The Bob's Burgers Movie Review: The Belchers Serve Up Summer Fun, Well Done

Back in 2019, when Disney purchased Fox, the possibilities were endless. The studio gained the rights to a wide array of characters that included a bunch of Marvel figures and all of the animated series that 20th Century Fox produced. Before the merger, 20th Century Fox was developing a film based on their Bob's Burgers animated series, and it was originally touted for a July 2020 release date. The film would go on to be pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will finally hit theaters this month. Now, I haven't seen the series in a while, so I was a bit apprehensive about the film, but I can safely say that The Bob's Burgers Movie is a really fun time at the movies. The film brings the series that features some wild concepts about burgers to the big screen, and while it features some of the same tropes as the series, it works really well in the feature-film format.

As The Bob's Burgers Movie's synopsis reveals, a water main bursts and creates a massive sinkhole in front of their restaurant. This creates some financial trouble for the Belcher clan and they struggle to keep the business afloat. While all this is going on, somewhere deep in the sinkhole lays a murder-mystery that Tina, Louise, and Gene try to solve to save the family business, and this puts everyone in an insanely dangerous adventure that heavily involves their landlord Calvin Fischoeder.

While the film involves the same plot of Bob Belcher ending up in a tough financial situation that could cause him to end up losing him the restaurant as seen in the series, it still feels fresh with the murder-mystery plot line. The film starts off with Bob attempting to get an extension on a loan by giving a banker a new burger recipe that he's come up with, but he's ultimately denied. Then the film gets pretty insane with the revelation that there's a dead body in the sinkhole in front of their restaurant that involves a carnival worker and Calvin Fischoeder. The film also features some fairly interesting musical cues that push the film along, and I'd have to say that there's one song that is sure to be a gut buster.

Directors Loren Bouchard and Bernard Derriman also made sure to include some unresolved plot lines from the series, such as Tina's crush on Jimmy Jr. or Louise's never taking off her hat with the rabbit ears, in which the latter winds up being a catalyst for the climax of the film. Louise gets called a baby for never taking off her hat and this leads her to quite literally fall into a murder investigation. Everything in The Bob's Burgers Movie cohesively integrates into the main plot, which makes it a really interesting watch.

The Bob's Burgers Movie features the return of H. Jon Benjamin as Bob Belcher, John Roberts as Linda Belcher, Dan Mintz as Tina Belcher, Gene Mirman as Gene Belcher, Kristen Schaal as Louise Belcher, Kevin Kline as Calvin Fischoeder, Zach Galifanakis as Felix Fischoeder and David Wain as Grover Fischoeder. The voice actors deliver with the same charisma, and hilarity as the series, and I'm shocked that they didn't make this film a long time ago. If their comedic delivery doesn't make you want to see more from the Belcher clan, the harmonic sounds of their singing voices should hopefully do the job as it gives the film some of their funniest and heartwarming performances.

If you really liked watching the series, you'll definitely love The Bob's Burgers Movie. The film ties up some loose ends from the series, all the while delivering a hilarious plot, and pushing forward with whatever story the creators could tell in the future. The film is a seriously fun time at the movies and is probably the perfect summer film. Even though we don't really get to see Bob Belcher create a ton of insane burgers in the movie with the focus being on the murder-mystery– The Bob's Burgers Movie is definitely well done.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The Bob's Burgers Movie will be released in theaters on May 27th.