since the series premiered). Ignoring the fact that the animated and live-action voices of Cosmo and Wanda do not match (a fact alluded to by Mr. Alexander and Miss Hines shortly after their first appearance on screen), one is left with no explanation as to why these two fairies were computer-animated for the bulk of the movie, and every other fairy is seen in full-sized human form. With today's technology, it should not have been hard to digitally shrink Mr. Alexander and Miss Hines so they could float around Timmy during the movie. It would have been better if the filmmakers had made the creative decision that all non-magical humans would appear normally, and all fairies would appear in CGI form. The gag the humanized Cosmo and Wanda appear for could easily have been accomplished with a bit of magic from the CGI fairies. The fact that the humanized Cosmo and Wanda never reappear after that scene makes it all the more distracting. I should also mention that Poof (Cosmo and Wanda's son, introduced in 2008) also appears in CGI form with his parents (he's a pretty silent role until the end of the film, when he opens his mouth and releases a surprise voice).
Fairy inconsistencies aside, the movie is definitely worth a screening for long-time fans of the series. It's not brilliant movie-making, but it is a sweet little coda to the long-running series (seen on Nickelodeon in short and series form since 1998). I've already added the first season of the TV series to my Amazon.com shopping list, and when this movie finds it's way to DVD/BD, I'll most likely add it to my movie library.
I give "A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!" a total of 7 Magic Wands out of a possible 10: *\ *\ *\ *\ *\ *\ *\
That's why I'm happy to report the new, live-action movie is just as over-the-top as the earliest episodes: a now 23-year-old Timmy Turner is still in the 5th grade, completely content to live like a child if it means he can keep his fairy god parents, Cosmo and Wanda (much to the chagrin of his parents). Unfortunately for Cosmo and Wanda, the once obnoxious Tootie has moved back to Dimmsdale as a full-grown woman. Even worse: she's captured Timmy's attention. When an evil oil magnate teams up with Denzel Crocker to capture the fairies and harvest their magic powers for evil, Timmy has to make the biggest decision of his eternally-youthful life: will he grow up and be with Tootie, or will he leave Tootie to rescue his oldest friends?
The editing and pacing of the movie are reminiscent of a typical episode from the TV series: Mom & Dad quickly swoop into scenes to toss out some quick dialogue, and swoop out as quickly as they came; Denzel Crocker's erratic twitches when he says "FAIRY-GOD-PARENTS" are intact; Cosmo's idiocy is as smooth as ever. Long-time fans of the TV series will find a lot of little touches in the styling of the film to appreciate it (my personal favorite: an appearance by Chompy the Goat).
As a capstone to one of Nickelodeon's biggest successes, it is as good as a live-action movie based on an over-the-top, highly stylized cartoon could be. It is not, however, a perfect movie. The whole thing isn't much longer than an extended episode of the TV series. It only filled its 90-minute time slot because of the long commercial breaks. As a result, most of the supporting characters are only seen briefly, and are anything but developed. Tootie, who hasn't lived in Dimmsdale for thirteen years, has somehow never gotten over her third-grade crush on Timmy. Timmy's feeling of repulsion toward Tootie quickly switches into admiration, and not too long after, his Love-O-Meter (which Wanda checks regularly) is beeping madly. Evil babysitter Vicky appears so briefly, there's almost no point to her being in the movie beyond a one-note joke (it involves Vicky's chosen career for her adult life). Timmy's childhood pals, Chester and AJ, appear just long enough to establish what has become of them since elementary school, but do little else to support the story than give Timmy a ride because he only owns a bicycle.
Then there's an issue of inconsistency with the fairies. The Schwarzenegger-like fairy Jorgen Von Strangle is portrayed in the movie by a human actor. A scene in the later part of the film depicts many other fairies in human form. So why do Cosmo and Wanda spend all but maybe five minutes of the movie as creepy computer-animated versions of the series' classic 2-D depictions? For that roughly five minutes of screen time, Jason Alexander and Cheryl Hines portray full-sized human versions of the magical duo. Susanne Blakeslee and Daran Norris continue to provide voices to the animated Cosmo and Wanda (as they have done since the series premiered). Ignoring the fact that the animated and live-action voices of Cosmo and Wanda do not match (a fact alluded to by Mr. Alexander and Miss Hines shortly after their first appearance on screen), one is left with no explanation as to why these two fairies were computer-animated for the bulk of the movie, and every other fairy is seen in full-sized human form. With today's technology, it should not have been hard to digitally shrink Mr. Alexander and Miss Hines so they could float around Timmy during the movie. It would have been better if the filmmakers had made the creative decision that all non-magical humans would appear normally, and all fairies would appear in CGI form. The gag the humanized Cosmo and Wanda appear for could easily have been accomplished with a bit of magic from the CGI fairies. The fact that the humanized Cosmo and Wanda never reappear after that scene makes it all the more distracting. I should also mention that Poof (Cosmo and Wanda's son, introduced in 2008) also appears in CGI form with his parents (he's a pretty silent role until the end of the film, when he opens his mouth and releases a surprise voice).
Fairy inconsistencies aside, the movie is definitely worth a screening for long-time fans of the series. It's not brilliant movie-making, but it is a sweet little coda to the long-running series (seen on Nickelodeon in short and series form since 1998). I've already added the first season of the TV series to my Amazon.com shopping list, and when this movie finds it's way to DVD/BD, I'll most likely add it to my movie library.
I give "A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!" a total of 7 Magic Wands out of a possible 10: *\ *\ *\ *\ *\ *\ *\