Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

Kids adore potty humor. It’s as if 8-year-olds are genetically wired to find vaguely forbidden words like “butt” and “booger” and “fart” innately hilarious. The power of this vocabulary to elicit mirth in youngsters is sweetly celebrated in the animated feature Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, which is based on the popular series of children’s novels by author Dav Pilkey. Without crossing the line into uncomfortable vulgarity like so many other studio products aimed at kids today, the movie features George and Harold, two fourth-graders utterly devoted to their artistic vocation: homemade comic books featuring a pot-bellied superhero who wears nothing but an enormous pair of tighty-whities. Fantasy becomes reality for the boys when they hypnotize their arch-nemesis, the spiteful school principal Mr. Krupp, into believing he is their comic book champion come to life, and crazy adventures packed with juvenile humor ensue. There’s an innocence about it all, a rarity in this genre, one with which adults will nostalgically connect. Ah, to again find endless amusement in a grouping of consonants and vowels.