Wonder Park (2019) - Movie Review

This film has no credited director. No, this hasn’t confirmed everyone’s suspicions that computers are now making films all on their own, nor is this a situation where the director disowned the production for one reason or another. In reality, it seems like the production disowned the director, citing "multiple complains of 'inappropriate and unwanted behaviour'" for him being fired in January 2018, after the majority of the film was already completed. While someone with Weinstein tendencies helming a children’s film is dicey to say the least, I will give some credit to Paramount and Nickelodeon for booting his credit from the film, while still releasing it so everyone else’s hard work didn’t go to waste. It also helps that this film is certainly better than I would’ve expected from that kind of production drama.

For a story primarily set in a big, expansive amusement park born from a child’s literal imagination, the animation courtesy of Spanish studio Ilion Animation is an ideal fit with its bright, colourful and highly kinetic visuals. Edie Ichioka’s editing can be stunted in places, resulting in the odd bit of jarring transition, but for the most part, the brisk pacing lets the many wonders of Wonderland (I’m guessing the film’s different title was done so people didn’t think the Mad Hatter was going to randomly pop up) shine through.

From the flying fish carousel to the numerous rollercoasters to the surprisingly creepy chimpanzombies (being able to write words like that makes my job just that much more fun), it’s a set piece-heavy flick where the set pieces themselves feel like we’re experiencing the fun of the park for ourselves. It’s the least a film like this should offer.

The characters, though? Well, not to say that they’re outright terrible but they are still quite bland. It’s a definite and unfortunate case of one gimmick per character (or, in the case of the beaver brothers, one gimmick per duo), making for the bare minimum of memorability: A blue bear with narcolepsy, a safety officer who is a walking safety hazard, and a boar who gets relegated to de facto leader/love interest… ugh.

This isn’t helped by the sense of humour on display, which I would hesitate to call unfunny as much as barely any of the jokes even register as such. Being stuck with the voices of radio duo Fitzy and Wippa for the Australian release might have something to do with that, but mostly, it just feels like the production is leaning on the visuals for its engagement. Credit to them, that was a good call, but it leaves the people on-screen feeling pointless… or, at least, most of them do.

I haven’t brought up the main character in all this, June played by newcomer Brianna Denski, and that’s because I wanted to save the best for last. While the events in the park itself feel surface-level, our introduction to June, her parents and their connection to the park gets close to Pixar’s Up territory in being able to deliver some pretty harsh emotionality with very few words or specifics. It also adds some subtle textures to the latter scenes involving ‘the darkness’, the inside of which looks like the contents of a cardboard box. Have to admit, that was a nice touch.

At its heart, this is a story about imagination, creative expression and how the harshness of reality can get in the way of it. While this script certainly deserves credit for how it treats the finale, which manages to avoid the ‘the evil is gone forever’ cliché for something startlingly more realistic, it primarily wins points because, for a film all about whimsy, it can get rather touching in places. Bonus points for not completely spelling out the parallels between June and Peanut the monkey, allowing the audience to put the admittedly-obvious pieces together for themselves. You know you’ve seen too many crappy kids’ films when you’re thankful for one that doesn’t hold the audience’s hand the entire time.

This film is a very mixed bag, with solid animation, creative set pieces and even some genuine heart, but hindered by a pretty lacklustre story, limp acting and practically non-existent humour. It’s light entertainment in the more disheartening sense, and I still have reservations about the formerly-known-as-the-director’s jackassery behind the scenes, but I’ll admit that I had fun with this.