102 min | PG-13 | May 27, 2022 | 20th Century Studios
A burst water main opens a sinkhole outside the Belcher family burger joint right as the bank loan comes due. The kids stumble onto a murder mystery while the parents scramble to save the business. It is a beloved sitcom episode with a bigger budget and a few songs, and it knows exactly that.
The Belcher family runs a struggling burger restaurant. A water main bursts in front of the building and opens a sinkhole right where the customers park. The bank loan comes due in a week and nobody can reach the front door. The film uses that crisis as a frame for what the show always does best. It watches a family hold together under pressure and find that the pressure is the point.
H. Jon Benjamin plays Bob with the same defeated patience that makes the character work. He is a man who believes in his food and almost nothing else about his luck. Kristen Schaal plays Louise as a nine-year-old wrestling with whether her pink bunny ears mean she is a baby. That insecurity gives the movie its spine. John Roberts plays Linda with relentless optimism that papers over real fear. Dan Mintz and Eugene Mirman keep Tina and Gene exactly as deadpan and exactly as strange as they need to be. Kevin Kline plays landlord Calvin Fischoeder with oily charm that hides a plot the kids have to crack.
Loren Bouchard directs with Bernard Derriman and writes with Nora Smith. The animation keeps the show’s scratchy hand-drawn look and then widens it. The frame is taller and deeper than a television episode allows and the camera actually moves through the boardwalk now. The musical numbers are the clearest argument for the big-screen treatment. A dream sequence built around burger buns turns into full choreography that the half-hour format could never afford. The songs carry the emotional beats that the dialogue leaves unsaid.
The result is the show stretched to feature length without breaking. The mystery plot exists mostly to give the kids somewhere to run and the parents something to fear losing. The jokes land at the rhythm fans expect and the new viewer can follow every thread without homework. The movie does not reinvent the Belchers and it does not need to. It puts them on a bigger stage and lets them sing.