Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

In adapting Dav Pilkey's children's books for the big screen, Captain Underpants director David Soren (Turbo) and screenwriter Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors) get remarkably steady comic rewards out of whoopee cushions and toilets, maybe because they load the screen with a lot of subtle content youngsters might not notice. A lot is going on at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School.

(The school's namesake is better known as Jerry "Curly" Howard of The Three Stooges. Thankfully, Pilkey and company don't explain the joke.)

Unknowingly carrying out Horwitz's distinguished legacy of gloriously low humor are two budding cartoonists and accomplished pranksters named George (Kevin Hart) and Harold (Thomas Middleditch). When the two aren't giggling their way through class (they find the fact that Uranus is a "gas giant" hilarious) they're writing and drawing a series of comic books about their silly superhero Captain Underpants.

While the two amuse themselves and occasionally their classmates, they irritate the school's fatuous and tyrannical principal (Ed Helms). He's so irritated by George and Harold's exploits that the pair have reserved seats outside his office. He has also confiscated all of their comics. Eager to maintain order, he threatens to assign George and Harold to separate classes.

In a desperate move, George waves a toy hypnotic ring in front of the principal's face. Surprisingly, the cheap trinket actually works, and the two convince him that he's Captain Underpants. Because he's probably the only person who has read their books, it doesn't take much persuading to get him to shed his unconvincing wig and his clothes.

This situation stops the paperwork for separating George and Harold, but it creates a whole new series of problems. For one thing, the "Captain" lacks the superpowers his comic book alter ego has. To fight evil, he leaps out of windows even though he can't fly. That's unfortunate, because the school has a new science teacher Professor Poopypants (Nick Kroll), who's more of a mad (as in really angry) scientist than an educator.

The not-so-good professor is so tired of people making fun of his regrettable name, which no loving parent would give to their offspring, that he is trying to turn the students at Horwitz Elementary into mirthless drones. As a result, the lads, and everybody else, need the Waistband Warrior.

Soren has George and Harold break the fourth wall and varies the animation styles, even resorting to sock puppets at one point. This keeps the movie from becoming static or repetitive. Stoller and Soren pack a lot of surprises into a lean but muscular 84 minutes.

The voice casting is similarly full of unexpected delights. Hart and Middleditch are obviously not children, but with the stylized look of the characters, their excitable tone makes up for the fact that they are both well past drinking age. Helms effortlessly delivers both of the Captain's identities, switching from pomposity to actual courage while barely taking a breath. His deep voice is ideally suited for both roles.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie assaults viewers with the lowest sort of juvenile toilet humor in the most delightful ways possible.

MovieStyle on 06/02/2017