Babysitter guide to monster hunting1/17/2024 It occupies a bland, mushy middle-like the smushed-up, fun-size 3 Musketeers bar that’s sitting at the bottom of your Halloween candy bowl. The characters are flat and the antics are tame. “Babysitter’s Guide” is never truly scary but it’s also never all that funny. It’s hard to figure out exactly what Talalay and Co. Meanwhile, the wall-to-wall, perky pop songs accompanying all these adventures amp up the annoying factor-or as my 11-year-old son put it, “Why is the music so stupid?” But “Babysitter’s Guide” also tries to cram in a whole lot of world-building, and the denseness of Ballarini’s mythology makes the movie needlessly inscrutable. A few visual flourishes do work, including The Grand Guignol’s sleek, art deco-inspired lair. The chintziness calls to mind the “ Spy Kids” movies, which Robert Rodriguez famously made for a song while wearing multiple hats throughout production. There’s a cheesy, detached quality to the visual effects, part of the overall low-budget look of the film. Tom Felton-Draco Malfoy himself-is more playful than fearsome in the role, and his stringy hair and tattered clothes call to mind a grungier Eddie Vedder. Yes, we’re talking literal nightmare fuel. He’s a jaunty gentleman known as The Grand Guignol, who aims to drain kids of their nightmares for fuel. In this case, they must fight a team of roly-poly, candy-colored goblins who look like UglyDoll knock-offs (they’re kind of adorable, actually) in order to get to their leader. (Supposedly, Merlin, Rosa Park, and Frida Kahlo are among their alumni.) But most importantly, they have a sense of duty to protect the kids in their care. They have a headquarters and gadgets and chapters all over the world. A girl with a past with monsters is a reluctant babysitter. Liz, as she explains, is part of a secret society of babysitters who hunt monsters. A Babysitters Guide to Monster Hunting Review and Discussion Questions - Down The Hobbit Hole Blog. In no time, Oona Laurence’s tough girl Liz Lerue shows up on her scooter with her perky bob and an arsenal of smart-ass one-liners to help. But soon after she tucks him in for the night, a beastie appears and absconds with him. Her charge is the angel-faced Jacob ( Ian Ho), the son of her mom’s icy boss ( Tamsen McDonough). (“Pump the brakes, Casanova,” is the kind of cringey thing these people say to each other.) “Babysitter’s Guide” is also one of those movies in which a character who is as intelligent, kind, and beautiful as Kelly is supposedly an outcast.īut because she’s considered a brainy weirdo-which the movie renders visually with “ A Beautiful Mind”-style math equations leaping off the classroom whiteboard and floating before her eyes-Kelly is expected to babysit on Halloween night rather than go to the wholesome rager where all the cool kids will be, including her crush ( Alessio Scalzotto). ![]() The mean girls and sweet nerds alike speak to each other in the cutesy, stilted way adults think teens talk in Ballarini’s adapted script. She plays a high school freshman named Kelly, although everyone derisively calls her Monster Girl because of a story she’s told about the scary creature who visited her in the night when she was a child. These characters, called the Toadies, are monstrous-looking but diminutive guys who try in their uniquely haphazard way to aid Guignol.Tamara Smart has a pleasing on-screen presence, though, as our guide through the movie’s dark, underground world. Meanwhile, Guignol enlists the help of his monster accomplices (all-CG characters entirely created by Method Studios, Vancouver). Soon, the fight is on as the kidnapped strike back after joining forces with a secret society of babysitters dedicated to protecting kids from monsters, led by the experienced monster fighting babysitter, Liz (Oona Laurence). In this fun, spooky movie, directed by Rachel Talalay ( Riverdale, Supergirl) and adapted by Joe Ballarini (from his children’s' book series), Kelly and her ward, Jacob (Ian Ho), are not only kidnapped, but their abductor happens to be the subject of Kelly's worst nightmares - the boogeyman, or Grand Guignol (Tom Felton) as he's known in the world of the movie. But in Netflix's A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting, things don't go as babysitter Kelly (Tamara Smart) had hoped. ![]() Naturally, a first-time babysitter wants to be in control and secure in the knowledge that their charge is safe.
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