Now that the Disney empire has swallowed up 20th Century Fox, Mickey Mouse is now in control of the night at the museum franchise, so why the fourth movie, Night at the museum: Kahmunrah gets up againdipped as a Exclusive to Disney+. Mickey Mouse didn’t just de-moth the series, which last entry was in 2014 Night at the Museum: Mystery of the Tomb, he reworked it with an animated feature, possibly because its concept – an off-museum trip to ancient Egypt – might have been too expensive for live action, especially given the likely occurrence of falling returns on financial investments for fourth films in some time . In-the-tooth series that are experiencing rapidly dwindling public interest. what to say NATM: KRA (You can pronounce it nah-tem-krahh) doesn’t offer much, nor ask much, and it might just live up to the shruggingly modest expectations of bean counters and TV viewers alike.
The essentials: A new security guard, clearly Blart-like in form and demeanor, enters New York’s Museum of Natural History. He doesn’t last long – he’s chased right out the door by a T-Rex skeleton, a monkey, a bear, a lion, Sacagawea, Joan of Arc, etc., all of whom are supposed to be dead, but as you might think remember, were brought to life through the magic of an ancient Egyptian tablet. Do you remember the rules too? You know that the exhibits animate at sunset and crumble to dust when they’re outside the museum at sunrise? It’s all very convenient as this takes place outside of the museum’s opening hours, although one could argue that seeing an undead dinosaur skeleton moving by itself could be a major draw for a publicly funded non-profit. Just a thought.
What exactly is the problem with the stupid new guy? He’s not the museum residents’ longtime night watchman, Larry Daley (Zachary Levi), who takes a job at a Tokyo museum. If Larry’s have To advance his career beyond carrying a flashlight and drinking coffee in an itchy uniform, Teddy Roosevelt (Thomas Lennon) and co. Ask, why doesn’t his teenage son take over for him? And so Larry arranges the gig for Nick (Joshua Bassett from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series), who’s a good boy who’s sinking into self-doubt because he stutters violently while trying to ask his crush out and nervously fumbles through his audition to DJ in the school jazz band. (That’s exactly what any jazz ensemble needs – more EDM!) See, he has perfect pitch, the script is tempted to point this out – maybe because it might come in handy later, no spoilers – but he can apparently not righting himself to save his life.
So Nick has some confidence issues to overcome, and if anything will help him overcome them, it’s going through a portal to ancient Egypt to avert an apocalypse. His very first night on the job gets quite eventful when he fails to lock the door of Egyptian chaos killer Kahmunrah (Jospeh Kamal), who snatches the magic tablet and takes it to the art museum so he can awaken a vengeful jackal god to face him help take over the world. And before the villain can quip “Don’t eat me or it’ll be a real short” are Nick and Teddy Roosevelt, Sacagawea (Kieran Sequoia), Joan of Arc (Alice Isaaz), Dexter the Monkey (Dee Bradley Baker), Attila the Hun (Alexander Salamat) and the Neanderthal Laaa (Levi) must gather their wits to set out in search of an end to this nonsense. Will they succeed? Or will the bad guys win and make this story really interesting?
Which movies will it remind you of?: I just realized that going from a live-action series to animation is the opposite of Disney’s current approach. Anyway, one recent film that carried the live-action premise to animation was Netflix’s Marmadukea comparison NATM: KRA will appreciate it because you could stand next to each other Marmaduke with a moldy log of cheese and conclude that the log of cheese offers a more sophisticated comedy. I digress: NATM: KRA is much like the last animated ones Greg’s diary Movies – both are Fox properties cheaply revived by Disney to fill its streaming service’s menu.
Notable performance: I didn’t notice Chris Parnell’s vocal performance as George Washington, so let’s move on to Joan of Arc, a new character on the series who takes the badass, doesn’t understand metaphors, and provides a rather tearing one-liner reference about how she was on burned at the stake.
Memorable dialogue: Kahmunrah and Joan of Arc contradict each other:
Joan: The only metaphor I need is to literally defeat you in battle!
Kahmunrah: Metaphors are literally not literal!
gender and skin: none.
Our opinion: Unlike other Disney+ exclusives, no one will complain about that NATM: KRA the theatrical release was denied – optically and thematically it is definitely a TV film and should be judged accordingly. Which is no surprise considering director Matt Danner is a veteran animator and director with a long list of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel credits, and here he is directing the first 2D animated Disney film since 2011 Winnie Pooh. Visually, the movie is vibrant and colorful, with broad lines and flowing action sequences that will pop off your smartphone nicely if you’re one of those crazy people who watch movies on a smartphone.
The screenplay, on the other hand, is rather mixed. The story is Whatevs City, a ready-made adventure in which a boy is given a much-needed opportunity to boost his self-esteem by saving the world. Don’t accept it as a blanket truth, however – distraction from perpetual dictatorial rule and the potential utter destruction of civilization, as we know, will never be a suitable substitute for therapy.
What keeps the film from becoming tedious (especially for any adult watching it) is its witty script, which takes a more-is-more approach to delivering jokes. The one-liners stack up like cordwood, and while some are still too green to burn, most of them sparkle and flame beautifully. Such fast-paced comedy keeps up with the almost ubiquitous hyper-kinetic action that would tire us to death if this film was a second longer than its 77-minute run. Bottom line, it’s not half bad, which is about all we can ask of it museum franchise at this point.
Our appeal: Stream it. NAH-TEM-KRAHH is a little loud and by the numbers, but it looks good and rarely strays in dullness.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more about his work below johnserbaatlarge.com.