It is not troublesome to see the real-world parallels of Phil Johnston’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Twits. Credenza (Margo Martindale) and Jim (Johnny Vegas) are proud grifters. They persistently rail in opposition to authorities rules. They knowingly supply outlandish claims of monetary salvation in a time of nice financial strife. They disregard proof of environmental degradation for need of a pair bucks. At one level in Johnston’s blisteringly humorous animated story, the 2 run for workplace with the promise to make Triperot Metropolis enjoyable once more. The corrupt Mayor Wayne John John-John (Jason Mantzoukas) solely gives “ideas and prayers” when the city is overrun by a leak of neon-green, radioactive, liquid sizzling canine meat.
Maybe this does not sound precisely like a child’s movie, however then once more, the entire movie is a narrative inside a narrative, demanded by a small bug inside Jim’s beard, who tells his mom, Pippa (Emilia Clarke), he needs extra advanced tales with “high-brow themes and low-brow humor.” That is precisely what Johnston delivers.
Whereas the movie might thematically level to real-world struggles in the USA, The Twits is generally an accessible story in regards to the energy of empathy within the face of bare evil, all to the tune of a couple of thousand fart jokes. On the mayoral candidate debate stage, the Twits declare that their open thievery has been carried out for the good thing about the residents, after which they (actually) make Mayor John-John’s butt explode with a poisoned cake. Excessive-brow themes, low-brow humor certainly.
The Twits Balances Excessive-Forehead Themes With Low-Forehead Humor
The hero of this totally chaotic story is Beesha Balti (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), a 12-year-old orphan whose naive perception in her beginning mother and father’ return is just equaled by her admirable perception that highly effective individuals may be dropped at heel. Her finest pal on the orphanage, Busby Mulch (Ryan Anderson Lopez), is on the verge of being adopted, however earlier than he goes, Beesha guarantees to deliver him to Twitlandia, the weird junkyard of a theme park the Twits have marketed on tv.
Twitlandia is the one factor on earth Credenza and Jim really love. Effectively, that and pranks. By way of certainly one of Speaking Heads’ David Byrne and Hayley Williams’ unique songs, the Twits are revealed as romantics of the really debauched, contemplating themselves free pioneers whose life on the margins is a direct problem to normative society. The park seems to be attractive from afar, however the rides embody a Tilt-A-Pottie, with port-a-potties as passenger cabins, and a Bounce Pit with bug-infested, used mattresses inside a literal pit.
However, earlier than they’ll make it to benefit from the rollercoasters, the property is condemned by town for “being harmful, being structurally unsound, and stinking of rancid sizzling canine meat.” In retaliation in opposition to town, Credenza and Jim Twit steal the liquid sizzling canine truck and explode its contents onto the streets, an act which has the domino impact of stopping Busby from getting adopted. When he and Beesha go on the hunt for the culprits, they uncover the Twits’ dwelling, which seems to be like an animated cousin of the home from The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath, and a cage filled with magical animals referred to as the Muggle-Wumps.
As a result of they’re empathetic youngsters, they discover they’ve the flexibility to grasp the Muggle-Wumps. The matriarch, Mary (Natalie Portman), tells them that they’ve been forcibly put right here, perpetually hung the wrong way up in order that their tears may be extracted to assist energy the park. Although Beesha is profitable in getting the Twits arrested for his or her theft of the recent canine water, the highly-publicized seize has the inadvertent impact of celebrating the Twits, who declare that the opening of their park would reinstate Triperot because the “enjoyable capital of the world,” because it as soon as was identified. Speedy local weather change has sucked the lake dry, destroying each the tourism trade and their collective sense of pleasure.
Thus begins one thing like a prank conflict between the Twits and the orphanage which now protects the Muggle-Wumps. Helmed by the exaggeratedly midwestern-nice Mr. Serviette (Johnston), the latter digs deep to battle in opposition to this incursion, even because the Twits leverage their new legion of followers to battle in opposition to the youngsters.
The Twits might be a bit overlong, particularly within the again half when the movie will get slowed down in a sport of tit-for-tat. It may be a bit exhausting being thrust into the relentlessly gross POV of the villains, however then once more, the voice performing throughout the board is remarkably expressive.
The animation is a reasonably large departure from Johnston’s final directorial effort, Ralph Breaks the Web, extra intently resembling the tactility of the Aardman’s, with distinct, bombastic character design. A lot of the humor right here is absurd and snigger out-loud humorous. It might be the very best youngsters’s horror movie, if it may be referred to as that, since Monster Home, particularly for a lot it trusts its viewers
In the long run, it briefly looks as if Johnston and co-writers Meg Favreau and Kirk DeMicco are going for a hope-core ending the place empathy defeats all, however The Twits is finally a lot smarter than that. “Hate is simple,” Mary warns Beesha. If people who oppose you will not change their methods, then the true problem to idealism is just not letting them change you in flip. That, and typically a superb fart joke may be the height of comedy.
- Launch Date
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October 17, 2025
- Runtime
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98 minutes
- Director
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Phil Johnston
- Writers
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Kirk DeMicco, Phil Johnston, Meg Favreau, Roald Dahl
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Margo Martindale
Credenza Twit (voice)
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Johnny Vegas
Jim Twit (voice)