Movie Review: Captain Underpants

I got to meet Captain Underpants, by the amazing Dav Pilkey, when I became a first grade teacher four years ago. One of the most important things to have in my classroom was always my classroom library. During the ten years I taught bilingual kindergarten I made sure I had as many picture books, both in English and Spanish, in different levels. It wasn’t until I got teach first grade that I realized that having chapter books was important that year.

That wasn’t the only thing that changed for me four years ago, while I had always taught a bilingual class (English and Spanish), I became part of a dual language model in which I taught the English part only. I must confess teaching English was easier, as was finding books in English. I lucked out because of my ability to be fluent in English.

And so I began my search for good chapter books for 6 and 7 year olds. That summer before starting the year, I must’ve spent about $200 in books. I logged into ebay and searched for good titles I found in teaching blogs I found. That’s how I came across Captain Underpants.

Those books were a HUGE success, especially with the boys! They read them so much most of them came undone! It was fantastic! Three years later my own son would become a Captain Underpants fan. He would read all of Dav Pilkey’s book, including his new one: Dogman. It was no question we were going to go see the movie opening weekend.

And we did.

And it was everything my son wanted it to be. There was only one flaw: it was too short!

The movie tales the origin of Captain Underpants, which is how two boys hypnotize their principal into believing he is the super hero. 

The movie is really creative and fast paced, just like the comic book. There are a lot of funny moments and sequences. I confess I have read the first Captain Underpants book (I had to see what all the fuss was about with my students), and even when I saw the appeal, I didn’t enjoy the book that much. I was too much of a grown up for it, I suppose. The movie, on the other hand, kept me entertained and laughing. 

It’s a different movie from all those pixar movies that comes out, but it’s really fun to watch. Kids are absolutely going to love it!

cheers!