#they liked prof poopypants

[hue-makes-burgers]

THE professor

[biolizardboils]

Hooray for Captain Underpants: The Unnecessarily In-Depth Writeup

Ages ago, Pilkey.com entered its golden era... the era of Flash content! From about 2003 to 2006, the site was blessed with a new layout, a jukebox, music videos, a LOT of games, and a banner adorned with different characters whenever you refreshed the page! The last thing doesn’t load in the Wayback Machine but trust me it was cool

Most of this stuff has thankfully been preserved, from YouTube reposts early on to those sites with hundreds of stolen games, to archivists scrambling just before Flash died in 2020. One of the early migrators, and the possibly the site’s star attraction, was a simple song with an accompanying animation.

Before George and Harold asked what could possibly go wrong... before Weird Al helped make Dav’s decade... before the Koji Matsumoto songs that I never listened to as a kid because the thumbnails scared me... only one song could encapsulate what these books stood for. Subsequently, only one video could provide an extended glimpse of Pilkey’s wacky world, in full motion and full color. 

I’m talking, of course, about Hooray for Captain Underpants.

In this post, I’ll be covering everything to be gleaned about its production and discussing its potential impact on future CU adaptations. Why? Because the Movie won this poll by exactly 1 point! @bestanimatedmovie​ let me know if you’d like me to stop interfering in your tournament lol.

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According to the site’s New Stuff page, both the song and video were added on January 5th, 2005. The Free Music page lists its copyright date as 2004, however. It seems the song was created first, then held back until the accompanying video was ready a year later.

Speaking of copyright, I'd like to shine a spotlight on everyone who contributed to this gift to humanity! First, the song:

Produced, Written and Performed by Josh Katz.

This guy’s perpetual voice-crack and rap-adjacent stylings make up most of the Extra-Crunchy CD O’ Fun. Outside of that, he’s better known as Rappy McRapperson, a tongue-in-cheek “gangster” act active from 1999 to 2017. I won’t be linking to his music since it's all rather... off-color; look them up at your own risk. I’m not sure how Dav found the guy and now I’m afraid to ask

Beat by Ben Petty.

Petty seems to have contributed music (and his garage) to the Rappy act. The only info I can find on him is tied to Rappy, so again, no links.

Children's Chorus: Mrs. Dean's Music Class.

Imagine having been in this class, your youthful voice immortalized for the ages! Where are these students now, I wonder? If only one of them spoke about it in a random subreddit or something...

Additional Vocals: Elizabeth Dean.

Besides the slim chance of one of her students having the same last name, this was probably the music teacher. I have an inkling on what “role” she plays in the song, but that’s for later.

The video lists two more parties:

Animation by Wetland Animation

Googling this name only supplies animations of wetlands, but I might have found them under a different name. At the bottom of the home page, the site’s redesign is credited to both Dav and an “Eyeland Studio”. There’s an archive of their site from around the same timeframe, and whaddya know!

Directed by Scott Hamlin

This guy is the first (and only) name on Eyeland’s Contacts page! Well, not specifically Eyeland’s—apparently that’s just one of three branches of a bigger subsidiary named Games In A Flash? But this is an infodump about Captain Underpants, not the Flash industry, so

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On to the actual song and video! I’ll be using this 4K remaster for reference. (And it’s a stellar remaster, might I add—judging from ancient videos of the original, every single asset and animation error is still intact!)

The first few shots include two villains getting inconvenienced in amusing ways—a bold directing decision, I must say. More seriously, I’d like to point out Prof. Poopypants’s color scheme here. It actually lines up with the two (yes, two) he has on the cover of Book 4!

He wears a muted blue suit on the front cover (at least in early editions) and a purple one on the back cover. Here, he’s wearing the blue suit and the frames of his glasses are purple. Coincidence? Yeah, probably, but it’s cool to know he had a two-outfit thing going on way before the Movie.

First off, nobody walks like this. Second off, what kind of school has searing mint green walls? Sorry, it’s just... not the color I had in mind for Jerome Horwitz lol. Anyway, here come the lyrics!

[GEORGE] Uh-oh.

[HAROLD] Here we go again!

Ah, the classic lines! Not much to say here, but keep the Boys’ voices in mind.

Wedgie Woman has the smoothest animation in the whole video for some reason. (The perks of being a girlboss, I guess?) Her scene is a highly kinetic bit of slapstick, too—it makes me wish I knew how to make good GIFs.

Meet George and Harold! They pull pranks and stuff! They're cool (COOL!) And they're mischievous!

Yes they are 💙 Also lol at “Gym teachers smell like stinky toilets”—I wonder what the sign said earlier.

Krupp has a skin-colored line floating over his arm, and the walls drift to the left at the end of this shot. But also, Harold’s hair does a funny little bounce when they notice Krupp! Plusses and minuses, I guess?

Meet Mr. Krupp! He's not nice, he's mean! That was, until the day  he saw a Hypno-Ring!

... 🎵 and now you know the plot! 🎵

[CHORUS] [x2] Underpants, underpants, I like Captain Underpants! Underpants, underpants, Hooray for Captain Underpants!

The phrase “hooray for Captain Underpants” showed up often in the earlier books, usually in the Boys’ comics. 

The syllables of “underpants” snap into place as the chorus sings them—almost like waistbands! Also, Captain’s antics here correspond with specific Book covers, and the background’s colors change to match! For Chorus #1 we have, in order: purple for Book 3, orange-on-yellow for Book 4, turquoise for Book 2, and blue for Book 1! (Not sure about the shot of him running towards the camera though.)

He flies up high in the air—he's not scared (Woosh!) Captain Underpants likes wearing underwear! He also likes fighting crime (Pssh!) Evil-doers beware, ‘cause it's superhero time!

I'm just noticing this but what happened to the Dandelion of Doom here sdfghjk?? Is this a placeholder graphic that got left in? It looks much more book-accurate later in the video, which makes this even funnier.

And the lifestyle gets pretty rough (AAAH!) You gotta spend a lot of time fighting mean stuff like Talking Toilets and Professor Poopypants (Pssh!) When you're done, you do a little victory dance!

This part kills me cus Poopypants was literally just standing there vkhjg. He even seems to sigh in resignation before the underwear hits!

[INSTRUMENTAL] Do the Wedgie Wiggle! [INSTRUMENTAL]

In the Hall of the Mountain King, babyyy! This scene is just the Underpants Dance Flip-O-Ramas from Book 7, but with extra frames—and it looks amazing! The four bad guys scowling at Captain in the background are the icing on top!

Good lord, that’s like, highlighter yellow. Seriously, who painted this school?

OH NO! The world's in trouble again (AAAH!) The lunchroom lady really IS an alien!

Fair warning: if a Second Epic Movie ever happens and they confirm the Alien!Edith thing, I will post this part but bass-boosted to obscene levels.

And it's all for... thrills and laffs!

I was promised Action, Thrills, and Laffs—where’s the Action?? For shame, video! I want a refund!

[GIRL]  Captain Underpants, can I get your autograph?

About that inkling I mentioned earlier: I think Mrs. Dean may have voiced Autograph Girl here! Her voice sounds the slightest bit older than the chorus singers, and that’s my only point of evidence, but I can’t think of any other reason for that Additional Voices credit.

[CAPTAIN] Tra-la-laaaaa! (Woosh!)

[RANDOM GUY] COOL!

Captain Underpants should fly by MY school!

You and me both, Josh! I say despite no longer being in school Also I always felt bad that Captain just... flew off lol, I like to think that girl got his autograph later.

Bad guys and crime sprees, they don't even care— Now they stop in the name of underwear!

This part is great dfghj. The smoothness, the Boys’ >:) look, the little detail of Booger Boy sniffling, I love it.

Hitting robots in the face and poking evil in the eye (Poink!) It's very fun when you defeat crime!

If any British people read this, I’ve got a question: I know Dr. Diaper was renamed Dr. Nappy over there, but does that apply to the Movie too? Like, when Captain namedrops him near the end, did they have Ed Helms rerecord the line, or is he still called Dr. Diaper? 

[GIRL] I wish I could do it all day long!

That's why all day long, you listen to this song about—

You bet your Poopypants I do!

[CHORUS] [x2]

Chorus #2 introduces two more scenes of Captain fighting Poopypants and the Dandelion of Doom. The Poopypants one is based on a Flip-O-Rama, and while making this post I thought the Dandelion one was, too. I checked Book 3 while wrapping up and turns out I was Mandela Effect-ing myself, but, like, it’d make for a good Flip-O-Rama, right? Here, I even made a mock-up of what I “remembered”.

Also when Captain flies up in this scene, there’s a green dot where he stops (possibly to mark his position for the animators). Have fun un-seeing that!

[PROF. P] I’LL GET YOU, CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS!

I’m guessing Josh voices Poopypants here. This and Go Poopypants are kinda weird to listen to in a post-Movie world. Pour one out to parents and teachers who read these books aloud, I imagine kids get sad if they don’t do Zee Accent. (I know I would.)

Now the day's been saved and peace has been restored— Captain Underpants isn't needed anymore (Awww!)

PERISH THE THOUGHT. Must one be “needed” to justify their presence? Do people not exist beyond the services they perform?? Captain is a good and happy and fun guy and I love him and he should be allowed to stay!

Anyway, look at this pile of assorted bad guys! We can see, from left to right and from bottom to top: Either the Booger Boy or the Robo-Boogers, Dr. Diaper, The Harold 2000, Wedgie Woman, Dr. Diaper’s robots, the Dandelion of Doom, the two burglars from Book 1, one of the Alien Lunch Ladies, and... 

...The Inedible Hunk?? He’s an interesting pick, since he’s comic-exclusive and never comes to exist in “reality” like the others. This was his sole color appearance for 8 years until the In Full Color editions; he’s green there as opposed to yellow here. I think he looks suitably gross in both, though.

He's your pal, but also he's your PRINCI-pal! Sometimes he's ridiculous, sometimes inVINCI-bal!

Krupp’s toupee just falls in from nowhere here lol. I like to think it got stuck to the ceiling after flying off at the start of the video.

But now, he's gotta enforce the rules By being mean, and being not cool So it's back to school life with a paper and pen, but then—

I called Katz’ stuff rap-adjacent earlier, but I’ll admit this part is pretty fire.

Poor kid, about to get his yo-yo confiscated... In this moment, I’d gladly follow that sign’s instruction.

[GEORGE] Uh-oh.

[HAROLD] Here we go again!

You know how I said to keep the Boys’ voices in mind? Now, go find a clip from Epic Tales (or just use this) and listen to them there. You might find that they sound similar, despite being made thirteen years apart! Maybe DreamWorks had this video in mind when picking the show’s voice cast? Before the Movie and Epic Tales, Pilkey.com’s Flash videos were the only full-color, fully-animated CU Things for ages—I’d be surprised if they didn’t use them as references. 

More possible evidence: Harold’s shirt colors! They fluctuated a lot until the Movie and Epic Tales settled on green stripes. In fact, his default shirt in Epic Tales resembles the one he wears in this video!

[CHORUS] [x2]

Thus ends the music video ever: with a wink and... whatever this shot is!

What more is there to say? Besides some mashups and this amazing trap remix, this song’s legacy is an understated one. Pilkey.com has seen multiple redesigns since then, eventually retiring its Flash content; two new, higher-budget theme songs were made, and it’s hard to compete with Weird Al himself. Yes, Hooray’s time in the spotlight is long over, and it’s probably too late to reach out to anyone involved in its creation. After all, who’s gonna laud a potty-themed Flash video as their claim to fame?

Surprisingly, that question has an answer. And the answer is (drumroll please)... this Redditor!

This has been an unnecessarily in-depth write-up about Hooray for Captain Underpants—thanks so much for reading this far! For my closing remarks, I’d like to plug that one trap remix again, discovering it made me die of laughter

Say hello to a former member of Mrs. Dean’s Music Class! (Except don’t actually go bother them about this, please respect their privacy.) I found this by complete accident last year and saved it to share here later, and now’s as good a time as any! I suggest that we heed their command and start worshipping them immediately!

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[infini-tree]

OK please don't mind me asking this specific question (but the concept has been rotating in my head for a while).

So in the Captain Underpants movie, (in your opinion), if Professor Poopypants was talking to Krupp instead of Captain Underpants, do you think Krupp would hire him as a science teacher?

(Idk, this small change is just rotating in my head so I wanted to ask someone).

I personally would say yes, but mostly because he just needs a teacher asap and I also think if somehow Professor Poopypants says the line that "kids should never laugh" they'd have a small little mutual understanding.

(Idk, I'm rambling, but what do you think?)

hm good question! personally i think yes but whether he lasts just as long as movie canon is the question.

in terms of like, Playing It For Laughs, the lack of experience he has would be a point in poopypants' favor, lmao. cu does operate on taking potshots at the school system after all. though, i don't think he'd agree with the prof wanting to be off for a good chunk of the week!

on the other hand... i do think krupp would be kind of flippant about him not being able to handle children heckling him about his name. like, annoying kids are a part of the job! he should know how to de-escalate the whole situation-- or more in-character for the jhes faculty as a whole-- make the kids listen to him by making their school experience miserable until they get the message.

which i suppose is what the whole thing with the de-laughing plot is, but that's probably not what krupp means lol

(either way, i think, as additional for laughs he'd probably get fired-- not for his whole villain plot but for something wholly minor but affected the adult staff or just krupp enough to the point of annoyance)

[tallphonse]

i just saw the captain underpants movie and BOY HOWDY did i get kicked in the face by nostalgia. that was??? probably the best book-to-movie movie i've ever seen. like, ever. it was almost exactly on point (it was based on the third book, i believe, though prof poopypants' goal was to change everyone's names, not make the kids have no laughter). i owned p much all the books but they got ruined by water so all i have left, coincidentally, are the two pages where it shows the name changing signs. i always used to change my name haha!! im stinky lizardhead :))

(sorry its sideways im posting from mobile)

[year2000electronics]

A Deadly Blunder

A/N: I’m baaack! Remember the storyline of CU becoming CB? Here’s how it all went down. It was supposed to be so easy. A couple blocks and parries, the occasional well placed blow, and a final kick to the weak spot, and Professor Poopypants’s new robot was supposed to go down. But Captain Underpants was distracted today- after begging, pleading, and the occasional video, Krupp had finally allowed him to take his place on one of his dates with Edith- provided he didn’t cause too much trouble. The Captain was already preparing ways to wow his lady and sweep her off her feet. But romance didn’t work well when thought of in battle. When Cap parried instead of blocking, a blow sent him flying. Within twenty seconds, he was back to fight again, but something was wrong. Prof. P was laughing, and George and Harold… Their eyes! They were glowing! That meant that they… “Oh no!” Flying down to check on his sidekicks, Captain Underpants gasped in horror when they didn’t smile at him. They didn’t even look up. Just stared into space. “George? Harold? Hello?” “Guuuuhh…” droned George. Captain Underpants gasped and tried again. “Uh, who stole the soap? Robber ducky!” Horror filled the hero’s face as George and Harold’s voices chorused with those of the rest of the students: “I don’t get it. Why is that funny?” “No….. No!” Captain Underpants’ anguished wail shook the school, cracking some of the walls and breaking windows. Professor Poopypants just laughed. “So sorry for your loss, Captain! But ve have business to attend to.” Captain Underpants suddenly stopped crying, and a dark chuckle escaped his lips. “Yes. We do.” Turning around slowly, the hero bared sharp teeth and approached Prof. P’s robot. “Ever since I came into existence, there have been villains like you,” he said. “Cruel, sadistic, selfish. Never caring who got hurt as long as they got their way. Every time one arose, I put my effort into stopping him or her. But that’s the problem, Professor. If I just stop you, you’ll come back, never having faced justice. I can’t send you to jail because you’ll just break out. And goodness knows how you’d do in an asylum.” With every step, Captain Underpants’s face turned darker and darker. Pulling out a toupee, he placed it on his head and asked, “So why not ensure that you don’t come back? Why not stop you… Forever?” Flying up to the robot, Captain Underpants tore one of its arms off and started beating the rest of it. Being crazy strong and no longer holding back, Cap made short work of the robot. Opening the door to its head, he grabbed Professor P by the neck, then slammed him into the wall. “Look upon your robot, Professor! Look upon your invention! Look upon your failure! It took me ten seconds to destroy it!” Glaring, he spat, “Now, look upon me!” The Professor didn’t obey, and Captain Underpants choked him a little harder before forcing his head forward. “It would take me even less time to destroy you…” Professor P gasped and stuttered, “Vait! Captain Underpants, can’t ve talk about zis?” The Captain laughed; a cruel, wild, sadistic laugh. “TALK?!” he roared. “Did we talk about you taking my sidekicks away from me? Did we talk about all the people you hurt that I got blamed for? Did we talk when you tried to KILL ME?” Tightening his grip just a little longer, he hissed, “No. You stripped me of the two people I care most about. The evil of villains like you has been a stain on the world for too long, and I will paint it red with your blood.” Smirking, the Captain brightened. “But don’t worry! We’re going to have a lot of fun first! By the way, my name isn’t Captain Underpants anymore. It’s Captain Blunderpants. I made a deadly blunder in letting villains like you live, and I’m going to fix it- starting now.” The screams the professor released in the hours that followed were satisfying to Captain Blunderpants. Very satisfying indeed. Yeah, pretty dark, but hope you enjoyed it anyway! :)

woah!! this was a delight to read! well i mean, my heart got torn out as soon as the sidekicks got melvin’d but you know what i mean!! captain was super-scary... lol remind me never to get him mad!

[pocketpikachus]

AHHHHH THAT WAS SO GOOD it was everything i hoped for.... i loved george and harold so much and even though i couldnt un hear the onceler, captain underpants was so good and they referenced so many things like the villains from other books were action figures and on their pajamas and they referenced the poopypants name changer chart and there were doodles of crackers and sulu in the credits!!! and weird als song was so good and honestly??? i loved prof poopypants he was my fav it was such a perfect amazing homage to captain underpants i hope dav pilkey loved it :''3 i rlly wanna read the books again i was smiling and giggling the whole time like when i read the books im so happy... that movie made my whole day amazing :''D

[smg4andbeetlejuicefanatic]

Here’s what I just thought of: Heidi gets kidnapped by Poopypants (I chose to use him instead of Bernice because he’s well known and she seems to be a one-time thing like Kipper, unless TETOCU changes that in the future for both of them. Plus his partnership with Melvin gives me evil stepparent vibes.) and he has the same backstory as he does in the movie, but it’s Queen Grace that he refuses to take the award from instead of a committee and he kidnaps Heidi when she’s a baby as a form of revenge.

I think she should have animal friends because I feel like it wouldn’t be a Cinderella story without them. As for the ball, there’s one held every year on Heidi’s bday since her kidnapping (similar to the floating lights in Tangled) and obviously Poopypants forbids her from going and makes her polish all his inventions or whatever.

If I were to write a fic (which I’m considering) I would have Cap appear to Heidi before the ball and gives her a hint that she’s part of the royal family, making her want to go even more. And to use the shoe, Poopypants makes an evil robot copy of her but realizes he fucked up when the copy’s foot is a bit too big, and that’s when the real Heidi comes in, fits the shoe, and shows the other one. Idk if Prof P and Cap would fight tho.

Also what if Krupp was a butler for the royals and is turned into the Cu fairy by G&H?

I'm down with helping you with that CU Cinderella CU, but a good starting point would be who would you imagine in which role if Heidi is the titular character? (let's start with an easy one–would it follow the usual story format, or would you put your own spin on it?

I was thinking about mixing in a little bit of Tangled’s plot and making Heidi a lost princess, so Grace and Harold would be queen and prince. Captain Underpants would also definitely be the fairy.

[xxionlinemovies-blog]

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) Movie Review

Checkout Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) Movie Review on http://xxi.online/captain-underpants-the-first-epic-movie-2017-movie-review/

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) Movie Review

MOVIE REVIEW

George Beard and Harold Hutchins aren’t all that great at being students. In fact, they’re pretty mediocre students. But they’re the best of buds. Best friends who make each other laugh and, well, who are pretty good at coming up with what they consider incredible school pranks, too.

Like, say, the day the Jerome Horwitz Elementary sign mysteriously changed from saying, “Sewage Plant Field Trip Today,” to, “Come See My Hairy Armpits.” Oh yeah, that was them. Or how about the exploding goo in a teacher’s lunch bag fiasco? Yep, they did that. The great girls’ bathroom toilet flood of ’16? Uh huh.

Those practical jokes are the school’s last laughing line of defense against teachers’ tyrannical ways, as far as these pranksters are concerned. Without them, why, the whole student body might just keel over from a lack of fun.

And fun is the key here.

George and Harold just love the fun of exploding things, upchucking things and gaseous things … not to mention drawing raucous pictures of exploding, upchucking and gaseous things. In fact, one of their favorite treehouse co-creations is a series of out-there, exploding, upchucking and gas-passing comics they call *The Adventures of Captain Underpants.

*Of course, none of that really awesome backstory matters all that much right now. Because today they’ve been dragged into Principal Krupp’s office. He’s the only other person who knows about Captain Underpants, since he’s confiscated at least half of the boys’ comics. And it doesn’t look like he’s in a mood to give them back today.

From the way the principal is huffing and puffing like an over-stoked furnace, to the way his red face and bugged-out eyes make his hairpiece look like a small dancing octopus on his head, the guys can tell he’s just a wee bit upset. Could it have been that little toxic spill in the lunchroom that they caused?

What Mr. Krupp does next, though, hits these pals with the unexpected force of one of their own pranks: He says he was just signing an official order to have them … separated. Separate classes, separate gym periods, separate lunch times, even separate detention rooms should the need arise.

Why, they’ll never see each other again! It’s the end of the world as they know it!! Something has to be done!!!

That’s when George makes the biggest decision of his life.

Like a slo-mo camera shot that you’d see in some crazy action movie, Harold watches as George’s hand slowly reaches into his pocket and pulls out his most prized possession. Their eyes connect—George’s determined, Harold’s unsure. Then George rips the cellophane wrapper off of the most powerful item to ever be found in a box of sugar-frosted doodles: the plastic hypno-ring. As Harold calls out a super-slow “N-o-o-o-o!” George slips the ring on his finger, points it’s swirling patterned face toward the incrementally recoiling Mr. Krupp. And as the incredible hypno-magic fills the air and the principal falls back in his chair the boys realized that their device has truly hypnotized their tormenting teacher.

And when they soon spot a discarded comic that they’d previously created, an idea strikes them both at the same time: They’ll command Principal Krupp to take on the persona of none other than Captain Underpants himself. And …

Well, of course it works. I mean, there wouldn’t be a movie otherwise, right?

POSITIVE ELEMENTS

George and Harold would go to any lengths for each other. (Of course the fact that those “lengths” generally involve lots of catastrophes that upend school life isn’t quite so positive.)

This kid flick also lightly suggests that rabid sugar consumption and totally unsupervised kid craziness doesn’t end well. And it leaves the impression that making fun of someone can have a negative effect.

SPIRITUAL CONTENT

A musical line from Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” plays beneath one short scene. The magical, hypnotic effect of George’s ring is never explained, but we do know that a splash of water will bring the principal out of his alternate-mind state, while a subsequent finger snap will send him back.

SEXUAL CONTENT

None. (Unless, that is, you can somehow envision an egg-shaped cartoon principal in his tightie-whitie undies as something other than just silly.)

VIOLENT CONTENT

As Principal Krupp/Captain Underpants bounds off mindlessly into the world dressed only in a large pair of white underpants, plenty of thumping mayhem ensues. He gets hit by passing vehicles on a couple of occasions. He leaps off tall structures thinking he can fly. (He can’t.) He bounces around town on a giant ape balloon. He falls out of the sky onto the backs of some running criminals. He punches a mime in the face while trying to break him out of an invisible box. He throws an old lady up into a tree after her cat.

That slapsticky violence is only amplified when a new school teacher named Professor Poopypants joins the rollicking nonsense. The prof gets hit by passing vehicles, too. He creates scientific mechanisms, such as a shrinking/growing ray, that cause all sorts of damage. He also creates a gigantic animated toilet that’s filled with and powered by toxic waste. (Captain Underpants is thrown into this toilet at one point and swallows some of that glowing sludge.)

The prof shoots energy rays at school children, wiping their minds clear of thought. A flood of smaller, enlivened toilets takes to the streets, biting backsides and gobbling people whole. Goopy things explode, hitting people in the face with a gush. Buildings are uprooted and smashed. A vision of the future involves robots with lasers zapping people and each other.

CRUDE OR PROFANE LANGUAGE

At least 10 exclamations of “oh my gosh” and one of the phrase, “What the heck?”

DRUG AND ALCOHOL CONTENT

[Spoiler Warning] Captain Underpants accidentally gulps down toxic waste water that gives him actual superpowers.

OTHER NEGATIVE ELEMENTS

The fact that the main bad guy in this pic is named P.P. Diarrheastein Poopypants Esquire, should give you a sense of the main, uh, flush of the humor. Urination is sung about. Underwear is shot in people’s faces. Kids guffaw repeatedly over the planet Uranus, and a chorus of them perform a gas-powered overture, etc.

On other fronts, George and Harold defy the rules repeatedly. They break into someone’s house and snoop around. Principal Krupp meanly tells them “Your parents are obviously failures.”

CONCLUSION

With villains like Tippy Tinkletrousers, the Bionic Booger Boy and Wedgie Woman in their pages, the Captain Underpants comic books were never going to be accepted as top-notch educational tomes for kids. In fact, all they ever had up their proverbial pant leg was a collection of zany, sketch-like cartoons and a whole lot of goofy poo-poo humor.

Now that’s been translated to the big screen.

Anyone who’s ever seen a modern comedy knows there are different gradations of toilet humor that can dribble to the screen. Gags range from wink-and-stink giggles all the way down to excremental explosions. Captain Underpants lands on the occasionally creative, but eye-rollingly silly side of that odious scale.

For a very slim segment of the populace—say, grade schoolers who consider a wet palm under a flapping arm to be high art—this pic will likely be a winner. For the rest of us, who might get dragged to this flick by our kids against our better judgement, well, there’s always a sleep mask and a good travel pillow.