The Bob’s Burg­ers Movie

A fea­ture-length out­ing for the Belch­er fam­i­ly – of Fox’s Bob’s Burg­ers ani­mat­ed sit­com fame – has been a long time com­ing. The Bob’s Burg­ers Movie was announced back in 2017, but var­i­ous stu­dio delays and then the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic meant that the film’s release date was pushed back from July 2020 to May 2022, and pro­duc­tion took place remotely. 

You wouldn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly know this from watch­ing the film though, per­haps due to how well the stars know their char­ac­ters at this point. It’s now 11 years since the Belch­er clan opened up their burg­er shop, mak­ing them some­thing of a main­stay in Amer­i­can pop cul­ture, and the leap to a fea­ture film feels like an inevitable (though not nec­es­sar­i­ly unwel­come) progression.

We find the Belch­ers – that’s Bob, Lin­da, and their pre­co­cious kids Tina, Gene and Louise – on the cusp of sum­mer break, the par­ents look­ing for­ward to increased foot traf­fic for their bare­ly-scrap­ing-by busi­ness and the chil­dren excit­ed about the free­dom of not hav­ing to attend school. Then, a sink­hole opens up in front of their shop and plans are thrown into dis­ar­ray, as the Belch­ers won­der how they’re going to afford rent. Things go from bad to worse when a corpse appears with­in the hole, and the Belch­er chil­dren become ama­teur detec­tives while their par­ents try to think of a way to drum up business.

It’s the sort of zany plot view­ers have come to expect from Bob and co, though not nec­es­sar­i­ly one that requires a show that runs at around 20 min­utes an episode to be turned into a 102-minute film. For those already on the Bob’s Burg­ers train, though, it’s a delight­ful chance to lux­u­ri­ate in the com­pa­ny of some famil­iar friends, and the film’s three big musi­cal num­bers pro­vide more of the zany delights we’ve come to expect from the show. In fact, it’s a well-paced com­e­dy that nev­er threat­ens to out­stay its wel­come, some­how man­ag­ing to daisy-chain child­hood anx­i­ety, fam­i­ly finan­cial wor­ries and a mur­der mys­tery into a sin­gle, coher­ent plot.

While The Simp­sons Movie went star­ry and bold with its 2007 big-screen out­ing, The Bob’s Burg­ers Movie doesn’t make many attempts to change the for­mu­la which has worked so well for them. There are no big plot changes that might impact events on the show, and it could eas­i­ly work as a stand­alone, even if it’s like­ly new­com­ers will be a lit­tle baf­fled at first. Most impres­sive is how dynam­ic the ani­ma­tion looks on-screen – it’s a colour­ful film, and the char­ac­ters are drawn with dis­tinc­tive, expres­sive style. Despite being a con­tin­u­a­tion of a pre-exist­ing show, the film still has some tricks up its sleeve; a bumper-car chase scene is a par­tic­u­lar highlight.

The cre­ative team might be stick­ing to a tried-and-test­ed for­mu­la here, but with such charm­ing results, it’s real­ly hard to take issue with The Bob’s Burg­ers Movie. If they make anoth­er, it would be nice to see some of the show’s more bizarre ele­ments incor­po­rat­ed, but it’s a sweet, if a lit­tle slight, serv­ing of hijinks with the Belch­er gang.