What a wimpy kid

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (movie and book): written and illustrated by Jeff Kinney


The other night I did a little reading of the super-popular "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and then went to see the movie (by myself at 10pm on a friday night cuz I'm AWESOME). For some reason I was against those books at first for no good reason. As in my reason was that the book was overflowing with cliches- the know it all girl, the mean gym teacher, the three bullies, the dweeby best friend, the obnoxious older brother, the kind of kooky dad, the way too nice mom, and so on. I had no interest in reading another book about a kid making it through middle school the the most predictable of ways with the most predictable of supporting characters.

Boo on me, because the book is fun! It would only be half as fun, though, without those cartoons.

  Not only are they really adorable but they play with the timing of the text in such a way that makes it read at a gallop. Also, one might think with the title that the books would be, at least in some way, about a kid triumphing over his wimpiness, but au contrare! He fails heavily, and must learn to own it. And keenly made observations about middle school always so fun and relateable. The terror inspired by the "cheese touch" - which began when some kid touched the moldy cheese on the blacktop- is so real. Puberty is hilarious! (best line ever: "How can a butt be cute? Its a butt!")

Its also refreshing to have a movie made about a kid in middle school that's just about a kid in middle school- he doesn't have secret powers or find a magic jump rope or something (Percy Jackson- sigh). Even better, probably because author Jeff Kinney was very involved in the film, they keep a lot of cartoons in the movie, and the dialogue sticks to the book like elmers. And the kid actors are awesome!

The only thing I simply MUST say about the movie is that the little speech Greg gives at the end to his whole school is a bit confusing in it's message. He goes on about how middle school is dumb and pointless, and the kids unnecessarily judgemental. Mostly true- the wierd girl under the bleachers reading Howl (nice touch there) is all for it- but these are the same kids that embraced his losery best friend for drawing zany cartoons, wearing whatever he wants and performing horrific choreographed numbers with his mother at the mother-son dance. Maybe the issue isn't who is and isn't cool, but who has and doesn't have confidence in his coolness.
   

 

Greg is embarassed!                          Dont be, Moms are cool!

The end of the movie- where Greg finally makes the 'class favorites' page in the yearbook not in the way he wanted (by trying to be cool while dissing/ditching his best friend all the time) but by being voted 'cutest friends' (because he made up for his bad friendness) is perfect. All I missed was a conclusion that was as even-handed in its view of the kids as the rest of the movie.
But yeah. see the movie! I laughed out loud a lot! And I was by myself!

love,
some wimpy lady
p.s. wanna read some wimpy kid? go here! 
p.p.s. I did notice but chose to ignore that this is much like Lizzy Maguire for boys with the cartoon interjections and such. But it should be said. In some ways this might make you think 'Lizzy maguire for boys'.