The Emmy-award winning TV series gets a perfect accompaniment with The Bob’s Burgers Movie—streaming on Neon. Bringing cinematic spectacle, the movie can stand on its own for anyone who’s never seen a single episode of Bob’s Burgers, writes Laumata Lauano.
At first glance, Bob’s Burgers looks like any other adult animated comedy about an oddball middle-to-low class family that’s often down on their luck in business and in life. And on the surface, that’s exactly what it is. But scratch a bit deeper and you’ll find yourself in a world of comedy nuance and poignant family interactions that leaves a warm, if ticklish, full feeling in your tummy.
Parents Bob and Linda Belcher (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin and John Roberts) and children Tina, Gene and Louise (Dan Mintz, Eugene Mirman, Kristen Schaal) live in an apartment above their restaurant in an unspecified East Coast beach town in America. In the series, the Belchers deal with a variety of bizarre locals in each episode, from health inspectors/old flings to precocious classmates and overbearing neighbours including local handyman Teddy (Larry Murphy)—their best customer if not their biggest fan.
The movie doesn’t exactly do anything too differently, just on a slightly larger scale with epoch-making choices made by various family members that have life-and-death consequences, believe it or not. One of the things scaled up is the musical numbers; while characters are prone to bursting into the odd song in the series, both sincere and strange, they’ve got a bigger budget to really build up the cast and choreography for the film.
The film, however, starts off relatively normal for the Belchers. Bob and his family are knee-deep in the struggle to save their burger joint, but this time, it’s not just from one major event or disaster but from a double whammy: a bank loan payment they need to make in a week or risk losing it all, as well as a giant sinkhole that opens directly in front of the door to the premises. And if that’s not dire enough, the business suffers a further blow when it’s revealed that the hole contains the remains of a murdered carnival employee or carnie.
Le gasp.
Although writer and producer Loren Bouchard assured that newbies can definitely enjoy the movie, there are plenty of established arcs and familiar gags that find their way into the film for weathered fans. Money troubles notwithstanding, for Bob and Linda, or Teddy’s fan-behaviour. We see Louise being her usual hard-headed but big-hearted self while Gene’s Itty Bitty Ditty Committee Rockstar dreams are both familiar and hilarious topped off with Tina’s usual fantasies of classmate Jimmy Jr. It’s all the familiarity but on a cinematic level.
In fact, it’s Louise’s hard-headedness that takes her and her older siblings on the journey to solve the murder mystery at their doorstep, literally, to save their parents’ business. The drive stemming not just from the heart wanting to save her family’s business but also of wanting to prove that she is not a baby to her peers.
The film, much like the series, really shines when it comes to its characters’ relationships to each other. Despite their constant bickering, the Belchers (and even Teddy) genuinely show up for and love each other, even if some of them would rather not admit it.
Gene and Tina follow their younger siblings’ lead not just because she’s a schemer who manages to get them to do what she wants, but because there’s a genuine bond between the three that shines through. The kids have a sibling bond that is close, despite the respectable age gaps. They’re regularly reminding others that only they get to mess with each other, and when they do mess with each other it’s hilarious but never with ill intent. The banter between the three is at times weird, albeit less crass than earlier seasons of the series, but it’s entertaining and still somewhat heartfelt.
Bob and Linda’s marriage is low key, the kind of marriage people should long for, a bit romantic but mostly defined by their companionship and their loving, rather ordinary attempts at keeping the passion alive. So while the movie follows a family of four-fingered people, it’s a more realistic portrayal of a modern American family than exists in some live-action representations.
As silly and outlandish as the film is, there’s so much relatability in it. The Belchers aren’t cartoon Kardashians, nor are they bad luck Chucks—theirs is a story you can see in your own life. Not the murder mysteries, sinkhole and musical numbers, perhaps, but rather dealing with the intricacies of life. This extends to the side characters too, from the carnival workers with their musical number about the social inequities of life to the richest characters—the Belchers’ landlord (Kevin Kline), his brother (Zach Galifianakis), and their cousin, (David Wain).
Through the Belcher family’s (few and far between) ups and their many many downs, their optimism endures. It’s relatable to see a family struggling—misery really does love company—but more importantly it’s nice to see that when they get knocked down, the Belchers crack a joke and get back up again for each other without losing hope. Even when things seem at their most bleak, there’s a little ray of sunshine in a sink hole of troubles—and importantly for the viewer, plenty of gags and toe-tapping tunes.
