Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021) – Film Review

Greg Heffley (voice of Brady Noon) is an ambitious kid with an active imagination and big plans to be rich and famous. The problem is that he has to survive middle school first.

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise has meant the world to me ever since I started reading Jeff Kinney‘s book series when I was first starting out middle school. The original film series starring Zachary Gordon, however, is my all-time favorite branch of the franchise and I wholeheartedly believe that that trilogy is one of the best family film trilogies of all time. And yes, I said trilogy. Let’s pretend that The Long Haul doesn’t even exist.

Ever since the release of Dog Days, we kind of all knew that Gordon and company wouldn’t be able to reprise their roles for a fourth live-action outing because they’re simply too old to play the roles now. I mean, seriously – if you look at Gordon’s Instagram page you can certainly tell he isn’t a middle schooler anymore. Then, The Long Haul was released and was a massive failure both critically and commercially. A lot of that film’s backlash came from the casting.

While Gordon and Robert Capron couldn’t reprise their respective roles as Greg Heffley and Rowley Jefferson, why couldn’t they keep Steve Zahn, Rachael Harris, and Devon Bostick? The recasting of Bostick was especially hated, with many folks online using the hashtag #NotMyRodrick. But so many people love this franchise and they don’t want it to just stay dormant forever, and so now, we finally have something new. Kind of.

Swinton Scott‘s Diary of a Wimpy Kid animated remake seemed like a terrific idea. After all, the original book series is all hand-drawn and so it would only make sense for there to be an animated Wimpy Kid movie. Sadly, though, this film doesn’t even hold a candle to the live-action film from 2010. While there are some scenes here and there that certainly do a good job at recapturing the heart and spirit of the first film, it simply doesn’t do enough to justify its existence.

This film’s biggest problem is that it’s just so rushed. It runs at an extremely brisk fifty-eight minutes and that’s not even including credits. Seriously – when was the last time you watched a feature film that short? Scenes just sort of happen in this film without any context or scenes that lead into it. One scene we will be following Greg and Rowley throwing around a football outside and then it will abruptly cut away to them gearing up to go trick-or-treating on Halloween Night.

In the original film, there were plenty of scenes that bridged gaps to ensure that things didn’t feel jarring or abrupt – this animated Wimpy Kid film doesn’t care at all about that. It actually does come as a shock to me why this film is so short to be honest, because why couldn’t they keep a lot of the scenes from the original film here? There are so many scenes from that version that have been completely removed here without any sort of explanation as to why.

One of the best scenes in the first is the scene in which Greg is trying out to be on the wrestling team – the only problem is that he’s extremely scrawny and every other kid participating is either normal weight or muscular, and so he feels out of place immediately. Then, he finds out his wrestling partner is none other than his nemesis Patty Farrell who he doesn’t want to wrestle mainly because she’s a girl. The chaos that then ensues is truly hilarious.

That scene is nowhere to be found here. They mention wrestling tryouts one time in this movie and that’s it. Also, where’s the scene where Greg and Rowley are actively trying to avoid participating in gym class and then they end up meeting Angie Steadman? Or what about the absolutely amazing scene where our protagonist is trying out to get a role in his school’s production of The Wizard of Oz? It makes no sense why so many iconic moments didn’t end up making the cut. Thank god they included the Cheese Touch moments, though.

There are some genuinely cute moments here and some stuff did make me smile quite a bit. The problem is that it feels so half-baked and underdeveloped. Why is this such a short movie? The animation is truly excellent but I just wish the movie as a whole was the same. It honestly makes me worried to see what they’re going to do in the upcoming Rodrick Rules animated film because there are so many famous scenes in that original film that I worry will be removed.

Swinton Scott’s animated Diary of a Wimpy Kid remake isn’t awful by any means, but rather, a huge missed opportunity that often fails to justify why it even exists in the first place. But, hey, at least it’s better than the awful Long Haul. Then again, almost any film is better than that abomination.