Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021 film)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Promotional release poster
Directed by	Swinton Scott
Screenplay by	Jeff Kinney
Based on	Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Produced by	Jeff Kinney
Starring	Brady Noon Ethan William Childress Chris Diamantopoulos Erica Cerra Hunter Dillon
Edited by	Sylvain Blais
Music by	John Paesano
Production companies	Walt Disney Pictures[a] Bardel Entertainment[1]
Distributed by	Disney+
Release date	December 3, 2021 (2021-12-03)
Running time	58 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a 2021 American computer-animated comedy film directed by Swinton Scott, from a script by Jeff Kinney and based on Kinney's 2007 book of the same name. Serving as a reboot and the fifth installment overall in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series, the film marks the first animated entry in the series. It features the voices of Brady Noon, Ethan William Childress, Chris Diamantopoulos, Erica Cerra, and Hunter Dillon.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Bardel Entertainment, the latter whom provided animation services, and was released on Disney+, as a Disney+ original film, on December 3, 2021. It received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot[]

Best friends Greg Heffley and Rowley Jefferson are about to enter middle school. Greg gets advice from his older brother Rodrick on how to "survive" (putting emphasis on avoiding the Cheese Touch, which supposedly makes one incredibly unpopular), scaring the former. Figuring that Rowley's childish tendencies will cause them to be bullied, Greg tries to urge his friend to grow up, almost telling him about the cheese, but decides against it, not wanting to scare him too much. Before long, the first day of school arrives, and Greg tries to help Rowley adjust, though both end up shunned by the majority of the students, mostly due to Rowley's somewhat childish antics, which includes the use of the word "play" over "hang out." Nevertheless, they manage to avoid scraping the bottom of the school hierarchy.

On Halloween night, Greg and Rowley are forced to take the former's younger brother Manny with them. While at first annoyed, Greg realizes that Manny's adorable pirate costume allows them to acquire a large amount of candy. Eventually, Manny and Rowley become tired, but Greg insists that they continue on and take a shortcut through Snake Road, despite his mother Susan forbidding it. They encounter a trio of teenage boys who begin to mock and chase them with water balloons down the road. The younger boys manage to evade them by tricking them into driving their truck into a ditch and make it home right on time, only to be soaked by Greg's father Frank who mistook them for teenagers. Manny then outs the Snake Road incident to Susan, who lays a week long video game ban on him.

Later on, while playing "rumble trike", Greg accidentally breaks Rowley's arm. Susan discovers this, but chooses not to punish Greg any further. Instead, she encourages him do the right thing and be a good friend to Rowley. Greg instead tries to take advantage of Rowley's broken arm, only to get shunned further by the other students, who dote on Rowley and demonize Greg for breaking it in the first place. Greg attempts to take a different approach and become a cartoonist for the school paper; Rowley takes an interest in a scrapped idea of his, in which the punchline of every strip is "Zoo-Wee Mama!", but Greg insists on a new one he drew, urging Rowley to make his own comic instead of working together. Greg's entry gets him accepted as the new cartoonist, but the librarian butchers his comic, making his classmates mock him. After Greg resigns from his position, Rowley's comic, which features the stolen phrase, gets accepted, causing the boys to argue and break their friendship.

Rowley befriends a boy named Chirag Gupta and starts seeing him more often. In an attempt to get back at him, Greg decides to hang out with Fregley, an incredibly strange and unpopular boy. Greg has a sleepover at his house, but is immediately put off by his odd eccentricities. The next day, Greg and Rowley confront each other and are urged to fight by the other kids, only for the trio of teenagers to return to get revenge on the boys. The teenagers force Rowley to eat a piece of the cheese and are about to force Greg to do the same, but are saved by Mr. Underwood, the school's gym coach.

The other kids return to see what has transpired. To protect Rowley, Greg claims that he was the one who ate the cheese, causing everyone else to run from him in terror. Greg and Rowley resume their friendship as the former quickly realizes that having the Cheese Touch is a blessing as it forces everyone to give him and Rowley space, as well as a personal lunch table to themselves.

Voice cast[]

Production[]

Development[]

Following the release of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, the likelihood of a fourth live-action film was slim. In 2012, Jeff Kinney, the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, had announced the possibility for an animated film to be based on Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever as the next installment. In an interview for Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck, Kinney stated he was working with Fox on a half-hour special based on Cabin Fever, which was scheduled to air in late-2014.^[3][4] The special was meant to be an animated production developed at 20th Century Fox Animation, and had begun development while Kinney worked in the live-action films. However, the project never came to fruition.

In August of 2018, CEO of 20th Century Fox Stacey Snider stated that an animated television series based on Diary of a Wimpy Kid was in development^[5], after Kinney decided not to allow any more live action adaptations of the series following the film adaptation of The Long Haul.^[6] In August 2019, after the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, the project was confirmed to be still in development exclusively for streaming on Disney+.^[7]

In December 2020, the project was confirmed to have been redeveloped as an animated reboot feature film simply titled, Diary of a Wimpy Kid at the Disney Investor Day event.^[8] Alongside this announcement, it was revealed that production was underway with a tentative release date slated for mid-2021.^[9] By September 2021, it was announced that the film would be an adaptation of the first book in the series; while the film was scheduled for a December 3, 2021 release date.^[10][11] Swinton Scott was announced as director, with Kinney serving as the writer and producer. Brady Noon, Ethan William Childress, and Chris Diamantopoulos were revealed as the voice cast.^[12] Sometime during production, though, the film was moved from 20th Century Studios and 20th Century Animation to Walt Disney Pictures.

Animation[]

Animation services were provided by Bardel Entertainment^[1] with offices in Vancouver and Kelowna composed by a team of 82 people all using the animation rendering software Arnold. Kinney chose to use CGI in spite of the book's hand-drawn-style drawing because he wanted the animation to "feel like the books had come to life".^[8]

Music[]

On September 23, 2021, it was revealed that John Paesano would be serving as composer.^[13][14] The soundtrack was released on December 17, 2021.^[15]

All music composed by John Paesano.^[15]

Marketing[]

The teaser poster was revealed on September 2, 2021 (the same day the release date was announced). The first trailer was released on October 19, 2021.^[16][17][2] Additionally, the song "Bring Your Friends" by Sam Shrieve was heavily used in marketing campaigns, but was not featured in the film itself.

Additionally, a reprint of the original book featured a new Disney+ cover variant to serve as a tie-in release to the movie (this book featured a first-look at Rowley Jefferson in his CG-animated form). Like the original book, Amulet Books released the book, but this time, in association with Disney Enterprises, Inc. and 20th Century Studios. It was released on November 23, 2021.^[18]

Release[]

The film was released on Disney+, on December 3, 2021.^[19]

Reception[]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 73% of 15 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.30/10.^[20] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 50 out of 100 based on 4 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[21]

Screen Rant's Sarah Bea Milner scored it 1.5 out of 5, calling it "derivative" to the 2010 live-action film, noting Greg as an unlikable lead, and criticizing Kinney's writing.^[22]

Future[]

Official logo for the sequel

On October 23, 2021, ahead of the first film's release, Jeff Kinney revealed that sequels are already in development.^[23][24] For Disney+ Day, Kinney revealed that the sequel, based on Rodrick Rules, is set to be released in 2022.^[25] Kinney stated that he intends to adapt all his books into animated features for Disney+.^[26]

References[]