Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer Blu-ray Movie Review

Dumb and Bummer

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater October 12, 2011

There was a time—not too long ago, actually—when nearly all kids’ movies could be defined as family-friendly. Meaning, the whole family could enjoy them, even mom and dad. There was something for everyone—an uplifting message, a few sly adult-aimed jokes that flew over the little ones’ heads, some slapstick action, and most importantly, a proper story. But now, it feels like “family-friendly” has been replaced by “only-kid-friendly,” and increasingly by “exclusively-for-the-enjoyment-of-ADHD-addled-six-year-olds.” If you’re a parent taking your kids to the cinema, you might want to bring along a pair of earbuds so you can listen to a podcast or audiobook, because otherwise you’re probably going to be assaulted by non-stop sound and hypercolor fury, all signifying nothing. Such is the case with Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer, a candy-colored sugar high of a movie that runs around spastically for an hour and a half and finally collapses from sheer exhaustion. If you’re old enough to be reading this review online, Judy Moody is most definitely not for you. Heck, if you’re old enough to read at all, this movie is barely for you.

The Mega-Rare NOT Bummer Summer Dare

Based on kid-lit author Megan McDonald’s Judy Moody series of children’s books, The Not Bummer Summer will presumably appeal to second-to-fourth grade girls hopped up on Pixy Stix or Starbursts or whatever the kids are scarfing down these days to get their high-fructose corn syrup buzzes. (Obviously, I’m not a parent yet.) The movie opens on that epitome of hyperactive, antsy-pants holidays, the last day of school. Graduating third-grader Judy Moody (Jordana Beatty) is totally stoked, so amped up that she rolls out of bed and—after consulting her Magic 8-Ball about how tubular summer break is going to be—heads to the bus in naught but pajama bottoms, flip-flops, and a wacko T-shirt that reads “I ATE A SHARK.” (Cue merchandising opportunity!) Her banjo-playing teacher—played by none other than former Steve Urkel uber-nerd Jaleel White—is similarly excited for summer and gives the kids a tantalizing over-the-break task: find him in a secret location and they’ll earn a special prize. The only hint is that he’ll be “somewhere cold.” I’ll give you a hint too—this whole “find the teacher” business only serves to set up a kind of kiddy deus ex machina conclusion for a film that would otherwise have no real ending.

After school, Judy meets with her friends in the Toad Pee Club—don’t ask—and reveals her plan to make the next three months the best ever: the “Judy Moody Mega-Rare Not Bummer Summer Dare,” a competition where the pint-sized participants get “thrill points” for doing cool summer stuff like surfing and riding rollercoasters. Her bubble bursts, however, when her pals reveal they’ll be ditching her; mop-haired Rocky is going off to circus camp, and Amy is jetting to Borneo with her journalist mom to save some indigenous tribe. Clearly, Judy is going to have trouble competing for thrill points. How much fun can she actually have left behind with her Bigfoot-obsessed kid brother Stink (Parris Mosteller) and her killjoy friend Frank (Preston Baily), a fraidy-cat dweeb adverse to all adventure? It gets worse when her parents fly off to California to care for a sick relative, leaving Judy and Stink under the dubious watch of their weirdo Aunt Opal (a crazed-looking Heather Graham), who shows up with a mysterious trunk and is known for making disgusting desserts like Fruit Loop-laced “tangerine fondue.” But lo and behold, Aunt Opal is actually pretty dope, an artsy, moony-eyed ex-Peace Corps world wanderer who arrives bearing gifts—a Bigfoot book for Stink and a mood ring for Judy Moody. Might she eventually teach our bored-to-tears heroine a thing or two about how to have fun and live life to the fullest? I think you know the answer to that one.

The rest of the movie plays out in a one-after-another series of episodic escapades, with the increasingly obnoxious Judy trying desperately to earn thrill points but failing at every turn, thanks mostly to Frank’s uncanny ability to wuss-out or bungle things up at the last moment. She falls off a tightrope and gets puked on while riding The Scream Monster. She nearly eats a poop sandwich—once again, don’t ask—and gets “way super lost” at an abandoned amusement park. She can’t even get her “guerrilla art project” right. How hard can it be to put hats made of bedazzled trashcan lids on the lion statues outside the public library? (Very, if your aunt can’t drive, is crap with bus schedules, and gets you stranded outside in the rain.) A misguided hunt for Bigfoot takes over the last act, and Judy inevitably learns that scorecards and thrill points aren’t necessarily conducive to unbridled summer awesomeness. You could only call this a “plot” if you were feeling particularly generous, as The Not Bummer Summer flits from one disconnected incident to the next with an attention deficit disordered lack of purpose. Or drama. Or humor, really, beyond the frenzied slapstick gags and miscellaneous gross-outs. In the absence of a real story, with real characters, the film goes for all-out sensory assault of bright colors and non-stop generic pop music. Some of Judy’s daydreams are even rendered in CGI in an attempt to switch things up and keep the young audience visually occupied. What could’ve been a girl-power version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid—a much better movie, with real heart—is little more than a way to wear out the kids before naptime.

Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A less-kind critic would use "garish," but I'm going to go ahead and say that Not Bummer Summer's 1080p/AVC-encoded image is certainly, uh…vibrant? Okay, let's not kid ourselves; it is garish. The film's color palette seems composed entirely of hues that you could find in a 16-pack of magic markers. (Slight exaggeration. You'd probably also have to add a few neon highlighters to the mix.) Still, this is the look the film is going for— insanely bright and colorful—and you can't say it isn't eye-popping on Blu-ray, although I'll leave it up to you to decide where this particular style of eye- popping is a good or a bad thing. I can at least say that there's no color bleeding or clipping in the highlights, which is definitely a plus. Skin tones look fairly well-adjusted too. Likewise, contrast is punchy, sitting on a foundation of solid black levels. Clarity is also generally impressive; facial detail is defined and texture is usually visible in the characters' clothing. Since the movie was shot on film, you can expect a layer of visible but unobtrusive grain, and I spotted no signs of excessive noise reduction or edge enhancement. No substantive compression or encode issues either. The color scheme may be gaudy, but you can't fault the Blu-ray producers for that. Judy Moody probably looks exactly as intended.

Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film comes with Fox's standard-issue DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, and the mix is fairly typical for this kind of kid's movie—that is, adequate but never really impressive—although it occasional shows evidence of intelligent sound design. The rear channels actually get a decent amount of play throughout, with lots of directional sound effects and occasional ambience in school, outdoors, and at the circus. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's immersive, but clearly some thought went into mixing. The original music by Richard Gibbs is appropriately whimsical—yes, that's one of my least favorite words in the English language—and sounds fairly full, although it's never dynamic enough to really show off any oomph. There are some bubble-gummish kid-friendly pop-punk-style tunes in here too, and those sound a bit tinny and compressed, like they're playing through laptop speakers. (Granted, most of that kind of music is recorded that way.) There are a few instances where dialogue sounds a hair low in the mix, but generally voices are clear and easy to understand. The disc comes with optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles.

Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Join the Toad Pee Club: A pop quiz that challenges you to watch all the extras on the disc and then answer questions about them.
• Judy Moody's Guide to Making a Movie (1080p, 23:52): A rather extensive making-of documentary for a film like this, covering the casting, the sets, the special effects, and more.
• Flippin Out With The Cast (1080i, 3:11): A montage of of cast video-diary footage.
• Camryn's "Wait and See" Music Video (1080p, 3:35)
• 10 Things You Need To Know About Judy Moody (1080p, 5:40): An EPK-style promo for the film.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 1:22)
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:21)
• Activity Booklet: The Blu-ray set comes with a 10-page booklet with crossword puzzles, quizzes, and your very own Mega-Rare NOT Bummer Summer Dare score sheet.

Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I hate to rag on movies aimed squarely at the under-8 crowd, but with a few notable exceptions this stuff seems to be getting dumber and dumber, substituting flashy, wacky non-stop hijinks for genuine stories. Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer might briefly entertain second-to- fourth-grade girls, but it'll be grating to anyone older. Parents beware.