Idiots Review – Roald Dahl The Americanized is Horrible in All the Wrong Ways | film

THis Netflix animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Twits is partly less cruel than eating wormy spaghetti or finding a stuffed frog at the bottom of your bed. Dahl’s tale of one of the most dysfunctional marriages in fiction isn’t exactly plot-heavy: the 95-page original is essentially a series of mean-spirited pranks, all horribly distorted here and meanderingly added to.

There’s been some anger about Netflix Americanizing the story, but that’s the least of this film’s problems. In the fictional town of Tripero, Mrs. Tweet (voiced by Margo Martindale) is a Texan in blue cowboy boots who is unhappily married to Mr. Tweet (Johnny Vegas, retaining his Lancashire accent). The pair have built a ramshackle amusement park called Twitlandia, with rides made from old toilets and mattresses, all powered by the magical tears of Muggle-Wump monkeys. When the authorities close the amusement park for health and safety reasons, the horrific duo go to war with the city.

The story is looser than Mr. Tweet’s, which is a shame because it’s produced, directed and co-written by Phil Johnston whose previous credits include clever and inventive family animation like Wreck-it Ralph and Zootopia. In a horrific twist on Dahl’s story, the idiots flood the city with spoiled hot dog meat before deciding to run for mayor. Ordinary workers are drawn to the Idiots’ pledge to Make Tribero Great Again, a frank, age-inappropriate mockery of the current political situation.

Any of Dahl’s macabre sense of fun is eclipsed by a bulldozing message of compassion and kindness, thanks to spunky orphan Bisha (Maitri Ramakrishnan) and her comrades who band together the opposition to the idiots. This is despicable and disgusting in all the wrong ways.