THE BOB'S BURGERS MOVIE

What the film lacks in ambition it makes up for with genuine warmth and disarmingly straightforward animated storytelling.

Even though it's been on TV for over a decade I have never seen a single episode of animated sitcom Bob's Burgers. Judging by the quality of the first big screen outing of the Belcher family, I might need to check it out though.

Not because The Bob's Burgers Movie is a particular cinematic highlight, but the movie does quite effortlessly manage to entertain you with nice characterisations, good gags and a mostly engaging, if hardly innovative, main storyline about the family's burger joint needing to pay back a bank loan in 7 days even when a sinkhole and the murdered corpse it unearths threaten that goal.

In truth, The Bob's Burgers Movie is never more than a feature length TV episode, yet what the film lacks in ambition it makes up for with genuine warmth, disarmingly straightforward storytelling and a classic, hand-drawn animation style that is a nice antidote for the glut of CGI animation these days.

The Bob's Burgers Movie might not be a fine dining three-course meal, but it makes for a nice cheeseburger that satisfies your appetite just fine.

release: 2022

director: Loren Bouchard, Bernard Derriman

starring: H. Jon Benjamin, Kristen Schaal, Dan Mintz, John Roberts, Eugene Mirman