"The Twits:" A Gross-Out Disaster

In 1980, famed children's author, Roald Dahl wrote his novel, The Twits. A 87 page story about a comically wicked couple, Mr. and Mrs. Twit who play devious tricks on each other as well as their pet monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps. To this day it is considered a British classic, receiving a royal commemorative postage stamp in 2012. Recently, The Twits was made into a Netflix animated film with a star-studded cast, premiering to millions on October 17th. But after polarizing critics and disgusted audiences, does it truly do justice to one of the UK's most fabled authors?

Phil Johnston's The Twits is described as "a film inspired by the character's of Roald Dahl." Frankly, it is unrecognizable from the book apart from the titular characters. The movie largely follows two orphans, Pippa and Beesha as they attempt to rescue the Muggle-Wumps and stop The Twits from opening up an amusement park run on Muggle-Wump tears. The film employs the voice talents of Margo Martindale, Johnny Vegas, Natalie Portman, Emilia Clarke, Alan Tudyk, Jason Mantzoukas and more. Netflix sure spent a lot of money on talent, but maybe they should've dedicated more money to the writers...

The plot is incredibly convoluted and feels like it went through about a thousand re-writes before the final draft. This has not been a great year for Netflix original animation, between The Twits and Fixed, it's hard to describe what repulsed me more. In fact, that's the single most accurate way I can describe this film: repulsive. The movie tries so hard to convey just how gross and reprehensible the titular characters are, but when there's absolutely nothing redeeming about a character, audiences can only stand to watch them for so long. The script is so profoundly immature, riddled with fart jokes and gross-out humor that we've evolved so far past by now. The scene most brought up in audience and critic reviews right now is a moment where the mayor's butt slowly expands and explodes. This takes place over the course of about a minute and it is the most irredeemable, cringe-worthy minute of animation I have seen this year. On the other side of the coin, the film's two protagonists, Pippa and Beesha are almost impressively forgettable. They have no distinct personalities that set them apart, I even had to look up their names for this review after wracking my brain trying to recall them.

The animation for the most part is inspired and expressive. It's probably the movie's strongest aspect, but the neon colored Muggle-Wumps feel out of place in this world. The truth is, there's nothing about this film that conveys Roald Dahl's genius or signature style. It feels like Netflix made an animated film and needed to attach a popular IP so they named the two villains The Twits.

I'm honestly struggling to come up with good things to say about The Twits. It will not appeal to those who grew up reading Roald Dahl's book, and it certainly won't be creating any new fans with this adaptation. Some will turn their nose up at these critiques and say "it's just for kids," but don't kids deserve good entertainment as well? Roald Dahl was proof that children's entertainment can be well-made in addition to just silly and colorful. This film on the other hand uses bright visuals and toilet humor to distract from its thin plot. Frankly, a legendary writer like Dahl deserves a better screen translation of his work than Netflix's The Twits.