Diary of a Wimpy Kid Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Blu-ray Movie Review

Zoo-Wee Mama! Wimpy Kid is strong on Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater August 11, 2010

The sprouting of hairs and the production of new, wholly unpleasant odors. Social stratification and bullying by post-pubescent gorillas. Gym class locker room embarrassment. The weird height disparity between boys and girls. The nascent hormonal urges. It’s junior high, and it’s the pits. As one character says in Diary of a Wimpy Kid—the film adaptation of the bestselling cartoon novel by Jeff Kinney—“This place is a glorified holding pen. It's where adults put you as you make that awkward transition between child and teenager so they don't have to look at you.” And if there’s one thing that Wimpy Kid gets right—don’t worry, there’s more than one thing—it’s that it (mostly) accurately captures the awful bodily and emotional awkwardness of junior high, the dire longing for popularity, and the general bewilderment at the unfairness of it all. This is a kid flick that may make adults uncomfortably reminisce about their own middle school days, and for those tweeners just entering the social battlefield of the 6th grade, Wimpy Kid will hopefully be some small comfort. In one way or another, we were all wimpy kids at that age, and it’s always good to know you’re not alone.

A wimpy kid and his diary...sorry...journal.

The film’s pre-teen protagonist is 11-year-old Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon), a mildly delusional kid whose sole aspiration for his first year of junior high is to be voted a “class favorite” in the school yearbook. He’s an inbetweener in more ways than one. He’s not the littlest runt in school— that honor goes to the ultra-tiny Chirag (Karan Brar)—but he’s puny in comparison to the monsters who already shave twice a day. He’s a middle child, squashed between a baby bro with potty training issues and an older teenaged brother, Rodrick (Devon Bostick), who wears “guyliner,” plays in a band called Löded Diper, and aggravates Greg to no end. And he’s also somewhere in the middle of the social spectrum, far below the popular kids but well above the class freak, Fregley (Grayson Russell), a bespectacled, red-headed weirdo with poor hygiene and an obsession with all things gross. Ever conscious of his social standing, Greg is worried that he might be embarrassed by his best friend, Rowley (Robert Capron), a roly-poly innocent who rides a girl’s bike and still asks if Greg wants to “come over and play,” instead of the more age- appropriate term, “hang out.”

The school year passes in a series of adventures and mishaps. A Halloween trick ‘r’ treat outing goes bust when Greg accidentally weed-whacks the side of a mulleted teen’s Ford F150, requiring a quick getaway through the supposedly haunted “Devil Worshiper’s Woods.” Wrestling club proves disastrous when Greg gets trounced by a feisty girl who invokes her legal, Title IX right to fight. And a moldy slice of Swiss cheese becomes a schoolyard legend; anyone who comes in contact with it is cursed with the dreaded “Cheese Touch,” which instantly renders the afflicted as a social pariah. The real conflict, though, comes when Greg accidentally terrorizes some grade school kids while on Safety Patrol, but lets Rowley take the blame, pulling their friendship apart. This is exacerbated by Greg’s lingering resentment over Rowley’s newfound popularity. Unlike Greg, who scrambles and strains to be liked, Rowley comes by his new social status honestly, penning a series of popular cartoons—called Zoo-Wee Mama!—for the school newspaper. And here’s the film’s main problem: Greg, as a protagonist, is outright unlikeable. He’s selfish and petty, obsessed with being a cool kid to the point of betraying his best bud. Yes, this just sets him up for the ending’s expected redemption, but he’s not exactly a pleasant kid to be around for the first two acts of the film. All our rooting is for Rowley, who is right to dump his former friend after being treated like crap for so long.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is slightly hampered by a muddled message, an episodic plot that never feels cohesive, and an abundance of a gross out, kids’ll squeal but parents’ll roll their eyes humor, but there’s also a lot to like here. It’s not easy to balance comedy with real, resonate junior high emotions—the bipolar ups and downs, the hormonal swings, the disappointments and joys—but Wimpy Kid does it well. So many kids’ movies talk down to their intended audience, but this one has more depth and wit than most and a genuineness that’s as infectious as the Cheese Touch. Fans of the book will inevitably have thoughts about the casting —how do you turn stick figures into flesh-and-blood, live action humans?—but the performances, with a few bit-role exceptions, are funny and full of spontaneity. Zachary Gordon has the toughest job here—he has to be a jerk who learns his lesson—and he gets it right, an everykid with a self- possessed edge. Steve Zahn and Rachael Harris are good—but underused—as Greg’s parents, and Kick Ass’ rising star Chloë Moretz gives a surprising turn as a Ginsberg-reading 7th grader, wise way beyond her years. The one to watch, though, is Robert Capron, who seems like someone you knew in middle school and captures the sheer exuberance of being a kid, the boundless energy and naiveté we all have before the social self-consciousness kicks in.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The first thing you'll notice about 20th Century Fox's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer of Diary of a Wimpy Kid is how spectacularly colorful it is. The image pops off the screen with vivid red wrestling outfits, bright yellow gym uniforms, crisp blue skies, and rich green grass. The look is a little exaggerated, yes—and it's certainly a swing in the opposite direction from the sparse black and white line drawings of the books—but it totally fits the junior high mood. Despite the boosted hues, skin tones stay natural, and deep black levels carve out a picture with impressive—but not overdone— contrast. Shadow delineation, during the dark Halloween sequence, proves surprisingly revealing. Clarity is slightly less impressive—the film sometimes looks like it was shot with deliberate diffusion— but I don't think anyone will have any real complaints about the sharpness of the image. There are never any shots, at least, which are downright undefined and indistinct—fine textures just look a little soft. A thin layer of grain adds warmth and character to the image, and I didn't spot any edge enhancement, excess filtering, or compression issues. This is A- material—not perfect, but definitely on the leading edge of the Blu-ray bell curve.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

If you assume that a film about junior high school dweebs probably lacks a full-on, ceaselessly active, wholly immersive soundtrack, you're right. Diary of a Wimpy Kid's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix is indeed on the wimpy side. Aside from the occasional pop tune, rambunctious cues from the score, and extremely quiet ambience—hallway chatter, outdoorsy sounds—the rear speakers rarely get any notable action. The one exception is the "Devil Worshiper's Woods" scene, which features some creepy cross-channel cackling and movement, courtesy of a seemingly omni-present Fregley. There are definitely some missed opportunities here for engaging sound design, but otherwise the front-centric, dialogue driven track is fairly solid. LFE output is sparse, but the film has a broad dynamic range, with ample heft for effects and faultless clarity when it comes to high-end sounds. Narration and conversation are easy to understand, and for those who need them, English SDH, Spanish, Portuguese, Cantonese, and Mandarin subtitles are available in easy to read lettering.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Feature Commentary with Director Thor Freudenthal and Writer Gabe Sachs
The most substantial bonus feature is this audio commentary with the director and one of the film's five credited writers. Freudenthal and Sachs give a loose, entertaining track—filled with on- set anecdotes and details of the book-to-screen process—that older fans of the book and film will enjoy.

Deleted Diary Pages (1080p)
Here we have a deleted material stream of flotsam and jetsam. In Fregley's Scavenger Hunt (2:56), the bespectacled dweeb shows off some of the disgusting stuff he's found around school. Chirag's Trail of Tears (2:37) is a guided tour of all the places Chirag has been picked on, and Fregley's Shuffle (00:47) is a pale imitation of the immortal Truffle Shuffle. Following that, we have a string of self-explanatory deleted scenes: Mom Drops Greg Off at School (00:55), Greg and Rowley Jump Over the Wall (00:26), Mr. Winsky's Safety Patrol Assignment (00:23), Mom Suggests a Friendship Card (00:44), Greg Meets Fregley's Mom (00:37), and Greg Has the Cheese Touch (00:38). Finally, there's a user-directed gallery with five of Rowley's Lost Zoo-Wee Mama Cartoons.

Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:52)

Sneak Peaks (1080p)
Includes sneak peaks for Tooth Fairy (2:25) and Percy Jackson (2:23).

Digital Copy "How To" (1080p, 3:35)

BD-Live Exclusive: And Now a Word from Our Author (720p, 3:39)
Author Jeff Kinney sits down with Zachary Gordon and Robert Capron to ask and answer a few questions about the making of the film.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I talked with one young Wimpy fan the other day—an 11-year-old boy—who told me, quite defiantly, that "the movie is good, but the books are better." So, there you go, straight from the source. Diary of a Wimpy Kid does suffer from a surfeit of gross-out jokes and an episodic, scatterbrained plot that would work better on the diary page, but it's also true to the painful awkwardness of junior high and it never patronizes its intended audience. In fact, the film itself is much like a junior higher, sometimes crass and sometimes self-possessed, but gangly and funny in a real and charming way. Kids will naturally love it, and adults may enjoy recalling their own pre- pubescent gracelessness. Recommended.