Throughout cinema history, children’s films have often dazzled with colour and imagination while exploring deeper themes that resonate with adults too. The Twits aims for the same blend but only ends up reminding you of far better films. Based on Roald Dahl’s book of the same name, it has all the right ingredients—the trademark whimsy, playful chaos, and the limitless scope of animation. But without warmth or heart to bind it all, the result feels half-baked and sloppy.
The film follows the eponymous couple (Johnny Vegas, Margo Martindale) and their hate-filled and filth-happy way of life. They dream of opening an amusement park that is powered by the tears of a family of mythical creatures called Muggle-Wumps (Natalie Portman, Timothy Simons). When a group of kind-hearted orphan children named Beesha (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and Bubsy (Ryan Lopez) find out about this and plan to rescue the Muggle-Wumps, the ensuing chaos envelops the town called Triperot. The film has quirky characters and fun-filled incidents, such as a man’s bottom exploding, a character called Mr Napkin being used as a literal napkin, an angry mob carrying an entire building, and a toad that makes you behave the exact opposite of yourself if you lick its toes. But it also has a lot of bland humour, lifeless animation, and shallow writing.
A sense of carelessness is present in how the protagonists, Beesha and Bubsy, are written and animated. We empathise with their longing to find a family, but nothing more than that. Beesha has the signature drive to save closed ones, but she lacks the energy and zest for life that we usually see in such characters. In fact, the film relies heavily on its antagonists, The Twits. Unlike most bad guys in a children’s story, Mr and Mrs Twit are overdesigned to perfection. Most of the fun moments arrive when the Twits are onscreen. While they’re not actively thwarting Twits’ plans, all we get of Beesha and her motley crew of friends and magical creatures are familiar ‘bonding moments’, unearned monologues about learning to love oneself, and the graceless commentary on the power of empathy.
The film seems to stick too rigidly to its definition of a children’s film that it forgets to have fun with itself. It’s okay for such a story to be too direct with its message about self-love, family, and empathy, but the apparent lack of joy is felt in every moment that fails to capture the intended emotion. Even with the right amount of whimsy, vibrant imagination, innocence, and childlike wonder typical of a classic children’s adventure, The Twits fails to leave a mark on your memory. Ironically, this might also be one of the good things about the film.
