Captain Underpants! The Art of Adaptation

Despite Universal Studios' making a monster cinematic universe, a new sci-fi epic from the director of the Fifth Element and the Emoji Movie, Captain Underpants, outperformed all of them last summer.  Why? Partially the lack of creativity in the former, but partially the humor and focused simplicity of the latter. Taking the same animation style of the Peanuts movie previous and the unbridled passion of 90's Cartoon Network, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie adapts the Dav Pilkey children's novels/comics of the same name into a kinetic rollercoaster, which makes it perfect for watching with your best friend.

I will honestly admit, I had doubts about this movie as one who read the books in their heyday and saw similar projects become messes of pop culture and reference humor with none of the spirit of the original. I am overjoyed to be proven wrong. Too often, these movies tend towards gross-out or random adult jokes, or rely on Hollywood star power and make it about their celebrity voice actor to the point of losing the plot and character completely, yet this movie doesn't. The film even managed to combine two disparate plots from separate sequels that made the story and characters better than expected. This movie delivers empathy, excitement, and elephantine laughter more than any other film from last summer. Yet I must ask why it excels despite the odds against it.

Adaptation from one medium to another requires sacrifice to work and Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie understands this. We've seen adaptions that rely on standard formulas of its new medium, draining the originality from it, but also adaptions that stick too close to their source without thinking, driving away the new wider audience they wanted.  Prince of Persia isn't a bad movie, just a generic one in comparison to the source games. Two thirds of The Killing Joke feels less like an animated movie because they copy the comic panel for panel without matching the intensity because still images fail to grasp an animation audience.  World of Warcraft pleased fans with its authentic recreation of the world and story of the game, but forgot to introduce the rest of the audience so they could get as invested.

Captain Underpants avoids both extremes by keeping the kids at the center of the film's perspective and world. By replacing Mr. Krupp's threat of the first book and instead focusing on putting George and Harold in separate classrooms, they established how important their relationship is while cranking their anxious perceptions to eleven. It doesn't matter how minor the inconvenience is in the long term, their worries become the audience's worries. This threat touches the heart of the books where the two of them can accomplish anything together, but now Mr. Krupp tries to destroy that fundamental aspect of the series with one stroke of his pen. You don't need to threaten to destroy the world to keep the audience invested. As long as it feels important to the main perspective of the story an audience will accept it.

George and Harold keep the pace energetic with their fun banter always leading to the next plot point or admitting their shared ignorance or amusement at the circumstances they face.  Their childish perspective keeps the film from stalling or losing focus as they confront one problem at a time with no concerns about the potential consequences, but they never feel without a conscience. They apologize to the villain for slandering his ridiculous name and while it fails to convince Professor Poopypants to stop the evil scheme it does make George and Harold more believable and honest as characters.

The comedy doesn't rely on shock or gross-out as our heroes merely find the sounds and ideas funny on their own. Mothers need not worry about children learning terrible words or habits from the film. It's surprisingly clean despite the concept, much like the books they take inspiration from. The movie succeeds in translating the spirit of the books to the cinematic format by keeping the perspective of the child protagonists, maintaining the same tone and style of humor, and not keeping the original plot sacred and instead remixing it to work better as a film.

--Clyde Northrup