Wonder Park (2019)

[Robert Crawford]

Title: Wonder Park

Genre: Comedy, Animation, Adventure, Family, Fantasy

Director: David Feiss, Clare Kilner, Robert Iscove

Cast: Brianna Denski, Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Garner, Sofia Mali, Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong, Mila Kunis, John Oliver, Norbert Leo Butz, Kath Soucie

Release: 2019-03-14

Runtime: 86

Plot: The story of a magnificent amusement park where the imagination of a wildly creative girl named June comes alive.

Today's A-list double feature: Wonder Park and Five Feet Apart. A good enough kid movie and a good teen/medical drama. I'd rate both of them a "B" for what they were.

I watched "Wonder Park" too in 3-D as my A-List choice. I was the only person at my showing. I thought the movie was good so I'll rate it a solid 3 on a scale of 1-5.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Today's A-list double feature: Wonder Park and Five Feet Apart. A good enough kid movie and a good teen/medical drama. I'd rate both of them a "B" for what they were.

Did you see "Wonder Park" 2D or 3D?

It doesn't look very good, but it seems like something that'd have fun 3D so I'm tempted to see it that way...

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I watched "Wonder Park" too in 3-D as my A-List choice. I was the only person at my showing. I thought the movie was good so I'll rate it a solid 3 on a scale of 1-5.

What'd you think of the 3D?

 

[benbess]

Did you see "Wonder Park" 2D or 3D?

It doesn't look very good, but it seems like something that'd have fun 3D so I'm tempted to see it that way...

Yes, the 3D was pretty good imho. They made a lot of use of it.

 

[Robert Crawford]

What'd you think of the 3D?

I thought it was well done.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I saw "Wonder Park" 3D via A-List today.

The 3D did work pretty well, though my AMC's projection quality wasn't great. There's something funky about that auditorium's screen, too, as everything had a weird gauzy look.

As for the movie itself, good God, was it awful! Idiotic, barely coherent and simply devoid of any actual entertainment.

It's such a sloppy movie that the actual park in the film is called "Wonderland" - so why is the film titled "Wonder Park"? Weird.

This was a long, slow 85 minutes! It's a "D-" movie at best - and that's being generous. I almost walked out after 30 minutes or so - it was just such a stupid film!

Yes, I get that it's meant for kids. I don't view that as a free pass to allow a movie to be rampantly idiotic, though. At least make some sense!

 

[benbess]

I saw "Wonder Park" 3D via A-List today.

The 3D did work pretty well, though my AMC's projection quality wasn't great. There's something funky about that auditorium's screen, too, as everything had a weird gauzy look.

As for the movie itself, good God, was it awful! Idiotic, barely coherent and simply devoid of any actual entertainment.

It's such a sloppy movie that the actual park in the film is called "Wonderland" - so why is the film titled "Wonder Park"? Weird.

This was a long, slow 85 minutes! It's a "D-" movie at best - and that's being generous. I almost walked out after 30 minutes or so - it was just such a stupid film!

Yes, I get that it's meant for kids. I don't view that as a free pass to allow a movie to be rampantly idiotic, though. At least make some sense!

Wow--I didn't think it was that bad lol! But my "B" rating was probably too kind. For Wonder Park I liked some of the animation, liked that a girl was the main character, and I liked the "abandoned/fantasy" nature of the park. I realized fairly early on that most of this is happening in her mind, and that was what my pretend play was sometimes like when I was a little kid so long ago.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Wow--I didn't think it was that bad lol! But my "B" rating was probably too kind. For Wonder Park I liked some of the animation, liked that a girl was the main character, and I liked the "abandoned/fantasy" nature of the park. I realized fairly early on that most of this is happening in her mind, and that was what my pretend play was sometimes like when I was a little kid so long ago.

It wasn't that bad, but to each his own.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Wow--I didn't think it was that bad lol! But my "B" rating was probably too kind. For Wonder Park I liked some of the animation, liked that a girl was the main character, and I liked the "abandoned/fantasy" nature of the park. I realized fairly early on that most of this is happening in her mind, and that was what my pretend play was sometimes like when I was a little kid so long ago.

The movie had lots of potential but it was just a mess with so many flaws.

Kid builds enormous thrill ride in her neighborhood - which includes cutting apart fences - and none of the adults notice until she launches said ride???

And then the parents do absolutely zero to punish her! Mom threatens chores but then immediately goes back to happy play time with her!

And the kid returns home disheveled and dirty but Dad doesn't notice? And he's not at all curious why she's back from a faraway camp?

And we're to believe the girl doesn't visit her mom while her mom's away at some vague treatment facility for weeks -- maybe months?

And then mom's stuck taking Uber to get home? Dad can't go get her?

Never mind all the ways the movie rips off "Inside Out" and "Wizard of Oz"!

Oh, this is making my blood pressure rise! My "D-" was too generous!

 

[benbess]

You make some good points....

 

[Colin Jacobson]

You make some good points....

Thanks!

I remain a little astounded at how lazy the filmmakers seemed to be. There are so many of these weird choices that would've required little effort to tighter - it's like they made a rough draft of a movie, said "good enough!" and left it there.

And I'll go to my grave befuddled at why the movie's titled "Wonder Park" when they call it "Wonderland" throughout the film.

Worried about legal issues or audience confusion if you title the film "Wonderland"? Why not call the actual park in the movie "Wonder Park"? Why call it "Wonderland" at all?

Like I said: lazy!

 

[Sam Posten]

Or maybe we are just spoiled by the ridiculous amount of depth and cycles of improvement Pixar delves into on their films. And by comparison none of the others can match.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Or maybe we are just spoiled by the ridiculous amount of depth and cycles of improvement Pixar delves into on their films. And by comparison none of the others can match.

No, I don't judge "Wonder Park" negatively because I've been spoiled. I view it negatively because it's a lazy, sloppy movie.

If Pixar never existed, it'd still be a lazy, sloppy movie.

Is it really being nitpicky to criticize a movie that can't make its title and its location name the same?

 

[Robert Crawford]

[CONTAINER][POSTER]

[/POSTER][MOVIE]Title: Wonder Park

Genre: [GENRE]Comedy[/GENRE], [GENRE]Animation[/GENRE], [GENRE]Adventure[/GENRE], [GENRE]Family[/GENRE], [GENRE]Fantasy[/GENRE]

Director: [DIRECTOR]David Feiss[/DIRECTOR], [DIRECTOR]Clare Kilner[/DIRECTOR], [DIRECTOR]Robert Iscove[/DIRECTOR]

Cast: [ACTOR]Brianna Denski[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Matthew Broderick[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Jennifer Garner[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Sofia Mali[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Kenan Thompson[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Ken Jeong[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Mila Kunis[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]John Oliver[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Norbert Leo Butz[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Kath Soucie[/ACTOR]

Release Date: [RELEASE]2019-03-14[/RELEASE]

Runtime: [RUNTIME]86[/RUNTIME]

Plot: [PLOT]The story of a magnificent amusement park where the imagination of a wildly creative girl named June comes alive.[/PLOT][/MOVIE][/CONTAINER]

 

[Sam Posten]

Because there already was a movie called Wonderland =)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8629748/

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Because there already was a movie called Wonderland =)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8629748/

I fully understand why not to call the movie "Wonderland" - too much connection to "Alice In...".

So why not name the movie's park "Wonder Park"? There's zero reason whatsoever that it needs to be called "Wonderland".

Just name it "Wonder Park" in the film and it makes sense!

 

[Sam Posten]

I fully understand why not to call the movie "Wonderland" - too much connection to "Alice In...".

So why not name the movie's park "Wonder Park"? There's zero reason whatsoever that it needs to be called "Wonderland".

Just name it "Wonder Park" in the film and it makes sense!

My Occam's razor guess: They fully intended to call them both the same and then the OTHER movie registered the name Wonder Land, long after the animation had been in production for months and could not change them.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

My Occam's razor guess: They fully intended to call them both the same and then the OTHER movie registered the name Wonder Land, long after the animation had been in production for months and could not change them.

My Occam's Razor guess: they knew they were off but were too lazy to care.

You can get away with "Wonderland" as a title of an adult-oriented crime drama ala the upcoming "Wonderland" but when you use that for a kid-oriented animated film, you automatically set up confusion with Lewis Carroll - especially when your kid-oriented animated shares some concepts/themes with "Alice in...".

If Ridley Scott could crank through reshoots for "All the Money In the World" with only a few weeks left before release, I think a CG-animated flick could make the minor alterations to change the handful of references to "Wonderland" into "Wonder Park"...

 

[Malcolm R]

It was originally titled a more generic Amusement Park, which wouldn't have really clashed with the name of the park in the film. By the time they decided to change it well into production, they likely discovered they couldn't use Wonderland, so went with Wonder Park.

Sounds like it was a troubled production anyway, with the director being fired for sexual harassment after the film was well into production. I'm sure the studio didn't want to waste any more money redoing sequences to fit the title.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

It was originally titled a more generic Amusement Park, which wouldn't have really clashed with the name of the park in the film. By the time they decided to change it well into production, they likely discovered they couldn't use Wonderland, so went with Wonder Park.

Sounds like it was a troubled production anyway, with the director being fired for sexual harassment after the film was well into production. I'm sure the studio didn't want to waste any more money redoing sequences to fit the title.

If the title was the movie's only problem, I'd let it go. It's just such a mess in so many ways - it really does smell like a movie that was half-finished and basically abandoned...