It is almost summer, and Wonder Warf will soon be bustling with hungry vacationers; hungry, Bob Belcher (H. Jon Benjamin) hopes with his wife, Linda (John Roberts), for a burger from his family-run restaurant Bob’s Burgers.  Unfortunately, a giant sinkhole opens at the front door of the restaurant, made even worse when a skeleton is discovered in the hole turning it into a crime scene.  Their kids, Tina (Dan Mintz), Gene (Eugene Mirman), and Louise (Kristen Schaal) put their own summer plans on hold to try and solve the mystery and save the restaurant. 

Based off of the popular Fox animated series, The Bob’s Burgers Movie is written and directed by Loren Bouchard with assistance in the direction from Bernard Derriman while Nora Smith aids on the page.  Despite being 12 seasons deep into the series and counting, the film is still highly accessible to casual fans and strangers alike while embedding some smaller Easter egg-style jokes for the devotees as a reward for their loyalty.  The film, even with its blunt and uninventive title, maintains the usual balance of comedy as is showcased on the show blending puns, sight gags, musical comedy, and jokes into a pleasant 102-minute family comedy that is bursting with humor for all preferences and ages. 

Going from the small screen to the silver screen is always a daunting task for any property, but the Belcher clan makes that transition rather seamlessly, leaning into the freedoms which a presumably larger budget than its per episode allows.  The character design maintains the same style and charm from the TV show, but the animation is sharpened to fit the larger format and simply put, this cast of odd-ball characters has never looked better. 

One of the most unique things about this film is how its plot unfolds and then comes together in the end.  In the show, episodes can broadly be separated into two categories; the first is where the family is working together the entire time, and the second is when the family is split up into smaller subplots.  Where the family works as one tends to be some of the best episodes in the series as the mixing of the five core personalities create fertile ground for jokes.  The movie starts off like it will be one of the later formats with Bob and Linda focused on making payments at the bank to keep the restaurant, Tina making plans to ask out her crush Jimmy Jr (also H. Jon Benjamin), Gene feeling the pressure of an upcoming performance with his band at the Wonder Warf Anniversary celebration, and Louise struggling with the concept of growing up.  Once the sinkhole opens up in front of the restaurant, that crisis takes precedent and everything mentioned prior becomes subplots that are resolved as the central plot of surviving the sinkhole, and later solving the murder takes center stage.  It is really smart structuring on the page that helps to justify the runtime and prevent it from feeling like a bloated episode of television. 

That being said, the show has another metric of which is episodes can be broken down by: musicals, and not musicals.  Especially so in the later seasons, the musical comedy has occupied a larger number of episodes, and this is not counting singsong one-liners, but rather full out musical numbers.  It is a fascination that is, unfortunately, met with mixed to negative success.  The same rings true here in The Bob’s Burgers Movie which opens with a big and charming number detailing the aforementioned subplots.  It is hectic and it is crazy, but it works well in context and not only sets the stage but sets the expectations and tone level for the audience.  There are three other major numbers in the film that deliver increasingly diminished returns, specifically the middle song as the kids are investigating the cold case of the murdered carnie.  The lyric work is not as sharp, it goes on for far too long, and even just as far as the tune goes it is a cumbersome melody which makes it, thankfully, hard to get stuck in your head but it also makes it feel so much longer as it continues on verse after verse.  

The Bob’s Burgers Movie, even with its reliance on songs, is still a delightful way to kick off the summer at the movies.  Its shore-town atmosphere gets us ready for our own sun-kissed walks down the boardwalk, but more importantly, it is a lighthearted and silly reprieve from the burdens of everyday life.  Its humor maintains its innocence as it never punches down, and one of the most charming aspects of both the film and the show is that it shows a wholesome family dynamic; something lacking in many sitcoms and adult cartoons.  Despite their struggles, Bob and Linda truly do love and care for one another and the children, despite their own difference, always have each other’s backs.  It very well may be grafting on too much importance to a goofy little animated film about a struggling burger chef and his oddball family, but against it all, the Belcher family is always kind to each other, and if there is one thing which we need now more than ever is a little bit of kindness, especially to those who are different than us.