"The boys love their toys" remarks Lady Penelope, herself the possessor of a rather odd assortment of fetishes including the mechanical. (One could easily develop the urge to rummage through her closets and drawers if given the chance.) The movie gets the styling right, creating a super slick world in a universe that not only never existed, but couldn't possibly exist. The bizarrely well-written puppet show off of which this production is based survives quite well, even if the individual characters don't fare quite so well. It is a fantasy of generations of schoolboys prone to sketching spacecraft and warplanes in class rather than paying attention.
In order to buy into fantasy you have to overlook some of the personality quirks of the Tracy family (the heroes) who are narcissistic even by super-hero standards. What can you say about a father and five males who isolate themselves on an island with no outsiders except for servants and Lady Penelope, and whose idea for decor are twice life-sized back-illuminated pictures of themselves? The story of the youngest of this brood, Alan, is predictable and uninteresting because the kid has no concept of helping people. Instead he wants the glory and the hardware his older brothers have and that's it.
Keep an eye out for Vanessa Anne Hudgens, who plays the just-pubescent love interest/sidekick. She is nowhere with this movie but she has potential to break out as a big star.
In order to buy into fantasy you have to overlook some of the personality quirks of the Tracy family (the heroes) who are narcissistic even by super-hero standards. What can you say about a father and five males who isolate themselves on an island with no outsiders except for servants and Lady Penelope, and whose idea for decor are twice life-sized back-illuminated pictures of themselves? The story of the youngest of this brood, Alan, is predictable and uninteresting because the kid has no concept of helping people. Instead he wants the glory and the hardware his older brothers have and that's it.
Keep an eye out for Vanessa Anne Hudgens, who plays the just-pubescent love interest/sidekick. She is nowhere with this movie but she has potential to break out as a big star.