The Bob's Burgers Movie (PG)

Bob Belcher and his wife Linda run a hamburger restaurant in a close-knit seaside community. Stress piles on the couple's shoulders when a water main ruptures and creates a huge sinkhole in front of their business. The entrance to the restaurant is blocked indefinitely, impacting profits from a lucrative summer season. While husband and wife struggle to keep the business afloat, the Belcher children Tina, Gene and Louise turn detectives to solve a murderous mystery.

LondonNet Film Review

The Bob’s Burgers Movie (PG) Film Review from LondonNet

The origins of the hamburger, a mouth-watering staple of the fast-food industry, may be fiercely contested by several American states but the transition of Emmy Award-winning TV sitcom Bob’s Burgers, created by Loren Bouchard, to the big screen is unquestionably a success. Co-directed by Bouchard and Bernard Derriman, animated musical comedy The Bob’s Burgers Movie is a tasty treat that operates effectively as a self-contained murder mystery for audiences who have never tucked into the TV show, which recently completed its 12th season…

Hardcore fans will relish some long-gestated plot reveals such as the touching origin of the bubble-gum pink rabbit ears that tomboy youngest child Louise has worn in almost every scene but Bouchard and co don’t exclude first-time visitors to the hand-drawn world of the Belcher clan. Laughs are plentiful in a script that balances droll dialogue and visual gags (pun-laden store signages begin with the It’s Your Funeral Home & Crematorium that adjoins the titular family-run restaurant).

Aside from a couple of outlandish action sequences including an amusingly slow-paced car chase in aquatic-themed vehicles, there are few obvious cinematic garnishes to distract from the chief pleasure of delightfully dysfunctional family members working through neuroses with satisfying emotional pay-offs. Eldest daughter Tina’s inner turmoil about asking classmate Jimmy Pesto Jr to be her boyfriend for the summer delivers some of the film’s sweetest and most fantastical flourishes.

Bob Belcher (voiced by H Jon Benjamin) and wife Linda (John Roberts) are in dire financial straits and hope to persuade bank manager Mr Dowling (Craig Anton) to extend their loan agreement. Instead, he gives the cash-strapped couple seven days to make payment or the bank will repossess their kitchen equipment. Stress piles onto the shoulders of Bob and Linda like cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickles on a freshly grilled burger when a water main ruptures outside the restaurant’s front door, creating a huge sinkhole that prevents customers from entering the premises.

Bob’s handyman best friend Teddy (Larry Murphy) hastily builds a food cart so the Belchers can ply their tasty wares at the 80th anniversary celebrations of the Wonder Wharf amusement park owned by their wildly eccentric landlord, Calvin Fischoeder (Kevin Kline). Meanwhile, the Belcher children, Tina (Dan Mintz), Gene (Eugene Mirman) and Louise (Kristen Schaal), unearth skeletal remains of a missing amusement park worker in the sinkhole with a bullet lodged in the ribs. I don’t think he fell on it,” observes Sergeant Bosco (Gary Cole). he youngsters turn detectives to unmask a murderer.

The Bob’s Burgers Movie packs humour and heart-warming sentiment into every bite. Toe-tapping musical numbers broaden our smiles and scriptwriters don’t overcook the whodunnit, following the Scooby-Doo template when it comes to pesky kids solving a heinous crime.

– Sarah Lee